Meta’s Orion AR Glasses: A Leap into the Future of Augmented Reality

Five years ago, Meta embarked on an ambitious journey to develop augmented reality (AR) glasses that would bridge the physical and virtual worlds. The vision was to create a seamless and connected experience that transcended the limitations of current technology. Today, Meta introduces Orion, the most advanced AR glasses ever made. These glasses promise to revolutionize the way we interact with digital content by eliminating the constraints of a smartphone screen. Orion’s large holographic displays can place 2D and 3D content anywhere in the physical world, offering an unparalleled immersive experience.

Orion is not just about displaying digital content; it also incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) that can sense and understand the user’s surroundings. This contextual awareness allows the glasses to anticipate and address the user’s needs in real-time. Whether you are indoors or outdoors, Orion’s lightweight design ensures comfort and usability. Unlike other AR glasses, Orion allows for natural eye contact and facial expressions, making interactions more genuine and human-like. The ultimate goal is to combine the convenience of wearables with a large display and contextualized AI, creating a product that feels both futuristic and familiar.

Previous products like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses have shown the potential of hands-free technology, but true AR glasses with holographic displays and personalized AI have long been the industry’s dream. Orion rises to this challenge by integrating all the necessary features into a comfortable and stylish form. The development process was fraught with challenges, but the designers were confident in their product’s success. By miniaturizing the components, they created glasses that are not only comfortable to wear but also offer the largest field of view for AR glasses to date. Orion allows for a range of immersive experiences, from multitasking to life-size holograms.

What sets Orion apart is its design. Despite its advanced capabilities, it still looks and feels like a pair of regular glasses. Running on Meta AI, these glasses can understand what the user is looking at and provide helpful visualizations. They also feature a built-in video call function and can stay connected with messaging apps, making them a versatile tool for both personal and professional use. The company plans to continue iterating and improving the experience before releasing it to consumers, but Orion already offers a glimpse into the future of AR technology and its potential to enhance our daily lives.

Mark Zuckerberg recently unveiled the Meta Orion prototype, overshadowing Apple’s Vision Pro. While the Meta Orion is not yet available for purchase, it is being tested internally and by select developers. The glasses offer a sleek design and holographic overlays on the real world, unlike the bulky pseudo-reality of the Vision Pro. Packed with advanced technology, including a wristband for control and a puck for streaming, the Meta Orion uses micro LED projectors to beam holograms onto the real world, providing a 70-degree field of vision. The glasses also incorporate Meta AI, which can recognize and interact with items in the user’s environment.

The Meta Orion can perform tasks like suggesting smoothie recipes and playing 3D games. Made with super-light magnesium frames and silicon carbide lenses, the glasses weigh less than 100 grams, ensuring a comfortable wearing experience. The wearable neural interface wristband allows for intuitive gestures without the need for cameras. Meta plans to release a similar product based on the Meta Orion prototype in the future. Zuckerberg referenced ‘glowing rectangles’ (phones) as being on borrowed time, with the future being in AR glasses. This sentiment reflects the company’s belief that AR technology will eventually replace smartphones as the primary medium for digital interaction.

Meta is also introducing a cheaper version of their expensive Meta Quest 3 mixed-reality headset. The new headset, called the Quest 3s, offers the same functionality as the original Quest 3 but at a more affordable price of $299. The price of the main Quest 3 is also being reduced from $649 to $499. The Quest 3s has full-color mixed-reality capabilities but with a narrower field of view and a different design. It runs on the same Snapdragon XR2 Gen. 2 chip as the Quest 3. The Quest 3s is targeted towards consumers new to mixed-reality or looking to upgrade from older Quest models, while the regular Quest 3 is for more experienced users willing to pay for top-of-the-line features.

Sales of mixed-reality headsets have been decreasing, with a 28% decline in the second quarter of this year. IDC, a market research firm, attributes this decline to the lack of affordable options for consumers. The Quest 3s, with its lower price point, could help reverse this trend. IDC predicts that headset shipments will increase from 6.7 million units in 2024 to 22.9 million in 2028. However, this is still a small number compared to the hundreds of millions of smartphones sold each year. Headsets also face competition from the gaming industry, with new console releases from companies like Nintendo and Sony.

Meta is currently struggling to make a profit from their augmented reality investments. They recorded a $16 billion loss in this segment in 2023, with an expected increase in 2024. Despite these challenges, as the leader in the mixed-reality space, Meta has the potential to drive the industry forward. However, this transformation will take time. Mark Zuckerberg showcased new AI and mixed reality products at Meta’s annual developer conference, aiming to stay ahead in the industry’s race to define the next phase of computing. Among the products shown was a prototype of the Orion holographic smart glasses, controlled by brain waves through a ‘neural interface.’

Zuckerberg did not provide a specific release date or price for the glasses but emphasized that they provide a glimpse of the future the company is working towards. The glasses use a new type of display to overlay digital objects onto the real world, not just pass-through but actual holograms. They also have voice and AI capabilities, hand and eye-tracking, and a ‘pretty neat’ neural interface. In a staged presentation, the glasses were brought out in a handcuffed silver metal briefcase, symbolizing their groundbreaking nature. The Orion glasses have been a technical challenge for the company and would be a major leap forward from their current smart glasses.

Meta also showed updates to their popular Ray-Ban smart glasses, which include voice-based AI for real-time language translation and reminders. The company has invested billions in computing infrastructure to support their AI models and has integrated their AI tools across their platforms. Zuckerberg claims their AI is on track to be the most used in the world, with 500 million current users. New features were announced for their AI products, including voices of celebrity actors and a new version of their llama language model. Zuckerberg commented on the need for consistent AI regulation in Europe, reigniting a feud with Apple’s Tim Cook.

At Meta’s Connect developer conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Orion, a pair of smart glasses that the company believes will revolutionize personal computing. Meta has dominated the online social connections market for the past two decades but missed out on capitalizing on the rise of smartphones as the primary medium for these connections. The company is now making a multiyear, multibillion-dollar effort to establish itself as a leader in connected hardware, specifically glasses designed for everyday use. At the event, Meta also showcased more affordable versions of its Oculus Quest virtual reality headset and its improved Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

But the main focus was on Orion, a prototype of holographic display glasses that Zuckerberg said has been in development for 10 years. These glasses, currently only available to developers, are not your typical smart display and are expected to replace smartphones for many needs. Zuckerberg described the display technology used in Orion as ‘different from every other screen you’ve ever used.’ Meta’s Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth has called this technology ‘the most advanced thing that we’ve ever produced as a species.’ The Orion glasses, resembling heads-up displays, have been developed in secrecy at the company’s ‘Reality Lab’ for several years.