Snap’s New Spectacles AR Glasses: Generate 3D Animations via Voice

Explore Snap’s 5th Gen Spectacles: High-quality AR display, longer battery life. Apply now for developer access — only $99/month rental for a year

Brain Titan
6 min readSep 20, 2024
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Snap’s Latest Innovation in AR Glasses

Snap has unveiled the 5th generation of its Spectacles AR glasses, boasting a higher quality display and extended battery life. Unlike its predecessors, this product remains unavailable for commercial purchase but is accessible to developers through Snap’s Lens Studio. Developers interested in these advanced AR glasses must apply and pay a rental fee of $99 per month for at least one year, totaling $1,188 annually. Despite this cost, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is confident in sustained developer interest.

Enhanced Display and Field of View

The newest Spectacles offer a 46-degree field of view, a significant increase from the previous 26.3 degrees. This expanded view provides a more immersive AR experience. The waveguide display now shows 37 pixels per degree, a 25% improvement, which Snap considers the optimal measure for AR display quality. The physical lenses of the glasses also darken automatically in direct sunlight, ensuring clear visibility of projected content outdoors.

Advanced Optical Engine and Adaptive Lenses

The optical engine delivers a 46-degree diagonal field of view with a resolution of 37 pixels per degree, comparable to viewing a 100-inch display from 10 feet away. Spectacles automatically adjust color tones based on ambient light, maintaining bright visuals indoors or outdoors, even under direct sunlight. This feature ensures that users can enjoy AR content without the need for manual adjustments.

AI Integration and Interaction

Snap has integrated its proprietary chatbot, My AI, based on OpenAI technology. Users can control the device through gestures and voice commands, experiencing various augmented reality applications. The AI can generate 3D animations based on voice prompts, adding a new dimension to user interaction.

Key Upgrades in the 5th Generation Spectacles

Augmented Reality Display

The new Spectacles feature a richer and more immersive display with significantly improved resolution and color. This enhancement provides a clearer viewing experience, making AR content more engaging and lifelike.

Expanded Field of View

The field of view has increased from 26.3 degrees in the previous generation to 46 degrees. This expansion allows users to see a wider scene when using augmented reality functions, enhancing the overall experience.

Adaptive Lenses

The lenses can automatically adjust according to external light conditions, ensuring that AR content remains visible even in strong light environments. This feature is particularly useful for outdoor use, where lighting conditions can vary significantly.

Display and visual experience of Spectacles

Gesture and Voice Control

Users can interact with the device through hand movements, such as pinching and stretching, and voice commands. This intuitive control method enhances the user experience, making it easier to navigate and use various applications.

Longer Battery Life

The battery life has been extended from 30 minutes in the previous generation to 45 minutes. The device supports charging via the USB-C interface, allowing for continuous use while charging.

AI-Integrated Apps

Spectacles come with built-in AI capabilities, including support for 3D animated augmented reality lenses based on voice commands. Additionally, Snap’s AI chatbot, My AI, offers users a seamless and interactive experience.

AR Application Development Support

Snap has launched the Lens Studio tool for developers, enabling them to develop and test their own augmented reality applications. By renting Spectacles, developers can experiment and innovate, pushing the boundaries of AR technology.

Hardware Technology Upgrades

Lightweight Design

Spectacles weigh only 226 grams, nearly half the weight of traditional VR headsets. This lightweight design ensures comfort and suitability for long-term use.

Multi-Camera and Sensor Integration

The glasses are equipped with four cameras and multiple sensors, allowing for precise environmental understanding, gesture tracking, and 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) tracking. This technology enables users to move freely and interact with AR content naturally.

Advanced Optical Engine

Snap’s proprietary liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) micro-projector, combined with waveguide technology, produces clear and bright AR images. Users can enjoy augmented reality content without needing complex calibration.

Auto-Dimming Lenses

The lenses automatically adjust brightness according to the external light environment. This feature ensures clear visual effects both indoors and outdoors, making it easy to see projected AR content even in strong light.

Snap Spectacles

Display and Visual Experience

46-Degree Field of View

The Spectacles display offers a 46-degree diagonal field of view, allowing users to see AR content in a wider perspective. This improvement over previous generations enhances the immersive experience.

37 Pixels Per Degree Resolution

The waveguide display provides a pixel density of 37 PPD, offering a viewing experience similar to a 100-inch monitor viewed from 10 feet away. This high resolution ensures sharp and detailed visuals.

Automatic Adjustment

The lenses’ automatic adjustment function changes brightness based on the lighting environment. This feature ensures that displayed content remains clear and bright, regardless of the surroundings.

Augmented reality experience and application of Spectacles

Computing Power and Performance

Dual System-on-Chip Architecture

Using Qualcomm’s dual Snapdragon processors, Spectacles can share computing workloads, ensuring smooth operation. This architecture also reduces power consumption while improving efficiency in processing complex AR tasks.

Vapor Chamber Cooling

To address heat issues during long-term use, Spectacles feature a titanium vapor chamber cooling design. This ensures that the device can handle high-intensity AR content without overheating or performance degradation.

Battery Life

Spectacles offer up to 45 minutes of continuous use and support USB-C charging. Users can continue to use the device while it charges, ensuring uninterrupted AR experiences.

Snap OS Operating System and Interaction

Snap OS

Spectacles run on the new Snap OS operating system, designed for natural interaction. The intuitive user interface allows users to control the glasses through gestures and voice commands. The main menu can be accessed via palm gestures, making navigation simple and efficient.

Snap Spatial Engine

Snap’s spatial engine accurately understands the surrounding environment, seamlessly integrating AR content into the real world. With a motion-to-photon latency of just 13 milliseconds, AR content is displayed naturally and realistically in three-dimensional space.

Augmented Reality Experience and Application

Multimodal AI

Spectacles’ built-in multimodal generative AI supports real-time content generation based on the environment and user interactions. Users can browse web results, generate 3D assets, and watch spatially arranged video content during their daily activities.

Shared Lens Experience

Spectacles emphasize multi-person shared experiences. With Snap OS, developers can create AR applications suitable for use by family or friends. For instance, users can join a shared lens with friends to interact and play in an augmented reality environment.

Extended Functions and Supporting Applications

Spectator Mode

Spectacles’ Spectator Mode allows users to share their AR experiences with friends. Through their devices, friends can watch the user’s experience from their own perspective, enhancing the social aspect of AR.

Mobile Phone Mirroring Function

Spectacles support a mobile phone mirroring function, enabling users to display applications or content from their phones directly on the glasses. This function expands the application scenarios, making it easier to use commonly used mobile phone applications.

6DoF Controller

Through the Spectacles companion app, users can turn their phones into a 6DoF controller. This feature enhances the interactivity and operational freedom of AR applications, providing a more immersive experience.

Encouraging Developer Innovation

Snap actively encourages developers to create new applications and AR lenses for Spectacles. The Lens Studio 5.0 toolkit optimizes the development process and supports TypeScript and JavaScript, making it easier for developers to build and publish AR applications. Simplified development tools allow for quick project deployment to Spectacles.

Developers can use custom machine learning models directly in Spectacles lenses for object recognition, tracking, and enhancements. Snap is also collaborating with OpenAI to introduce cloud-hosted multimodal AI models to Spectacles, helping developers provide smarter application experiences.

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