From late 2016 to 2019, we contributed to Facebook's hardware research laboratory, called Building 8. Unknown Untitled simultaneously designed for both the distant future and the near term, envisioning the positive experiences and opportunities emerging technologies could provide.
We communicated our forecasts through user scenarios and product visualizations to assist diverse teams in determining the best paths for further development. Wearable AR must address privacy and social acceptance. While we explored both integrated glasses and add-on devices, our studio favors detachable AR devices that clip onto regular glasses, as they can be easily removed in inappropriate contexts. To ensure transparency, device status (recording, audio feedback) is clearly indicated by mechanical transformations.
The collaborative process enabled us to address topics such as new means of communication through haptic feedback and augmented/mixed reality while questioning the social acceptability of tech wearables. We brought creative vision to an engineering-driven company to encompass what was yet to come.
Credits: Additional photography by Stanislas Wolff. Animation by Playground Paris.
