All Mode
Meta may still be riding high on the roaring success of Quest 2, but that doesn’t mean it’s resting on its laurels. With huge ambitions regarding its metaverse project that center on a fully interactive virtual space where users conduct business, leisure, and maybe a little pleasure, much of Meta’s focus must be on the hardware. Meta’s metaverse could be dead on arrival without suitable devices that allow easy, instant immersion. Plenty of rumors have circulated concerning the eventual arrival of a Meta-branded AR device. Now The Verge has unveiled inside information on that device, currently dubbed Project Nazare.
Current Hype or Future Hit?
Allegedly aiming for a 2024 release, Meta’s Project Nazare centers around a pair of AR glasses Zuckerberg has said will “redefine our relationship with technology.” Featured in much of Meta’s corporate rebranding announcements in late 2021, AR is, at this point, the company’s holy grail. Without a successful AR device, much of the hype surrounding an eventual metaverse – fencing against holograms, playing chess against holograms, working out in a spin class comprised of holograms – will remain hype and nothing more.
One former Meta employee told The Verge that the not inconsiderable ego of the company’s founder is tied directly to the success of Project Nazare and AR more generally. “[Zuckerberg] wants it to be an iPhone moment,” the individual said, referring to the game-changing arrival of Apple’s smartphone in 2007. Project Nazare could be the first truly advanced pair of AR glasses to hit the market if it arrives on time. Google Glass was a missed opportunity that failed to land with consumers, and subsequent efforts like Meta’s own Ray-Ban Stories barely qualify as metaverse-ready devices.
Neurons: At Home, At Work, At Play
Meta has shown a prototype of the wrist-mounted device purported to be integral to using Project Nazare. [Image: Meta]
Where this will take virtual, and AR porn is already clear: greater immersion and easier accessibility, not to mention the likely appearance of vivid hologrammatic performers that will remain untouchable and intangible but bring a brand new form of adult entertainment into existence. As we edge closer to AI sex-bots and hologram-aided sexual relationships, Nazare may end up doing plenty of heavy lifting in bringing that to a fully realized reality.
The thinner the better for AR glasses. I don’t want clunky crap if I am going to utilize them outside the home.
Exactly what I am waiting for!