Project Aria: A New Tool for Egocentric Multi-Modal AI Research

Kiran Somasundaram, Jing Dong, Huixuan Tang, Julian Straub, Mingfei Yan, Michael Goesele, Jakob Julian Engel, Renzo De Nardi, Richard A. Newcombe

Abstract: Egocentric, multi-modal data as available on future augmented reality (AR) devices provides unique challenges and opportunities for machine perception. These future devices will need to be all-day wearable in a socially acceptable form-factor to support always available, context-aware and personalized AI applications. Our team at Meta Reality Labs Research built the Aria device, an egocentric, multi-modal data recording and streaming device with the goal to foster and accelerate research in this area. In this paper, we describe the Aria device hardware including its sensor configuration and the corresponding software tools that enable recording and processing of such data.