While Google may have cancelled its upcoming AR headset, the company seems to be working on a new ‘micro XR’ platform for AR glasses.
But with the renewed interest in the Augmented Reality (AR) space thanks to Apple, Meta and Samsung, many were looking forward to the company’s next generation of AR headset, which was internally named ‘Project Iris’. However, a recent report by Business Insider suggests that Google may have cancelled the project months after the project lead Clay Bavor left the company’s AR division.
Initially, Google had planned to launch Project Iris as a standalone device. The tech giant acquired a Canadian company called North in 2020 that worked on smart glasses and even demoed the glasses’ ability to translate. In July last year, Google said it would start testing AR prototypes in the real world.
What went wrong?
Project Iris was reportedly affected by a number of layoffs and ‘constantly shifting strategies’ during the development phase. Apart from Google’s head of VR/AR Clay Bavor, another engineer named Kurt Akeley has retired. The tech giant is also said to have cancelled its internal AR hardware development, but it looks like some employees will still remain at Google Labs to test and develop AR hardware.
Is Google done with AR headsets?
While this may look like Google has given up on the AR space, this is not the case. Earlier this year, Google, Samsung and Qualcomm announced that they were working on a mixed-reality headset that would be powered by a Qualcomm chip, manufactured by Samsung, with Google working on the software front.
Two Google employees said that the company might someday resurrect Project Iris since there are still some teams experimenting with AR. Moreover, the people who remain at Google’s AR Labs division now seem to be working on developing software that will power future XR devices (Extended Reality devices).
Last month, Google confirmed that Samsung’s upcoming XR headset will run on a modified version of Android, but the new report mentions that the tech giant is also working on a ‘micro XR’ platform for AR glasses. The prototyping platform called ‘Betty’ might eventually be licensed to manufacturers similar to how Google licences Android.
Source:indianexpress.com