Facebook has shown a pair of augmented reality glasses that give the wearer perceptual superpowers meaning that it will amplify what the user wants to hear, and lower the volume of background noise.
The augmented reality glasses feature headphones and microphones that capture audio around the wearer, and then tracks their head movements.
As the wearer focuses on an object or direction, the glasses enhances the sound from that area and lowers the volume of everything else.
Eye movement tracking is one of several solutions were exploring to understand what a person wants to hear, said Lisa Brown Jaloza, a Facebook technology communications manager.
Facebook said this technology could be used to protect wearers hearing if they work in noisy environments, such as restaurants and bars.
The company also proposed a situation where a person has a pair of glasses on with a special microphone array designed to pick up their voice.
This gives them the ability to speak and be heard even though there may be other sounds playing in the test, Facebook had two speakers in the room playing music at full volume.
Although wearing a technology that could potentially constantly listen to the user is a significant privacy concern, Facebook said that it is designing around that.
In an interview with The Independent, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he does not believe anything will be untouched by augmented reality, and that shopping will be changed entirely.
Original article