Meta wants to put smartphones with its Orion augmented reality glasses
It’s hard to imagine a future in which we’re not permanently at the mercy of ubiquitous smartphones. But Meta has set out to take the power out of ubiquitous mobile phones and even make them completely dispensable. Their master plan to attack smartphones (and perhaps “kill” them) involves Orion, a revolutionary prototype of augmented reality glasses that the company led by Mark Zuckerberg presented to the public yesterday.
Las new glasses from Metaequipped with Micro LED projectors, can display information superimposed on the real world and are likely to replace mobile phones in multiple contexts (receiving text messages or following directions to a certain point on a map, for example). However, the sophisticated technology lurking in the bowels of Meta’s new device is not yet ready for mass release.
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And this is what Mark Zuckerberg himself wanted to make clear, who although he briefly put on the Orion glasses, abstained from giving a live demonstration of the device yesterday at Meta Connect, the developer conference of the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The functions of Meta’s new augmented reality glasses were shown in a video instead.
The technology industry has been dreaming of glasses with these characteristics for years, but their technical requirements are also extraordinarily difficult to implement.
If they eventually reach a mass audience, Meta’s new Orion glasses could mark a before and after in the technology industry.
Apple has been working on smart glasses with transparent lenses for years. However, it has not yet been able to create glasses that are sufficiently light and last year it had to settle for the launch of the Apple Vision Pro, which weigh more than 600 grams and are inevitably uncomfortable for prolonged use, although they offer the user better image quality in return.
Last week, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, also presented the second generation of its augmented reality glasses: Spectacles. The disadvantage of this device is that it has a relatively small field of vision. In addition, only software developers will be able to benefit from the new Spectacles for now.
It is also worth remembering that More than a decade ago, Google pioneered the smart glasses market. The Mountain View-based company’s device, dubbed Google Glass, featured a camera and a tiny screen placed over the right eye. However, concerns about privacy and data protection led Google to decide to pull the plug on the project.
In the case of Meta, its Orion augmented reality glasses are not yet ready and the company wants to continue testing and improving them internally. (without anyone outside the company being able to experiment with them yet).
The production of augmented reality glasses is facing many technical obstacles. On the one hand, such glasses need to be equipped with power-hungry chips. On the other hand, there is little space in them to provide shelter for batteries with sufficient energy independence.
Besides, In this type of glasses it is difficult to display information on transparent lenses. Orion lenses, for example, are made of silicon carbide rather than glass or plastic, which are the usual materials for this type of device.
Meta wants, however, to find an alternative material to silicon carbide to reduce the costs of the device, explains Andrew Bosworth, CTO of the company, in statements to Bloomberg. According to Bosworth, there is currently a 90% chance that a consumer-focused product based on the Orion prototype will see the light of day.
Along with the glasses, Meta also presented yesterday a bracelet designed specifically to complement Orion’s visual and voice controls.
More news presented yesterday at Meta Connect
At Meta Connect, the company also raised the curtain on the new Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which will be enhanced with AI from the American multinational. The idea is that the Meta AI chatbot will see what the user is looking at through the glasses and also hear what they are hearing in order to better meet their needs. This could potentially be very useful when the user is cooking or exploring a new city. With the help of the cameras built into the glasses, Meta’s AI could, for example, remind the user where they parked their car. Another potentially very useful feature of the AI integration in Ray-Ban Meta glasses is real-time translation. The simultaneous translation function will initially be available in English, French, Italian and Spanish.
Meta also presented new virtual reality glasses yesterday, the Quest 3Swhich use the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor with 8 GB of RAM, and come with a 1,832 x 1,920 pixels per eye (20 PPD) LCD screen, at 90 and 120 MHz. This new virtual reality “gadget” will be released on October 15 and will have a starting price of 329.99 euros.
Yesterday, Meta announced that its chatbot Meta AI would debut voice conversations. The company will also integrate its AI software into its various applications, which have billions of users across the globe.
Meta’s more advanced AI features will not be available in EU countries for now due to the legal uncertainty caused by the new Brussels Digital Markets Act (DMA). Zuckerberg is nevertheless optimistic and hopes that the situation can be resolved soon.
