Amazon might be working on AR tech that doesn’t require glasses

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Amazon wants to augment your reality. The retail giant has been on a hiring spree for senior positions to create new, unannounced augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) products, that might be glasses-free.

Noticed by Protocol, Amazon has been posting job requirements for a long laundry list of specialists. These include “computer vision scientists, designers, program managers, product managers, researchers and technologists”; which could mean a new division at Amazon dedicated to all things Mixed-Reality (XR).

One of the job listings mentions “a greenfield development effort.” That’s the verbiage for a totally new development environment. It’s one being started from scratch without any legacy Amazon code being involved.

That’s exciting. Amazon has tried various AR technologies in the past, like the ‘3D’ screen on the Fire Phone, but nothing stuck with consumers.

A truly new product with new code could make something magical. Something like glasses-free augmented reality. Yes, the Fire Phone technically did this, and so did Nintendo with the 3DS.

Amazon does have a number of patents (shown above) for AR using room-scale projectors, which might come in handy.

Amazon hasn’t shown much interest in AR/VR/XR or the metaverse until now. Maybe that’s because they have retail on a virtual lock; you don’t need the virtual worlds if you own the real one.

Whatever their reasons, if anyone can make glasses-free augmented reality a reality, and fulfill my dreams of a Blade Runner-esque cityscape; it’ll be Amazon and its bags of money.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.