Project Aria
A research program to help build the future, responsibly
Project Aria unlocks new possibilities of how we connect with and experience the world.
Project Aria glasses utilize groundbreaking technology to help researchers gather information from the user’s perspective, contributing to the advancement of egocentric research in Machine perception and Augmented Reality.
Project Aria is used by researchers to advance machine perception and AI research
Research kits are used by Meta researchers, and external industry and academic partners to accelerate research.
Apply for the Aria Research KitSensors on the Project Aria research device capture the wearer’s video and audio, as well as their eye tracking and location information.
On-device computing helps our researchers figure out how AR can work in the real world.
Helping to build a better understanding of our world, together.
AR glasses are intended for all-day wear and a major use case in our daily lives is driving or riding in a moving vehicle. To help solve this, we have partnered with BMW to explore how this technology could integrate into tomorrow’s vehicles to provide a unique and valuable experience for consumers.
‘The in-vehicle tracking felt quite stable, creating a seamless and immersive experience.’
To explore accessibility in AR technology and better understand how it can benefit people with varying physical abilities in the future, we started a pilot program in 2020 with Carnegie Mellon University’s NavCog project to build 3D maps of museums and airports. Developed by CMU, NavCog is an audio wayfinding app designed to help people with visual impairments better navigate their surroundings indoors, where GPS signals often don’t reach. CMU has been working on the NavCog project since 2014.
The open source project has many collaborators around the world. Prior to partnering with Meta, CMU relied on bluetooth beacons placed around an indoor space to accurately determine the location of aNavCog user within that space. Using the Project Aria device, CMU researchers built a 3D map of the Pittsburgh International Airport and other locations. They could then use that map to train AI localization models running on a mobile phone. This could reduce NavCog’s dependency on the external bluetooth beacons, inching us closer toward the not-so-distant future where NavCog can be deployed at scale.
‘NavCog has been helping people with audio/visual impairments regain autonomy over everyday life.’
In 2021, we’re expanding the partner program and making glasses available to the National University of Singapore, as well as other university partners in the future, so they can advance their own egocentric perception research.
Project Aria is used by our partners to explore a wide variety of use cases and proofs of concept for research across AR and AI
Use Cases
- Live Maps and wayfinding for indoor and outdoor spaces
- Understanding daily life from a first-person POV
- Impact to training, development, and education
- Driving responsible innovation regarding privacy and data collection
- Impact to entertainment and gaming
- Researching AR in-motion and in-vehicle use cases
Project Aria Dataset
Accelerating the state of machine perception and AI
The Project Aria Pilot Dataset is a collection of 159 sequences captured using Project Aria glasses, to accelerate the state of machine perception and AI.
Learn about the Project Aria Pilot DatasetEgo4D + Project Aria
Building contextually-aware egocentric AI globally
Ego4D is an initiative to create and share the data necessary to advance the state of computer vision from egocentric video.
Learn about Ego4DIn 2022, FAIR brought together an international consortium of 15 universities to collect and release the world’s largest public dataset of first-person or “egocentric” video of daily-life activities.
Teaching AI to perceive the world as people do requires more than video data. Select Ego4D consortium universities are expanding their work on egocentric video understanding to include data captured using Project Aria’s sensors, which include stereo cameras, dual inertial measurement units, spatialized microphones, eye tracking cameras, and more. With this effort, we’re excited to bring Project Aria to more researchers around the world, helping the Ego4D project unlock deeper insights into the human experience.
NORAM
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Georgia Institute of Tech
- University of Indiana
- Massachusetts Institute of Tech
- University of Minnesota
- University of Pennsylvania
- Simon Fraser University
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
LATAM
- University of Los Andes
EMEA
- University of Bristol
- University of Catania
- Carnegie Mellon University Africa
- King Abdullah University of Sci and Tech
APAC
- International Institute of Information Tech, Hyderabad
- National University of Singapore
- University of Tokyo
Responsible Innovation
We design our products with a privacy-first approach
For Project Aria, we are committed to providing people visibility into what information is being captured, clearly signaling when capture is occurring and creating clear processes to protect the information that is recorded. Participants will only record in either Meta offices, wearers’ private homes (with consent from all members of the household), or public spaces, and won’t record in private venues without written consent from such places. When the device is collecting data, it will display a white light to let people know it’s recording. Before any information gathered in a public place is made available to our researchers, it will be automatically scrubbed to blur faces and vehicle license plates.
AR devices and experiences will eventually enable deep connections between people and the things that matter most to them, providing more utility and information while decreasing the time spent looking down at various devices. Our approach to building an AR ecosystem will always put people before opportunity. See our responsible innovation principles for more information about how we’re building products with a privacy-first approach.
Aria Research Kit
For the broader research community we are offering a kit that includes the tools, services, and documentation needed to conduct independent studies to help shape the future of AR.
Apply for the Aria Research KitProject Aria News
Stay up-to-date
Frequently Asked Questions
We want individuals who encounter a Project Aria participant in public to understand that the participant is collecting data, so to start, research participants will wear distinct clothing that identifies them as a member of this research project, including a white vest in the UK and t-shirt in other countries, lanyard, and flier with QR codes and URLs directing anyone who is interested to a website for more information. When the device is collecting data, it’ll display a white light to let people know it’s recording. We’ll continue to evaluate our policies and the indicators we provide to help make sure we’re respecting people’s privacy and being transparent about what Project Aria is and what the research device does.
Since the initial launch of Project Aria in September 2020, we have gradually expanded in-public data collection to locations beyond the U.S.
As we announced in September 2021, some Facebook employees and contractors have started in-public data capture in a handful of public landmarks in Singapore.
Additionally, in 2021, some employees and contractors based in the UK, EU, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Israel captured data in their own homes with agreement from all members of the household.
Meta employees based in England and Ireland began to capture data in public places in those countries, including in Meta offices, where approved.
Last updated: April 2023
Data gathered in public places will be scrubbed to blur faces and vehicle license plates. Participants will be wearing highly visible and clear communication on vests or t-shirts, lanyards, and flyers noting that recording is in progress and providing a QR code and URL for bystanders to learn more about the research project and privacy policies. We’re also instructing all Project Aria research participants to comply with any requests from people in the near vicinity that they stop recording and/or delete relevant data. Participants can stop recording data at any time with the push of a button, and they can identify and delete recorded data segments, without viewing the raw data, by selecting the timestamp on a companion app installed on their smartphones. Finally, all research participants will first undergo training to learn where and when they should collect data and where it is not appropriate to record, such as in restrooms, prayer rooms, locker rooms, and in sensitive meetings and other private situations.
The glasses do not include a display and research participants cannot directly view video or listen to audio captured by the device, but participants can view low-resolution thumbnails via a companion app installed on their phone for the purpose of deleting segments of data. We’ll use end-to-end encryption to store the data on the Aria device and a secure ingestion system to upload data from the research devices to Meta’s separate, designated back-end storage space
Recorded data is temporarily stored on the Project Aria device and periodically uploaded to Facebook’s servers, where it is kept in quarantine for 72 hours before being transferred to separate back-end storage. The only exceptions to the quarantine period are when data is captured within fully consented environments with only Meta employees and contractors present who have consented to such capture.
We take extra measures to help keep the data we collect secure. The data on the device is encrypted and cannot be accessed by anyone. We also use a secure ingestion system to upload the data from the Project Aria device to separate, designated back-end storage systems.
Last Updated: May 2022
The device does not use facial recognition identification technology, and we do not connect information about bystanders captured using the research device’s sensors to their Facebook accounts. In any case, the glasses do not display any information on the inside of the lens, and research participants cannot access the raw data captured by the device.
No. Project Aria is a research project intended to help us understand what hardware and software are needed to build AR glasses.
We are hoping to collect sufficient and high-enough quality egocentric data to help us understand the hardware and software needed to build real, working AR glasses.
In this research phase, all of the data we collect is stored on separate back-end servers. We have controls in place to help ensure that data is only accessed by authorized researchers who require access to fulfill necessary responsibilities. We’re committed to keeping this information secure.
The Project Aria glasses are not a consumer product nor are they a prototype, and they will not be for sale. They won’t display any information on the inside of the lens, and research participants cannot view or listen to the raw data captured by the device. As a research device, the research glasses are meant to help us understand the hardware and software needed to build AR Glasses.
The initial batch of research participants was limited to about one hundred Facebook employees and contractors, primarily located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.
As we announced in September 2021, some Facebook employees and contractors have started in-public data capture in other locations across the U.S. and in a handful of public landmarks in Singapore.
Additionally, in 2021, some employees and contractors based in the UK, EU, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Israel captured data in their own homes with agreement from all members of the household.
In November 2021, we opened up participation in the countries where we were already collecting data to a wider group of Facebook employees and contractors, external, paid research participants, and partners. In total, we will have about 4000 devices in use worldwide.
And in 2022, a dozen or so Meta employees based in England and Ireland began to capture data in public places in those countries.
Last updated: May 2022
Facebook employees can choose to participate in the program if they are interested. As always, non-participants have the right to ask that recording stop if they are not comfortable and have the ability to ask that the relevant data is deleted. All research participants will be provided with rigorous training so they are mindful of recording restrictions.
Industry and academic partners alike are required to abide by our Project Aria Research Community Guidelines. These guidelines are a set of requirements and best practices that mirror Facebook's own Project Aria privacy requirements (e.g. ensuring it is clear to bystanders that recording is taking place and blurring personally identifiable information such as faces and license plates). Adherence to these guidelines is necessary, as they ensure that any research done with Project Aria meets its privacy and safety requirements.
In addition to abiding by our Community Guidelines, each university partner will be responsible for complying with standards from institutional research ethics committees or review boards.
Our intention is for partners to store and manage this data themselves. However, partners will have the option to use Meta’s infrastructure for blurring and other data processing, before using it. Meta won’t use this data unless the partner agrees to let Meta use it.