Meta Allegedly Have Shelved Plans for a Dual-Camera Smartwatch

A source claims that Meta has ceased the development of a smartwatch with dual built-in cameras. The item, dubbed “Milan,” was rumored to be due out in spring 2023 at a cost of roughly $349. The cancellation is purportedly due to technical concerns as well as overall cost-cutting at Meta.

Dual-Camera Smartwatch May not Come

Most smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, don’t have any cameras at all, so Meta had anticipated that the inclusion of not one but two cameras would set their wearable apart in a crowded market. The first might be a 5-megapixel front-facing camera hidden behind a small display notch for video chats, with a 12-megapixel camera hidden behind it for taking photographs and video when the watch was taken off the wrist.

This second camera reportedly caused issues for Meta, interfering with the watch’s capacity to detect nerve signals from the wrist. That’s significant because Meta had intended that the device would be capable of acting as a driver for distinct augmented reality (AR) glasses and other metaverse efforts in addition to being a standard smartwatch. Last year, Meta wrote a blog article about employing wrist-mounted devices to grab nerve signals and utilize them as digital inputs using a technique called electromyography.

“The signals from the wrist are sufficiently clear that EMG [electromyography] can detect millimeter-level finger motion.” As a result, an input might be simple. “Eventually, it may be feasible to detect merely the intention to move a finger,” the business claimed at the time.

Other Features

The smartwatch would have included GPS, cellular connectivity, exercise monitoring, audio playback, and interaction with Meta services like WhatsApp and Instagram, among other things. The researchers had hoped that the watch would last 18 hours on a single charge. Meta was also aiming to collaborate with other firms last year to develop watch accessories that would allow it to be attached to things like backpacks and used as a camera.

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