Latest news with #ARSpectacles
Metro
04-07-2025
- Metro
Black Mirror-like glasses let you block ads in real life
Hiyah Zaidi Published July 4, 2025 4:58pm Updated July 4, 2025 4:58pm Link is copied Comments We are always being exposed to adverts. Even Netflix has changed its model just so it can create an ad plan where you pay less but you have to endure ad breaks. Often online we can press that handy little 'X' in the corner to shut down the pop-up, but there's no such solution in real life, right? Well, maybe soon there will be. A software engineer posted an experiment of a pair or augmented reality glasses that could block ads (Picture: Stijn Spanhove) Do you remember that Black Mirror episode where people could block other people in real life? It works something like that, just not quite as dystopian. When you wear the smart glasses and look at a billboard, a red rectangle pops up to block the offending visual clutter from your view (Picture: Stijn Spanhove) Stin Spanhove, a Belgian programmer, is the brain behind the glasses, who used Snap's fifth-generation AR Spectacles. He engineered Google's Gemini AI to identify advertisements visible through the smart glasses and promptly blocked them, replacing the advertisement with a red square, while also naming the brand it has hidden (Picture: Stijn Spanhove) In a post on X, he wrote: 'I've been building an XR app for a real-world ad blocker using Snap Spectacles. It uses Gemini to detect and block ads in the environment. It's still early and experimental, but it's exciting to imagine a future where you control the physical content you see.' A video shows the glasses in action, with the app correctly identifying and visually blocking out ads on posters, pedestrian billboards, and a newspaper, and it can even block out brand names on food packaging (Picture: Stijn Spanhove) Although the app is still in its early stages, it reveals the possibilities of removing ads from your life, and the programmer is even thinking of a way that lets users customise the red squares, replacing them with anything from personal photos to to-do lists. Unfortunately, however, the app is put together using Snap's Depth Cache dev tools, so right now it is only available exclusively to Snap's AR Spectacles, so Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro wearers will have to wait (Picture: Stijn Spanhove) Augmented reality (AR) enhances the world we live in, and creates a partial digital world on top of what we ordinarily see. Whereas virtual reality creates a fully virtual world which allows for a complete immersion of the human senses – which isn't so great for when you're out and about (Picture: Stijn Spanhove) Snap Spectacles are developed by Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat. The company plans to release a sixth-generation of its augmented reality glasses in 2026. Its next-generation glasses will be called Specs – however, they are still yet to release a price and launch date. Their most recent Spectacles were released in September 2024 to developers only, and only available under a leasing model that required users to commit to paying $99 (£73) a month for a full year. The company launched its first Spectacles glasses in 2016, but that was limited to simple features like helping users shoot short videos that they could post to Snapchat. The update to augmented reality displays happened in 2021 (Picture: Getty)
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Snap Announces 2026 Launch Date for its AR-Enabled Spectacles
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. Snapchat's looking to make a big splash, and get ahead of its rivals, with the launch of a fully AR-enabled version of its Spectacles glasses, which will be available to consumers early next year. Called 'Specs,' Snapchat's making a push to get its experimental AR device into retail production ahead of Meta's AR glasses, which are set to hit store shelves in 2027. Snap says that the new Specs will be a more stylized version of its current AR Spectacles, which Snapchat's been working on for, really, the past decade, with developers helping to refine the device over the past year. This bulky, current version of Snap's AR glasses will be slimmed down for the new Specs, though Snap hasn't released product images or technical details (including pricing) as yet. Snap says that the glasses will have full pass-through vision, enabling digital overlays on your real-world experience, with a range of functional elements already built into the device, including AI. Also, 'no puck, no tether, no phone required", Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says. As explained by Snapchat: 'Snap's all-new Specs are uniquely positioned to understand the world through advanced machine learning, bring AI assistance into three-dimensional space, enable shared games and experiences with friends, and provide a flexible and powerful workstation for browsing, streaming, and more.' It's a bold push from Snap, which, despite being the leader in AR development, is at risk of losing out in the longer-term AR wearables race, as it goes up against much more well-resourced challengers in Meta and Apple. Which would be annoying for Snap. The company released the first version of its camera-equipped Spectacles back in 2016, and the vision even then was to integrate AR experiences into the device. Indeed, Snap went all-in on AR glasses even then, re-framing itself as 'a camera company,' and registering various patents for its unique AR device. But production challenges, cost blowouts, and declining interest in Spectacles appeared to dampen its momentum, while Snap also hadn't been able to grow its ad business as fast as it had hoped. But now, with its business back on the right track, it clearly sees an opportunity to get ahead of the market, and beat Meta to the punch with fully AR-enabled glasses, which could give it first-mover advantage. As per Snap CEO Evan Spiegel: 'We believe the time is right for a revolution in computing that naturally integrates our digital experiences with the physical world […] we couldn't be more excited about the extraordinary progress in artificial intelligence and augmented reality that is enabling new, human-centered computing experiences. We believe Specs are the most advanced personal computer in the world, and we can't wait for you to see for yourself.' Though it remains to be seen whether Snap can truly compete with Meta, and Apple, in the long term. Meta's taking a longer pathway to a retail launch of its own AR glasses, in order to improve the functionality and wearability of the device. And given its success with its Ray Ban Meta glasses, the company is poised to be able to eventually launch a solid AR device, which, at this stage at least, looks to have significantly more technical capacity than Snap's model. The question then is whether people will be keen to try out Snap's glasses now, as opposed to waiting for Meta's coming device. Snap's hoping to use that early launch time to gather more attention, without competition, and with Snap users already engaging with AR experiences over 8 billion per day in the app, it clearly has the ideal audience to drive AR glasses adoption. Which could mean that this is a stroke of genius. I mean, ChatGPT has provided a recent example of what an advantage being the first-mover can be, with OpenAI's chatbot not being more advanced than, say, Meta AI, but seeing more relative usage and ubiquity in the market. Snap will be hoping for the same success with its AR glasses. As noted, Snap's planning a public launch of Specs in 2026. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
