The move is following Metaverse’s strategies
Meta has acquired Luxexcel, a Dutch company specializing in producing graduated lenses using 3D printing. Specifically, Luxexcel, led by CEO Fabio Esposito, focuses on producing graduated lenses, including smart glasses. “We are excited that the Luxexcel group has joined forces with Meta, strengthening the existing collaboration between the two companies,” said a Meta spokesperson in a note sent to TechCrunch. Part of that relationship, according to rumours, is related to Luxexcel’s involvement in the development of Ray-Ban Stories, i.e. the glasses produced by Meta and marketed in 2021 that allow users to take photos and record videos even through voice commands. It needs to be clarified how much money Meta spent to acquire Luxexcel.
On its official website, Luxexcel states that ‘we have chosen prescription spectacle lenses as the best application of our technology, although we can print many types of lenses’. The development of intelligent or Augmented Reality-compatible glasses is one of the goals of Meta’s Reality Labs division, the one that is investing billions of dollars in building the hardware and software that, in Meta’s sights, will serve to consolidate the foundations of the ‘metaverse‘, a fully virtual reality where, according to Meta and many other companies, people will gradually spend more and more time and where they will be able to, among other things, play games, buy goods and services, and have digitized experiences. Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, recently specified that half of Reality Labs’ budget for 2023 would be invested in Augmented Reality technology.
He added that “making real glasses for Augmented Reality will require a set of giant leaps forward and innovations in all kinds of areas, from optics to miniaturized displays, from lightweight materials to AI-based interfaces”. For now, however, Reality Labs – which accounts for about 20 per cent of the group’s total investments – is burning through billions of dollars without having a clear and crisp product in sight that can give shape (and above all, substance) to a vision that prompted Mark Zuckerberg to even change the company’s name, from Facebook to Meta.
