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from the can-you-hear^W-see-me-know? dept.
Facebook has been working to develop augmented reality glasses out of its Facebook Reality Labs in Redmond, Washington, for the past couple of years, but struggles with the development of the project have led the company to seek help. Now, Facebook is hoping a partnership with Ray-Ban parent company Luxottica will get them completed and ready for consumers between 2023 and 2025, according to people familiar.
The glasses are internally codenamed Orion, and they are designed to replace smartphones, the people said. The glasses would allow users to take calls, show information to users in a small display and live-stream their vantage point to their social media friends and followers.
Facebook is also developing an artificial intelligence voice assistant that would serve as a user input for the glasses, CNBC previously reported. In addition, the company has experimented with a ring device that would allow users to input information via motion sensor. That device is code-named Agios.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday September 18 2019, @04:00PM (5 children)
https://learn.adafruit.com/diy-wearable-pi-near-eye-kopin-video-glasses/overview [adafruit.com]
Input is the tough question, I don't want to speak aloud everything I type in a terminal.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 18 2019, @08:26PM (4 children)
I have a folding bluetooth keyboard whose case turns into a stand. I use it with my tablet when I travel and slip it into a pocket when I'm done. Something like that might work well to interface with the display in the glasses.
I've also seen other approaches come and go. One was a divided keyboard with on half on top of each knee, such that you could sit down resting your hands on your knees and type. Another was a little cube that projected the image of a keyboard on a surface; you could type with a finger on the QWERTY images and it could tell which key you wanted to 'press.' The trouble with it, of course, was that you didn't have the physical feedback to know your fingers were in the right position or if they had wandered off.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday September 18 2019, @10:29PM (2 children)
I'd like to use this hypothetical device while walking, so a keyboard that expects to sit on a table is right out for me (no, I'm not using a chest-mounted desk). I've considered a split-bluetoot-keyboard/pocket-liner, touch typing with hands in pockets. It doesn't seem ideal; if the pocket liner was inflexible enough to prevent accidental key presses it would probably take up a good deal of valuable pantsland real estate. I still think it's my best proposal. Using a device you hold would take away much of the percieved benefit of an eye-destroying HUD, as you could just add a screen to the held device (and while the security of the private screen would still be useful, any typed information would be potentially viewable by others).
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:43PM (1 child)
Typing while you're walking seems a tall order. There's not just losing your finger position instantly but all the hazards of not watching where you're going.
But if that's what you want to do, there are those forearm mounted keyboards that I think you can even buy ready-made (as opposed to DIY projects). There's also a sort of thing that looks like rings on all your fingers, connected by strings to your wrist; it seems to read what letter you want by how you move your fingers.
Lastly, if you want to get really fun and off the wall I saw a talk by a Disney Imagineer (yes, that's his official job title) who decided to turn everything into an interface by using touch capacitance and mapping the different signals to different functions. He demonstrated by hooking up electrodes to a houseplant and then touching different leaves to tell his stereo to play, pause, skip forward, etc. You could wire your shorts and map different signals to keys. Adafruit probably would have the electrical thread and such to make it happen.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday September 19 2019, @03:06PM
I liked AC's suggestion of eight-finger ascii chording, it might pair well with those sewable Arduinos + thread you brought up.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @01:22AM
With 8 buttons (one under each finger) you can type/chord in ascii. Steve Roberts implemented this on his recumbent bike and was typing while cycle touring: https://microship.com/winnebiko-ii/ [microship.com]