Facebook working on developing augmented reality (AR) glasses: report

A patent application filed earlier this week has revealed that Facebook is working on developing augmented reality (AR) glasses capable of blending digital objects with the physical world.

According to a report in Quartz on Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had earlier shown photos of similar glasses, saying that they would be the future of AR, but had not said that the company was developing such a product.

According to Zuckerberg, AR will be the next big consumer tech platform after smartphones. ''Think about how many of the things you use (that) don't actually need to be physical. Do you want to play a board game? You snap your fingers, and here's the board game,'' Zuckerberg said, IANS reported.

Though the technology is under development at Facebook-owned Oculus, it is not expected to be really viable until 2022.

According to the reports, the patent application detailed a pair of glasses with transparent displays for lenses, through which light would flow. The lenses will distribute the light and refract it into the eyes of users.

The patent application is for a ''waveguide display with two-dimensional scanner'' and details a method to create augmented reality.

According to the patent, the device would use a waveguide display system to display the virtual objects, with a source assembly to emit the image light, which would then be directed to the user's eyes.

Microsoft and Google have already made AR hardware available to consumers. Microsoft, which revealed its AR effort,  the HoloLens, a few years ago recently updated its device with a custom designed AI chip.

The  ''AI coprocessor'' as it is called allows the HoloLens to run offline as it can process all the data from the HoloLens' sensors without uploading to the cloud.

Google's effort, Google Glass had been in limbo for some time, but according to reports the company may be testing the product as an enterprise-only device.