Meta Unveils AR Glasses Prototype (theverge.com) 35
Meta unveiled prototype AR glasses codenamed Orion on Wednesday, featuring a 70-degree field of view, Micro LED projectors, and silicon carbide lenses that beam graphics directly into the wearer's eyes. In an interview with The Verge, CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated the device's capabilities, including ingredient recognition, holographic gaming, and video calling, controlled by a neural wristband that interprets hand gestures through electromyography.
Despite technological advances, Meta has shelved Orion's commercial release, citing manufacturing complexities and costs reaching $10,000 per unit, primarily due to difficulties in producing the silicon carbide lenses. The company now aims to launch a refined, more affordable version in coming years, with executives hinting at a price comparable to high-end smartphones and laptops.
Zuckerberg views AR glasses as critical to Meta's future, potentially freeing the company from its reliance on smartphone platforms controlled by Apple and Google. The push into AR hardware comes as tech giants and startups intensify competition in the space, with Apple launching Vision Pro and Google partnering with Magic Leap and Samsung on headset development.
Despite technological advances, Meta has shelved Orion's commercial release, citing manufacturing complexities and costs reaching $10,000 per unit, primarily due to difficulties in producing the silicon carbide lenses. The company now aims to launch a refined, more affordable version in coming years, with executives hinting at a price comparable to high-end smartphones and laptops.
Zuckerberg views AR glasses as critical to Meta's future, potentially freeing the company from its reliance on smartphone platforms controlled by Apple and Google. The push into AR hardware comes as tech giants and startups intensify competition in the space, with Apple launching Vision Pro and Google partnering with Magic Leap and Samsung on headset development.
beam graphics directly into the wearer's eyes (Score:4, Insightful)
that sounds ominous.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd certainly NOT be the first one in line to test this product out....my eyes are bad enough due to nature, haha.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Nothing new. Magic leap already does this.
Re: (Score:3)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re: beam graphics directly into the wearer's eyes (Score:2)
How does a reflective pane help? If it's not reflective enough to let the device harm you if it would have directly then it's not reflective enough to function either.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
with light sources that wouldn't be strong enough to harm you directly
Re: (Score:2)
It's called light, it is beamed into your eyes all day long.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Sing it!
"Blinded by the light
Revved up by the douche, another Zuck-up in the night...
Re: (Score:2)
that sounds ominous.
President Skroob: I don't know about this beaming stuff? Is it safe?
Commanderette Zircon: Oh yes, sir. Snotty beamed me twice last night. It was wonderful.
Oh, Ok Then (Score:2)
Yeah, let's pin our company's future on betting on people buying droves of $10K specialty devices instead of the already-established common (pocket-carryable) $300 - $1K devices.
You know what? Let 'em. I hope that company disappears and is never heard from again.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, this, too, will fail. An initial rush will find it as wanting as other AR releases. Tim Cook will snicker. A thousand more coders will be laid off.
Meta was about AR. Their "AI" progresses. Neither will make them much money, despite trying to grow cash cows.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is about appeal, content variety and cost, applications, safety, and moving the herd to AR after so many failed attempts.
This, too, will fail.
Into the future, there are possible compelling applications and content streams, but it's a long time from 2024. Billions have been burned to a crisp in the quest for AR, a solution looking for a problem. It's niche, like watches and wearables and "health" products. There is no breakout app, no must-have, no compelling reason to buy, even at the lowered price and
Re: (Score:2)
"a solution looking for a problem"
Sorry, but you have to be incredibly unimaginative to believe this. Personally, I don't want AR only glasses but VR+MR. Shades can tint, so I think there is hope.
In any case, your phone stops having a screen, it just sits in your pocket and provides the cpu/gpu for the glasses. I think the controller ends up being fingerless gloves and gestures myself combined with LLM backed voice control but neutral control isn't off the table.
This doesn't work with your glasses, it appli
Re: (Score:2)
Your personal experience, while important, is anecdotal. You're not the market. Your libido and addictive gaming is not the bulk and bell curve of the marketplace.
You're certainly a candidate; but your circumstances aren't representative of the world at large, or even a sustainable marketplace to expand the requisite associated business model.
The experiences you theorize are interesting, but other questions like privacy, barriers of intimacies/shared experience, and many more questions have not been solved,
Re: (Score:1)
"Your personal experience, while important, is anecdotal. You're not the market. Your libido and addictive gaming is not the bulk and bell curve of the marketplace."
These products have been successful in the marketplace. Have they been successful relative to what it has cost to develop the tech? No, but they are successful relative to their cost to produce and the own all that development cost means owning most of the IP of tech which will undeniably be the future.
Libido is DEFINITELY the bulk of market dem
Re: (Score:2)
What are you, a sour VC? Billions have been burned, and so has the public.
Libido is a great feed for the market, but it cannot compel it. There are many that don't feed on your hourly dose of testosterone. Compared to health watches, there's actually a non-libidinous purpose for health watches. Porn's not going to drive it.
And your own anecdotal circumstances have not read the market, which has snored every time a new product is release, fails, and the market moves on, absent compelling reason to spend mone
Re: (Score:1)
"You know what? Let 'em. I hope that company disappears and is never heard from again."
I don't because the Quest lines has brought us amazing advancements in VR and MR technology. I don't want to see them drop the VR side though, it definitely has it's uses.
Oh boy, no one here has a clue (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, I read your comments in here, and I saw the presentation - obviously no one here did, so let me explain the tech for you:
They have done something vastly different from most AR glasses, they use refractive glasses that has small mirrors in it (cut into the glass, thousands of them) with miniature projectors that beams the light into the refractive surfaces (the small cut out mirrors).
You can imagine this as a sort of "reflex" structure, the same one you wear in the dark. It's almost a bit similar to DLR projectors, but each mirror-chip will project onto its own refractive surface recepient inside the glasses themselves (nothing will be projected into your eyes, don't worry!).
This will def. change the way we use AR forever, it's actually a clever design.
Re: (Score:3)
Nope.
It won't change a thing if production costs can't be reduced from $10k a unit.
Give it 10 years and maybe, but by then I'm sure we'll have a more creative solution that works better.
This feels a bit brute force to me.
cyborg future (Score:2)
Are you a wannabe cyborg? Then we've got just the thing for you, get ready for all of the strange reactions from others that you can handle.
Oh brother (Score:2)
When are these tech bro asshats going to give up on AR? The amount of money wasted on this shit is criminal.
Re: (Score:3)
It's their money and they can do what they want with it. Just like you can not spend your money on this.
AR's the way (Score:3)
The lure of augmented senses is strong. The problem is privacy, because you can't do much augmenting without environmental sensors (primarily cameras, but also microphones and maybe other things too). Those sensors are useless without a database and a processor. And inevitably there will be long term storage.
So I really, really want glasses that remind me of who I just ran into might be, and jog my memory about things I might want to discuss with them. On the other hand, I want to be the only one with such technology, because there's nobody else I trust with it.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be happy with a much simpler device. A monochrome display, generated by my phone, and long battery life. No cameras, no accelerometers, no orientation sensors.
Just show me some occasional info in my eyeline, when navigating or following instructions. Maybe some weather alert notifications, or just the name of who is calling/messaging so I can decide if I want to ignore them.
It's the same deal as smart watches. I much prefer a much simpler fitness band with a two week battery life and just the key featur
Re: (Score:2)
A HUD, not AR, then.
Yes, that has it's place. Keeping a decent colour display and making it context-aware would be better, though - imagine when you're within Bluetooth range of your car, you get your instrument cluster floating in front of your eyes. When at home, your security system offers you a video feed when there's motion at your front door.
I'd probably want to limit email, SMS and other notifications, though. That'll drive you nuts with distraction after a while.
Re: (Score:2)
I think I'd want to limit it to stuff that I need to do hands free, and which is unobtrusive. For the car I'd worry about issues with having to refocus my eyes. Hud projected on the windscreen, or just a decent speedo would be fine. It's amazing how most cars have crap speedos, in an age where they can be pretty much anything thanks to digital instrument clusters.
Re: (Score:2)
You can buy an HUD for your car that plugs into the OBD2 port and sits on top of your dash. It glows upwards, and you view the reflection in a partially reflective translucent panel that sticks to the inside of the windshield.
A fun toy, but overall a cheap one that isn't quite as good as you'd imagined when you bought it.
10 grand? (Score:2)
I'll just buy three Apple Vision Pro instead.
rage i has it (Score:2)
"Zuckerberg imagines that people will want to use AR glasses like Orion for two primary purposes:"
- Making people's legs disappear. He's terrified of legs.
- Replacing entire people with goofy cartoonish avatars.
That way you won't know if you're interacting with a human or with AI, because both look stupid.
“I had thought that the hologram part of this was going to be possible before AI,” he tells me. “It’s an interesting twist of fate that the AI part is actually possible before the h
No, that's NOT oregano! (Score:2)
And what the hell kind of mushrooms are those?!