Meta Acquires Luxexcel in Quest to Develop AR Glasses - PYMNTS.com

Meta has bought Dutch 3D lens printer Luxexcel for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition, which was archetypal reported by Belgian paper De Tijd Wednesday (Dec. 28), has fueled speculation that Meta volition sorb Luxexcel’s smart lens exertion into its augmented world (AR) business.

The astute lens exertion tin integrate antithetic lens projection areas, holographic films and progressive foils wrong lenses, the study stated.

Founded successful 2009, Luxexcel has antecedently worked with AR companies, including the Israeli steadfast Lumus and the Oxford-based WaveOptics, according to the report.

While astute glasses whitethorn inactive beryllium associated with the commercialized flop that was Google Glass, the thought ne'er went away. Companies similar Lumus and WaveOptics person been softly moving to make the exertion and a batch has changed since Google’s archetypal foray into the marketplace 10 years ago.

Since then, integer wearables person go commonplace successful the signifier of smartwatches, and the conception of accessing smartphone functions without reaching for a mobile instrumentality has gained mainstream adoption acknowledgment to the popularity of voice-activated assistants.

For now, Meta’s large AR stake is inactive successful moonshot mode. The institution volition proceed to plow 20% of its investment into Reality Labs, a metaverse-focused portion that houses Oculus, assorted crippled studios and different AR and virtual world (VR) hardware projects.

While Reality Labs is notorious for burning done cash, Meta’s elder enactment has repeatedly defended the disbursal arsenic a semipermanent concern successful the exertion of the future.

Giving a hint astatine the benignant of timeframe Meta is considering for the eventual motorboat of its ain AR glasses, successful a December blog post, Andrew Bosworth, the caput of Reality Labs, said the company’s “vision for existent AR glasses volition necessitate years of progress, making our devices slimmer, lighter, faster and much powerful, each portion consuming mode little artillery powerfulness and generating overmuch little heat.”

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