Reporting by XinZhiyuan
Edit: Time snailnj
Amazon began to make smart glasses in 2013, and has worked hard in the field of augmented reality for nearly a decade, and recently it is ready to continue to "expand reality" by recruiting talents.
Amazon is also going to enter AR, VR, XR?
No, it's already evident from its job postings.
"As a senior product manager, you will develop a magical and useful consumer product." The Amazon job posting reads.
What is a "magical consumer product"?
Amazon didn't tell me what this "magical consumer product" was, but the sharp-eyed media quickly captured that his job posting had been written like this:
"You will develop an advanced XR research concept into a magical and useful new world consumer product."
No, it's clearly written "XR" to expand reality.
For some reason, however, Amazon revised the hiring wording.
Still, it's the same thing.
Applicants were told to have experience building deep technology products, "e.g., ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/MACHINE LEARNING, robotics, games."
This senior product manager is to be good at using advanced sensing, display, and machine learning technologies.
Technical Head Kharis O'Connell
Amazon's new R&D team is headed by Kharis O'Connell, who previously worked at Google.
Kharis O'Connell, who studied at Yoville College in the UK, founded HUMAN in 2014 and serves as CEO.
Connell was a senior director of products and UX at Meta View from 2017 to 2018.
After that, he worked on Google's AR system for 3 years until he joined Amazon last April.
Earlier, in an interview about "The Future of Motion in UX Design," Kharis O'Connell argued that motion is a natural way to interact with things.
And this movement is what makes VR and AR exciting.
As people transition from desktop and mobile applications to distributed computing for wearables and the Internet of Things, the way people interact has changed.
Kharis O'Connell said, "So we don't have to sit hunched over these screens, staring at flat screens, poking at flat buttons."
Trying all the way in the field of intelligent terminals
In fact, Amazon's virtual reality is not just beginning. Amazon's smart glasses are called Echo Frames, but the product doesn't currently have a vision component.
About 10 years ago, Amazon filed some patents for its smart glasses, as shown in the chart below.
Amazon filed a patent in 2013
At this time, Amazon also filed a number of AR-related patents.
Among them, there is a ceiling projector capable of projecting images on tables, walls and other surfaces.
Amazon filed a patent in 2012
Due to the limitations of projection technology, this work was later challenged by development.
Then in 2019, Echo Frames appeared, with tiny speakers and microphones embedded in the temples to listen to music and direct the smart assistant Alexa, which cost $249 and comes with basic plastic lenses, which can also be configured with prescription lenses.
As far as the technical components are concerned, there is a microphone, power button and several volume buttons under the right lever – and a magnetic pogo pin receiver for charging.
Each stem has two small holes, located near the ears, for audio. There is also a touch sensor on the side of the right lever that detects interactive events such as clicks and swipes of the hand.
In fact, Amazon's smart glasses carry its genes for online shopping, and its application begins with AR shopping.
Before the launch of smart glasses hardware, that is, in 2017, Amazon first launched a simpler version of AR shopping called AR View.
Then, in 2020, Amazon launched a new augmented reality shopping tool, Room Decorator.
The feature works on thousands of furniture products on Amazon, with products in the AR view displayed in the right proportions and HD.
The product also allows users to visualize household products when they are not in the room.
Amazon says the new AR project was built by the visual search team in collaboration with the furniture team that built Showroom, and leveraged Apple's ARKit for some AR technology integration.
In September 2021, Amazon released Amazon Glow, which is known as an interactive video chat device for kids.
Suitable for children aged 3-9 years, this product is designed to connect children with their distant families in a unique dual-screen way.
One built-in screen is used for the face of the remote caller, and the other is used through a less obvious projector that acts as a large touchscreen for games and books.
Glow's projector creates a 19-inch touch-sensitive space where children can enjoy hands-on activities while adults join via their own tablets or smartphones.
When you turn a page a thousand miles away, the child's page also turns.
Although Amazon has a bit of a wait-and-see attitude in AR and VR hardware, it is obvious that it has recently increased its horsepower through talent recruitment and other means.
Resources:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/amazon-is-hiring-to-build-an-advanced-and-magical-ar-vr-product/
https://www.protocol.com/entertainment/amazon-ar-xr-product-hires
https://www.theverge.com/22197463/amazon-echo-frames-review-alexa
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Glow-Learning-Bundle/dp/B09DWNZQYM?th=1