WTF IS PROJECT ARIA?

Oh no, more smart specs?

After the Google Glass fiasco you might think they’d joined 3D TV, laser discs and Amazon’s Fire Phone in the great recycling bin in the sky – but Facebook hasn’t given up on the idea just yet. Its new wearable AR venture is called Project Aria.

When do they turn up on my face?

You won’t find these connected glasses for sale. Project Aria is currently just a research initiative that Zuckerberg and co hope will help them to build the first generation of decent AR facewear.

So this is a prototype pair?

Nope, they’re not even at that stage yet. Facebook is dishing out ‘research devices’ to a small group of employees. They don’t even include a display, just a camera and mic plus sensors to capture location data and eye movement, so FB’S engineers can get a better idea of how people actually move through the world. This will help them to develop the AR aspect and make their glasses genuinely useful.

That sounds like a good idea…

You know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, right? A lot of the tech hasn’t caught up with Facebook’s vision of video chats with lifelike avatars and real-time digital assistants just yet, but it makes a lot of sense to work on the foundations now. The team of testers will also allow FB to create virtual 3D maps, which it reckons are crucial for location-based AR.

Wake me up when I can actually buy some, yeah?

Well, Facebook does have some smart-ish glasses in the pipeline to buy next year. They won’t come with a display either, or have any AR skills, so are more likely to be an Insta-friendly version of Snapchat’s Spectacles. But FB has enlisted Ray-ban’s help to make them, so chances are they won’t make you look like a robo-dweeb.