Google is once again dipping its toes into the world of augmented reality as a series of new job postings have revealed its intentions to create a new “Augmented Reality OS” for an unspecified “innovative AR device”.
The search giant's last foray into AR may have been a bit too early back in 2013 when it began selling a prototype of Google Glass to qualified Glass Explorers in the US. Thankfully though, in the years since, Google Glass has seen increased adoption among enterprise businesses.
The company released its first Google Glass Enterprise Edition back in 2017 and then followed it up with Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 two years later in 2019.
As Apple is preparing to release its own AR glasses and other tech giants will likely follow suit, now could be the perfect time for Google to revamp its efforts and potentially find a way to create an AR headset that can be used by consumers in addition to businesses.
Augmented Reality OS
In a recent post on LinkedIn, Mark Lucovsky shared that he now leads the “Operating System team for Augmented Reality at Google”. This will actually be Lucovsky's second time working for the search giant though he also previously spent four years as the general manager for Operating Systems at Meta-owned Oculus.
As reported by 9To5 Google, there are also several open positions for Google's upcoming Augmented Reality OS. One of the postings in particular laid out the company's goals for its new AR-focused OS, saying:
“Our team is building the software components that control and manage the hardware on our Augmented Reality (AR) products. These are the software components that run on the AR devices and are the closest to the hardware. As Google adds products to the AR portfolio, the OS Foundations team is the very first software team to work with new hardware.”
Meanwhile, other job postings at Google say that the company is building an “innovative AR device”. While the company hasn't announced anything yet in regards to AR, we could possibly hear something at next year's Google I/O developer conference.
We've also rounded up the best VR headsets for business and best AR apps
Via 9To5Google
