After years of anticipation, Meta's augmented reality (AR) glasses, called Orion, are finally approaching release – five years after the company first announced their plans.
Meta claims Orion is the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made.
"We don’t think people should have to make the choice between a world of information at your fingertips and being present in the physical world around you," it said in a statement.
Google Glass, the first commercially available AR glasses, launched in 2014 but was pulled from the market by 2015. While short lived, it paved the way for future AR glasses development, with a focus on enterprise and business applications.
Meta says the Orion glasses combine the convenience of wearables with a large display, high-bandwidth input, and contextualised AI in a form that people feel comfortable wearing.
Lightweight and suited for both indoor and outdoor use, they also support face-to-face interactions with eye contact. Users can enjoy digital freedom beyond the limits of a smartphone screen, with large holographic displays for 2D and 3D content, Meta notes.
True AR glasses
Ray-Ban Meta glasses pioneered hands-free digital access. Now, Orion takes it to the next level.
"While Ray-Ban Meta opened up an entirely new category of display-less glasses super-charged by AI, the XR industry has long dreamt of true AR glasses – a product that combines the benefits of a large holographic display and personalised AI assistance in a comfortable, all-day wearable form factor. Orion rises to the challenge," states Meta.
It took Meta years of development to achieve a breakthrough: to miniaturise VR and MR technology into lightweight, and stylish, glasses. This required refining the form factor, holographic displays, AR experiences, and intuitive human-computer interaction.
"At times, we thought there was less than a 10% chance of success." But, through innovations and precise engineering, Orion's components are now packed into a fraction of a millimetre, enabling “the largest field of view in the smallest AR glasses yet”.
Orion looks and feels like a regular pair of glasses, complete with transparent lenses - unlike MR headsets or other AR glasses, Orion allows you to see others' eyes and expressions.
In addition, Meta’s AI assistant runs on Orion so “It understands what you’re looking at in the physical world and can help you with useful visualisations.”
Shipment plans
While Orion isn't available for purchase yet, Meta says it’s not just a research prototype but a highly advanced prototype that's very close to what they will sell to customers.
But, instead of rushing it to market, they are focusing on refining it internally.
At its Connect event this week, Meta announced, "Beginning today at Connect and continuing throughout the year, we’re opening up access to our Orion product prototype for Meta employees and select external audiences. This will allow our development team to learn, iterate, and build toward our consumer AR glasses product line, which we plan to begin shipping in the near future."
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