Snap finally launches augmented reality glasses

Snap's latest Spectacles let you view the world in augmented reality.

Snap's new Spectacles (Snap)

Snap launched its first pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses at this year's Snap Partner Summit. The new Spectacles are for AR creators, and won't be available commercially. These AR glasses let creators “overlay their Lenses directly onto the world, exploring new ways to fuse fun and utility through immersive AR.”

Snap's latest pair of Spectacles can project Snapchat Lenses to real-life surroundings through dual 3D waveguide displays and a 2.63 degree field of view. The Spectacles are powered by the company's new Snap Spatial Engine that gives creators six degrees of freedom and hand, marker, and surface tracking. The Spectacles are equipped with 2 RGB cameras, 4 built-in microphones, 2 stereo speakers, and a touchpad as well.

“Lenses react quickly and appear accurately in your field of view with 15 millisecond motion to photon latency, and the display dynamically adjusts up to 2000 Nits of brightness to explore AR indoors or outside,” Snap explained in a blog.

The Spectacles can last 30 minutes on a single charge so creators can experience AR Lenses for that period of time. The AR glasses are also lightweight at 134 grams. Under the hood of the Spectacles run Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR1 AR and VR processor.

AR creators can use the Spectacles to test Lenses in real time. The touchpad can be used to launch the Lens Carousel. There's a right button that activates ‘Scan' to determine the field of view, and also suggest relevant Lenses. Creators can also use the ‘Voice Scan' option to launch Lenses using a voice command. To capture 10-second Snaps of Lenses, there's a left button for that.

The new Spectacles are being tested by a select group of only seven creators. Interested AR creators can visit Snap's Spectacles website to try out the new AR glasses.