Project Aria by Meta, partners with BMW to explore AR technologies

Published Categorized as Augmented Reality

At  the Connect 2021 apart from other important updates, the latest progress of project Aria was also discussed.Project Aria is a research project by Meta that is exploring the possibilities of integrating AR technology into wearable devices. One interesting update is regarding its partnership with BMW. The German car manufacturer is one of the largest players in the automotive industry and is interested in exploring AR technologies.    

A novel AR integration in the vehicle

The car manufacturer along with Meta will work on AR technology in order to integrate with the vehicle. As stated by Meta in their blog, ‘This partnership will help our researchers explore how AR glasses, which rely on visual cues to identify their location, can situate themselves in a moving car’. There are a number of applications for using AR glasses while driving, for example these glasses can help in Navigation, controlling the infosystem of the car without using hands or even help in identifying potential hazards on the road.

It will be interesting to see how BMW can successfully integrate the system into their vehicles such that it improves the driving experience. The biggest challenge for the company is to ensure that the safety of the drivers, passengers and other people on the road are not compromised. Previously Google Glass, developed by another tech giant Google, was not recommended to be worn during driving due to safety reasons. However if this partnership leads to finding the solution it will unlock a whole new dimension of driving experience and BMW would be at the forefront. 

Context-based control of any technical device with augmented reality

Here is a video that shows what the technology is about

The video shows how immersive this AR technology is. It can detect objects in the real world and even identify the function of the object. As shown in the video, it identifies the Television and allows the user to turn it on! With such technology at hand its applications will be of enormous scale which can potentially change human interaction with the real world forever. 

Source:

Jaloza, L. B. (2021, October 28). Update: A year of progress with Project Aria. Facebook Technology. https://tech.fb.com/update-a-year-of-progress-with-project-aria/

By Sahibzada Hamza

Passionate about drones. Disruptive technologies always intrigues me. Love to interview interesting people. Also a rocket scientist.