Amazon appears to be preparing to expand its investments in virtual reality and augmented reality.

Protocol reports(Opens in a new window) that the company is looking to hire “computer vision scientists, designers, program managers, product managers, researchers, and technologists” to work on what the company described in a job posting as “an advanced XR research concept.”

Several of the job postings reportedly mentioned creating something alternatively described as a “magical and useful new-to-world XR consumer product” and “a new-to-world smart home product.” (Although it is possible that the posts referred to different concepts).

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company appears to have modified some of the job postings (removed reference to an XR research concept, for example) and removed others since they were cited in the Protocol report on April 18.

Amazon has introduced or previewed a number of mixed reality products over the years. In 2018, we took a behind-the-scenes look at Amazon Sumerian, an all-in-one development platform that can create AR and VR apps for smartphones and headsets.

In 2020, it launched an AR app for its cartons, and a 2017 AR View app helped shoppers visualize certain products in their homes. At the height of the pandemic, he too implemented a “Remote Assistance” system intended to help Amazon employees stay socially distant using AR. But it hasn’t formally entered the AR/VR hardware space yet, unless you count its ill-advised 3D Fire Phone.

It is not uncommon for companies to leak information through job offers. We learned that Spotify was curious about hardware when it tried to hire a senior product manager for hardware, and id Software raised hopes for a new Quake game when it posted some work.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Amazon actually plans to work on VR or AR products, and even if it does, there’s no guarantee it’ll ever release any. Companies often entertain the idea of ​​entering new markets; they can also quickly cancel those experiments if their interest wanes.