The world just took a step closer to the augmented-reality realm of Minority Report Monday, as 3D-glasses start-up Meta unveiled its debut commercial product, the metaPro. At $3,000 (available at spaceglasses.com), the aviator-style glasses are likely only to get scooped up by tech-ravenous first adopters, but in time should drop in price, says Meta CEO Meron Gribetz.
"Right now, they cost about what the first MacBook Air did when it came out, but the price will change significantly as volume increases," says Gribetz whose company has doubled (to 40 people) and whose product has shrunk (the metaPro is half the weight and features four times the virtual-screen size as the bulky prototype Meta 1) since USA TODAY profiled the Israeli entrepreneur in July. "We're not shy about this being a high-end device."
So, what does the metaPro allow you to do for three grand - beyond maybe stealing some cool points off Google Glass wearers?
At present, its main parlor trick involves conjuring up a virtual image of your smartphone or tablet in its 720p see-through screen, the same high-quality heads-up display provided to military fighter pilots, says Gribetz. That's done by connecting your physical device to a computer and firing up a metaPort app; the app wirelessly transmits a hologram image of the gadget to your metaPro. The next adjustment is psychological.
"When you see your smartphone hovering in front of you, you can use it the same way you would your actual phone only it weighs nothing and is just floating there in space," says Gribetz. "This is not just about new geek fashion. It's about shifting a paradigm, where all these devices we carry around with us can stay close, but don't weigh us down."
Augmented reality glasses have been around in various forms for nearly half a century, but it is only with recent advancements and size reductions of electronic components have AR glasses shifted from fantasy to reality.
While Google's Glass allows users to access the web as well as their email and phone through a light pair of frames equipped with a small square prism, meta's creation hopes to take users to a new level of interactivity that "ultimately will allow us to get rid of physical objects like laptops and phone altogether," says Gribetz.
