Facebook and Oculus announced they were in the process of making AR glasses back at the OC6 event last year. The hardware developers are finally making big steps to the direction of AR glasses with the exclusive deal they have reached with AR display maker ‘Plessey’.
Plessey is a UK-based company that is purely focused on the AR side of wearable displays and is using microLED displays to make this project come to life.
In a statement made by Plessey, they talk about their vision of futuristic computing and how they will be helping Facebook realize this opportunity.
Plessey Statement
“We have decided to work with Facebook to help achieve their vision of the next computing platform centred around people. Under a new commercial agreement, our LED manufacturing operations will be dedicated to helping Facebook prototype and develop new technologies for potential use in the AR/VR space. With consumer devices like Oculus Quest and a continued legacy of breakthrough research, Facebook is one of the companies best-positioned to make consumer-ready AR glasses a reality.”
They continue saying “We share that vision for a future where technology and the barriers between people disappear. Over the last two years, Plessey has been hard at work making the pivot from our legacy semiconductor business into micro LED’s for AR displays, garnering numerous accolades and industry recognition. In working with Facebook, we are charting an exciting path forward for Plessey and as we move into the next phase, we want to extend a sincere thank you to all the partners and customers who’ve been such a key part of our journey to date.”
This comes at a small surprise for many that are familiar with the matter. Apple has reportedly been interested in acquiring Plessey for their own ideas and plans in the wearable future. It is also surprising to see Facebook not go for an outright purchase of Plessey. The agreement says that the company will be supplying Facebook with AR displays over the course of several years. This means they agreed, but simply didn’t want to be bought out just yet.
Plessey is determined that they are the best solution for anyone trying to get high-end displays for both augmented and virtual reality. They have high-density RGB pixel arrays with CMOS backplanes for a “very high-brightness, low-power and high-frame-rate image sources” for all AR and VR headsets.
This isn’t the first big collaboration for any Facebook’s AR team. They recently acquired Scape Technologies, a company that is building computer vision-based positioning system for an AR overlay that is will be inside of the Oculus AR headset.
The teams around this project are actively working to get this project ready for some internal use. It’ll be exciting to see more news leak in the future. For more AR and VR related news, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
