As the head of Augmented Reality Product Management at Facebook, Baback Elmieh focuses on new physical inventions for AR hardware. Building things in the real-world, he notes, is much harder than virtual innovation.
“We’ve gotten really used to this idea that you can have whatever you want with software,” he says. “There are no limits between thought and building something that executes that – that’s just not true for physical things.”
The Iranian-American inventor and entrepreneur wants to change that. His work, beginning with his tech company Nascent Objects and continuing in his role at Facebook, focuses on developing physical objects that incorporate AR. His innovations have captured the attention of the world’s leading companies, and he has secured a patent for his innovative graphics processor.
Baback Elmieh Augments Users’ Reality
While Augmented Reality has only become popular in recent years, the technology is already quite familiar to users. AR augments, or alters, the live world around users in various ways. For iPhone or Android users, a mobile phone’s camera captures reality, while on-board software alters it.
This may mean adding filters over the face to turn a selfie into a dog, aging a users face, or superimposing new characters and objects into the world in games like Pokemon Go or Harry Potter’s Wizards Unite.
These forms of AR operate as software. However, in his position at Facebook, Elmieh focuses on developing hardware that operates the same way. He aims to develop self-contained devices that offer augmented reality experiences all in one package.
From Start-Ups to Facebook
After immigrating from Iran to Canada and then to the United States, Elmieh earned his Master’s degree from Northeastern University. He soon founded his first start-up, Ignition Technologies, in 2001. His second start-up, Human Engines, sold to Motorola in 2011.
Elmieh’s third successful start-up, Nascent Objects, sold to Facebook in 2016. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Facebook announced that their secretive “Building 8” team would absorb the small team from Elmieh’s company.
In 2018, Elmieh began working on the team developing Facebook’s Portal division. There, he heads up the team that produced Facebook’s first home AI devices – now being heavily promoted by the company.
Baback Elmieh Envisions the Future of AR
Games like Pokemon Go and filters for social media may be commonplace, but these software innovations have limits. Elmieh envisions a future where AR hardware is also ubiquitous.
“We’re excited to build products that can open the world to everyone and create on a scale we couldn’t have imagined before,” Elmieh says. “People have become used to the idea that with software, you can have whatever you want, whenever you want it. We want to make this happen with hardware.”
The potential for AR hardware have yet to see full realization, but some radical ideas are already circulating. Facebook recently released plans that may hint at a future of lifelike, AR pets that respond to the user voices and the world around them. While this may sound like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel, it may soon be reality – albeit Augmented Reality.
