META, formerly Facebook, has reportedly had to stop work on an Apple rivaling smartwatch that was originally supposed to come out this summer.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company has invested almost a billion dollars into the device that aims to track hand movements and let you connect with others in real life as well as the metaverse.
1
First reports of Meta’s watch indicated it would come out in the summer of 2022.
It was said to look similar to an Apple Watch and was expected to sell for under $400.
The Meta watch was reportedly for sending photos to Instagram and Facebook and had a dual camera system.
According to Bloomberg, one of the camera’s was in the screen and one was on the back so it sat on the wearer’s wrist.
The second hidden camera was placed there so a user could take the watch off and snap pictures with the back camera.
However, this placement led to issues with how the watch could interpret a wearer’s nerve signals and hand movements.
Tracking movements will be an important feature of the watch if it is to be used in the metaverse.
It’s also this movement tracking that sparked some controversy when the watch was first reported on as concerns were raised about user privacy.
Most read in Tech
Meta is said to be working on technology called electromyography to fix this issue.
Meta said that electromyography is “about decoding those signals at the wrist — the actions you’ve already decided to perform — and translating them into digital commands for your device.”
As well as tracking your hand movements and taking pictures, the watch is also intended for playing music, messaging your friends and monitoring your health and daily activities.
Meta is aiming for a lot but work on the smartwatch has had to be halted.
That’s according to Phone Arena which said employees working on the watch were told development had been halted.
The watch reveal had reportedly been pushed back to Spring next year but now it’s unclear when this will be.
The exact reason for the halted work also remains unclear.
Zuckerberg is investing a lot of money into metaverse gadgets and is expecting significant losses before Meta starts making money from those products.
