Google’s last venture into the AR industry, Google Glass, didn’t take off as many had expected. In many ways, this was due to it being too early, ahead of its time. It launched back in 2014 and the industry is only now starting to take off. It’s the same reason that Microsoft’s Tablet PC from 2003 failed – it was too early – and the iPad took over the industry in 2010. Google is reviving its interest in the AR market again with a new AR Headset, expected to run on its own customer processor, similar to its Tensor chip in the Pixel 6 range.
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The project is known as Project Iris internally, and will be a consumer-focused AR headset that is expected to launch in 2024. According to reports, Google’s next-gen AR headset will not be anything like Google Glass (it combined real-life with a video feed shown on a small screen in the corner). Rather, Iris will augment incoming video from outward-facing cameras with various graphics. It will have screen, like those found on VR headsets, similar to what Meta and Apple are developing.
The AR headset will not need to be tethered to a PC or be powered through a cable, it will be a standalone device and have its own battery to power it. The device will run on Google’s own custom processor – thought to be similarly powered to the Pixel 6’s Tensor SoC. Google’s hardware chief Rick Osterloh has previously said that Google’s Tensor chipset is the “perfect foundation for making big improvements in AR.”
According to the report, the AR headset will run on Android. Even though Google has been rumored to be working on its own AR OS, that project isn’t complete at the moment. Things might change if Google is able to develop the AR OS by the time of the product’s release.
