During the Meta Connect event, the company unveiled information about its "fully holographic" augmented reality glasses, now named Orion. Meta is investing a lot of technology into this device, which has not yet been released to the market.
Five years ago, the company first announced its development of holographic smart glasses, but in reality, it has been working on the project for ten years. Meta claims that Orion is the "most advanced pair of augmented reality glasses ever created," resulting from "breakthrough inventions across nearly all areas of modern computing." The device employs miniature projectors to display holograms on the glasses.
Meta's Orion glasses appear to be much less bulky than previous mass-market augmented reality products, such as Magic Leap, Microsoft Hololens, and Google Glass. They do not isolate the user from the surrounding world like a virtual reality headset (although Meta's headset allows users to see their environment through built-in cameras). As a result, bystanders can fully see the faces, eyes, and expressions of users without needing to resort to workarounds, as Apple does with EyeSight on the Vision Pro.
Meta states that Orion is lightweight and operates both indoors and outdoors. The glasses provide "a digital experience that isn't confined by the limits of a smartphone screen," as they overlay holographic elements onto the real world. Additionally, Orion integrates contextual artificial intelligence to help users better understand their surroundings.
For instance, users can look inside their refrigerator while wearing the glasses and prompt Meta AI to concoct a recipe based on what’s available. With Orion, users can connect to video calls, view and send messages in Messenger and WhatsApp. The glasses will also feature holographic versions of various other applications, such as Spotify, YouTube, and Pinterest.
The lightweight design of Orion was achieved by using an external wireless unit that handles most of the data processing and transmits applications and content to the device. There is also a bracelet that must be worn for gesture control.
Currently, Meta is testing Orion with its employees and a "selected external audience." At the same time, Meta emphasizes that Orion is not merely a research prototype, but rather "one of the most sophisticated product prototypes we have ever developed and truly representative of what could be delivered to consumers." The company continues to work on the device to refine it and reduce costs.
A leaked roadmap from last year indicated that Meta plans to release its first consumer augmented reality glasses in 2027, although the company states it aims to do so "in the near future."
Source: Engadget
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