Meta acquires smart lensmaker Luxexcel as it works toward AR glasses goal

Meta’s throwing much more revenue into the metaverse with its acquisition of Luxexcel, a Netherlands-based corporation that specializes in 3D-printing prescription lenses for clever glasses. The information was to start with reported by Dutch outlet De Tijd (through TechCrunch), but Meta has because confirmed to The Verge that it purchased the corporation.

“We’re energized that the Luxexcel group has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership concerning the two corporations,” Meta claims in a statement supplied by Ryan Moore, the company’s head of money communications. Whilst the terms of the offer are mysterious, Meta CTO and Reality Labs head, Andrew Bosworth, revealed in a weblog submit previously this thirty day period that the company’s pouring “about half” of the metaverse-centered division’s operating fees into augmented actuality (AR), whilst the other half’s heading to constructing virtual reality items (VR) as it carries on to bleed billions.

Luxexcel, which was launched in 2009, states it can integrate the features needed to generate an augmented reality knowledge inside of a prescription lens, these types of as holographic film and projectors. In 2021, it partnered with WaveOptics, the firm that provides the shows for Snap’s Spectacles, to build a lens outfitted with waveguides, or the clear show technologies required to superimpose digital objects on a user’s genuine-lifetime atmosphere.

Even as Meta works toward developing its very first pair of AR eyeglasses, we might not see a concluded products for some time. Bosworth says Meta’s AR glasses will “require several years of progress” as it attempts to make the system “slimmer, lighter, more rapidly, and extra strong.” In June, The Verge’s Alex Heath documented that the first edition of Meta’s AR glasses will only be out there to builders — just like Snap’s Spectacles — while two later on pairs could turn into accessible to people above the training course of numerous decades.