Meta’s Orion Glasses Foreshadow AR Futures

Published 17 October 2024

2 min read

Meta presented a prototype of its augmented reality (AR) Orion glasses at its annual Meta Connect event (September 25-26 2024). While high production costs mean the smart glasses won’t be commercially available, their conceptual feature set foreshadows what we can expect from future AR and virtual reality (VR) products.

  • AR for Everyday Life: The Orion glasses are designed to be worn during any activity. The frames boast a 70° field of view (the amount of space that can be augmented) – wider than other AR glasses, offering ample space for augmented content without obstructing the central field of vision. This allows users to perform both virtual and real-world tasks.

    Transparent lenses (made from silicon carbide) guarantee wearers’ eyes can still be seen, enabling natural face-to-face interactions. The glasses are powered by a separate processor puck, which needs to be carried by the wearer and wirelessly feeds apps and graphics to the glasses.

  • Subtle Controls: The Orion glasses are controlled through a combination of eye and hand tracking, voice commands and a neural wristband. The wristband resembles a fitness tracker, monitoring hand movements and giving haptic feedback when a command is received. To make the controls as natural and “socially acceptable” as possible, the device can be interacted with via small and discreet gestures (like pinching the index finger and thumb together).

  • Integrated Personal Assistants: Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant runs on the Orion glasses. It can recognise objects in the users’ surroundings and execute tasks based on visual and voice input. For example, if a user opens their fridge, the assistant can identify foods and propose recipes based on the ingredients it sees in the fridge.

    The integration of AI into the AR glasses offers a glimpse of how AI could use data gained from everyday surroundings (like ingredients in cupboards) to make consumers’ lives more convenient and streamlined.

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