Meta gave a first look at its long-awaited augmented reality glasses, called Orion, at the Meta Connect 2024 event. Mark Zuckerberg’s company sees these smart glasses as the future of computing.
The new Orion-glasses look like regular glasses at first glance, but a bit thicker. The temples contain advanced projectors that project images directly onto your retina. This allows you to see digital information while you are simply looking through the lenses at the real world.
Meta calls Orion the ‘most advanced AR glasses ever made’. “Orion bridges the physical and virtual worlds and puts people at the center.”
Wide field of view
A unique feature of Orion is its wide 70-degree field of view. This ensures that the AR images cover a large part of your vision, making the experience more realistic, says Alex Heath, a journalist at The Verge who could already try out the glasses. The glasses weigh 98 grams, which is heavier than normal glasses but much lighter than existing AR glasses.
Three parts
During the demonstration, he was able to scan ingredients with the glasses, after which an AI assistant generated a smoothie recipe that floated in the air from his point of view. A game of 3D Pong was also played against Zuckerberg himself.
The glasses work together with a wristband, which allows you to control everything, and a wireless ‘computing power puck’, a kind of external processor. This combination ensures that Orion can function without a smartphone or laptop.
WhatsApp and smart assistant
The smart assistant Meta AI also works on the Orion glasses. The AI understands what you see in the physical world and can help you with information or show instructions. “For example, you can open your fridge and ask for a recipe based on what’s inside. Or video call a friend while you adjust the family schedule while doing the dishes,” says Meta. You can also use the glasses to make video calls and read and send messages via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Not for right away
Although the gadget is impressive at first glance, Orion is not yet ready for the consumer market. The technology is currently too complex and expensive to produce on a large scale. Mark Zuckerberg still called it a prototype during the presentation.
Meta expects it could be a few years before a consumer version is available. Whether it will actually replace smartphones, as Zuckerberg hopes, remains to be seen.
New VR glasses Meta Quest 3S
Meta also announced a cheaper version of the VR glasses Quest 3, with a lower resolution of 1832×1920 pixels per eye, which is 37 percent less than the Quest 3. The new budget version also has less sharp lenses and a smaller field of view. The new Quest 3S costs 330 euros and is available from October 15.
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Source: www.bright.nl
