Google and Samsung’s first AI face computer to arrive next yearFor years, Google pushed the idea of wearing screens on our faces. Now it’s trying again.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/12/android-xr-google-samsung-headset-glasses/
For years, the search giant has tried — and largely failed — to get consumers wearing screens in front of their faces. Now it's trying again.
The company on Thursday revealed a new version of its Android software — called Android XR — developed in tandem with Samsung to power a variety of wearable devices, from virtual reality headsets to compact glasses with screens embedded in their lenses.
“We, like many others, have made some attempts here before,” said Sameer Samat, Google’s Android ecosystem president, in a briefing. “I think the vision was correct, but the technology wasn’t quite ready.”
While it’s unclear whether Google plans to develop its own XR, or “extended reality” devices for sale to consumers, the first products built on top of this new software will arrive sometime next year, Samat said. And leading the pack is a self-contained headset built by Samsung code-named “Project Moohan,” a reference to the Korean word for “infinity.”
Some facets of the Android XR experience might feel surprisingly familiar to anyone who has tried on one of Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro headsets.
Users of Android XR headsets like Project Moohan will be able to flick through photo slideshows hanging in the air in front of them, settle in with movies displayed in an immersive virtual theater, or run Android apps that can be controlled with eye movements and hand gestures.
Google never really stopped working on XR, a blanket term that refers to related technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, Samat said.
This time, however, the company is leaning on AI to make this new generation of face computers more helpful. Head-worn Android XR devices will have Google’s Gemini chatbot built into their core, allowing users to control their apps with conversational commands as well as physical gestures.
“The reality is that keyboards are rarely going to be an interface for XR, and Gemini is crucial in enabling a simple and quality experience,” said Moor Insights principal analyst Anshel Sag, who tried a preproduction version of the Moohan headset.
Shahram Izadi, Google’s vice president of XR, says Gemini will also be able to see what the wearer sees — whether they’re real-world objects or digital elements hovering in space — and can react to them accordingly.
In one sample video the company shared with reporters, a pair of smart glasses with in-lens displays could see a specific tool in a user’s field of view and remind them where it was.
Other preview videos showed those prototype glasses displaying walking directions from Google Maps as wearers traipse through a city and offering to translate menus written in foreign languages.
“It’s notable that Apple is yet to promise any Intelligence features for Vision Pro, and Meta has said little about AI for its Horizon OS,” said Leo Gebbie, principal analyst at CCS Insight. “Google seems to have grabbed a jump-start on its rivals in terms of surfacing this approach.”
Despite the optimism, there’s no guarantee Google’s AI-forward approach to headsets and smart glasses will immediately win over skeptical consumers. Demand for AR and VR has deflated so far this year according to shipment data from research firm IDC, though it does expect the industry to grow in the coming years.
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