Facebook's mysterious research department, Building 8, is developing at least four unannounced consumer hardware products. One of the products involved cameras and augmented reality. In addition, there is evidence that Building 8 is developing drones. Building 8 will cover a major retail promotion along with warehouse operations, different retail experiences, and a “global call center footprint.â€
The hardware product R&D lab established by Facebook in 2016 has quietly made progress and steadily expanded the scale of its product and hardware prototypes under development. Xiao Bian learned that the department named Building 8 is currently carrying out four projects at the same time, covering cameras and augmented reality, as well as brain scanning technology.
Facebook is already considering hosting a "party" for its upcoming product to lay the groundwork for the promotion and listing of devices. Building 8 has not announced any products, but informed sources revealed that the hardware department will play an important role in the next F8 Developer Conference next month.
To be part of the next wave, they need to get out of the stage, and be quick.
Turning to hardware is an ambitious adventure for Facebook. With nearly 2 billion users, Facebook has become a "superpower" in the Internet. However, because there is almost no experience in the hardware field, to compete with financially strong opponents in such a thin and complex market (such as Apple and Google, and rising stars such as Snap), Facebook faces many difficulties.
For Building 8, Facebook is not just a whim and it is an interest.
In January, Xiaobian analyzed recent recruitment notices from Building 8 and Facebook’s public comments, which showed that the company hopes to produce and sell millions of consumer hardware. Facebook declined to comment on this.
Extended reading: Facebook Building 8 secretly develops brain-computer interface technology
Informed sources revealed that one of the projects that Buiding 8 is currently developing involves cameras and augmented reality. In addition, recent talent recruitment points to the development of drones.
Another project is related to brain scanning technology and is led by a former neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, one of the world's top universities. Another project may involve medical applications because it is led by an interventional cardiologist from Stanford who has expertise in early medical device development. The department also plans to launch a fifth project and is currently looking for a suitable person in charge.
It was Regina Dougan who led all this. The former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) executive and former deputy director of Google Engineering was dug by Zuckerberg last April to head the Building 8 team.
The structure of Building 8 is similar to Google's ATAP and X departments (this "moon landing" laboratory was born Google's self-driving car project).
In Buiding 8, the technical project leader is like a mini CEO. It only has a two-year proof of a concept. At the end of the time, it will either launch the market or be sold or split.
The first such deadline will end in the summer of 2018, and the responsible person is robot and computer vision expert Frank Deratt. Derat's involvement means that Facebook may be targeting consumer drones, similar to Snap's plans.
Drlatt joined Facebook last summer. He was the chief scientist of drone start-up company Skydio. Dratt is also a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, and informed sources said that he has a special interest in four-axis aircraft.
In addition, according to the LinkedIn page, Stephen McClure, the former head of hardware at Skydio, has joined Facebook as the hardware leader for Building 8. In the past few months, some former GoPro employees have also been included in Buiding 8, including founding members of the GoPro drone industrial design team.
In the announcement of De Latt’s participation in the blog post, Buiding 8 director Regina Dougan hinted at the role of De Latte, “when he is not guarding the door, he will help us get things flying.â€
Facebook's Aquila drone
Employees in other parts of Facebook were also drawn to Building 8. Alex Granieri, an engineer responsible for Aquila drones, had previously joined the Building 8 team last year.
In August 2016, Frank Draert issued a statement announcing his decision to join Building 8, and stated that his Building 8 project will end in the summer of 2018 when he will return to teaching at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Drella said: "I can't discuss the details of my work in Building 8, so please continue to pay attention. I can only say that I accepted this position. I am eager to apply DARPA's development style to the creation of hardware products. In a place where bold science and product development begin, let's get started."
From left to right: Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer, Reidian Dugan of Buiding 8, CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Although Building 8 has only been established for less than a year, the department has already planned to introduce products to the market. Its official website has already recruited talents related to marketing, retail, supply chain and customer experience.
A retail manager job posting revealed that “responsible for creating an innovative shopping experience for Facebook’s consumer hardware from scratchâ€; another partner’s leader requested “an attractive and successful 3 years for retailing for Building 8†Partner strategy."
This series of recruitment also shows that Facebook plans to sell products through third-party partners. One of the principals of the partnership is to “look for a unique and inspiring partnership that can drive innovation, bring good social benefits, inspire consumer loyalty and trust.â€
Selling millions of pieces of hardware is a new challenge for Facebook. After all, the company only tried small-scale retail promotion through the Oculus VR headline (and the process did not go smoothly).
Facebook's early plans for the Buiding 8 show that the company hopes to become an important force in the field of augmented reality, and the partner of Loup Ventures, Jean Munster, believes that AR will become the new frontier of technology.
As an analyst at Piper Jaffray, who is famous for analyzing apples, Munster said: "They realize they want to be part of the next wave and they need to get out of the stage and be quick."
Munster’s company has been closely watching augmented reality and virtual reality companies, and he personally predicted that Facebook hopes to ship at least 20 million devices a year and become a successful consumer hardware company. But even so, Munster pointed out that the competition from Apple and Snap will be very fierce.
Google tried to grab the augmented reality market through Google Glass, but the product ended in failure.
Munster said when talking about Facebook's founding of Building 8: “This shows that they want to become more influential and take a seat in the market. I think this is the right choice, but I'm not sure if this will succeed.â€
However, Buiding 8 is still scrambling for the famous hardware company. Most of the senior executives in Building 8 had previously worked with Dugan on Google’s advanced technology department, including the leadership team responsible for the Project Ara modular smartphone.
Interestingly, Dugan has hinted at items that are being watched by Buiding 8 in recent weeks through several Facebook blog posts.
In the February blog post, she quoted data saying that when a child graduated from high school, 93% of face-to-face communication between parents and children also ended.
She wrote: "Most people have ever experienced, just like kicking your stomach kick. Because it reminds us deeply about the power of the connection. What we can do is to increase us apart from the rest. There is a sense of presence beyond 7%. I believe that technology can help... This requires new progress, including hardware advancement."
In March, Dougan wrote: "Smart phones can connect us with people thousands of miles away, but it's often at the expense of people sitting around us. We shouldn't choose between the two."
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