Facebook Inc FB.O on Thursday unveiled its first smart glasses, a step toward providing real AR (augmented reality / augmented reality) glasses.
The glasses, launched in partnership with EssilorLuxottica ESLX.PA, the maker of Ray-Ban, allow wearers to listen to music, answer phone calls, take photos or short videos, and share them among Facebook Inc's services through a matching app. The range of glasses, called Ray-Ban Stories, starts at $299, Facebook Inc said.
Facebook Inc made about $86 billion in revenue last year, mainly from advertising, but the company invested heavily in virtual reality (VR) and AR, developing hardware such as Oculus VR helmets and studying wristband technology to support AR glasses.
Facebook Inc's chief scientist said last year that it would take another five to 10 years for the company to provide "real" AR glasses to the market. The glasses superimpose the virtual image with the real world seen by the wearer.
Major technology companies such as Amazon.Com Inc AMZN.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O 's Alphabet Inc-CL C, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O, Apple Inc AAPL.O and Snap Inc SNAP.N have competed to develop a variety of smart glasses products, but it turns out that early products such as Alphabet Inc-CL C glasses are difficult for consumers to buy because of high prices and design problems. (end)
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(compiled by Zheng Yin, revised by Chen Zongqi)
((yin.zheng@thomsonreuters.com; 010-56692086;))