Orion is Meta's 'most advanced' AR glasses

Photo: Meta

One of Meta's ambitious hardware projects involves a pair of glasses. The company announced five years ago it was working on developing a pair of augmented reality frames. They wanted to bridge the physical and virtual worlds with what it claims is the "most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made." And today, they gave us a glimpse at the Orion prototype.

These chunky glasses resemble their Ray-Ban Metas, adding a digital display to these smart glasses. And they offer the widest field of view for AR glasses at the moment at 70 degrees.

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Qualcomm's new AR2 Gen 1 chip allows for slim AR glasses

Source: Qualcomm

Qualcomm has developed a new chip that should make it easier to make lightweight augmented reality glasses. The Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 processor features a multi-chip design that's said to deliver 2.5 times the AI performance of Qualcomm's XR2-based reference design while using half the power. This should allow the eyewear to intelligently detect objects in a room while keeping a slim and light form factor for hours of use.

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Leaked concept videos show Samsung's AR plans

Samsung's plans for augmented reality space are revealed in a couple of leaked videos on Twitter. WalkingCat, a known leaker of Samsung and Microsoft products, released two videos over the weekend. One is showing the "Glasses Lite," and another on "AR Glasses."

As 9to5Google points out, the videos look like internal concept videos rather than upcoming products. Don't expect these to magically appear on shelves soon.

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Report claims Facebook partners with Ray-Ban to develop smart glasses

Engadget

Where its competition has failed, Facebook is trying its luck. The social media company has reportedly partnered with Luxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban, to help with the development of its augmented reality glasses.  CNBC reported that the smart specs have been in development for years over at the Facebook Reality Labs in Redmond, Washington. But project Orion, as it's called, has faced a bunch of roadblocks. One of the problems is fitting the hardware into a device consumers would want to wear. And that is where Luxottica can help them.

Just like other AR glasses, these glasses will serve as an alternative to constantly checking on your mobile phone. It shows information like notifications and text messages on a small display in the lens. It could work with the voice assistant Facebook is developing. And it might be safe to assume Facebook would integrate some key features to access its site easily through these glasses. The earliest these glasses could hit consumers would be 2023. As for whether you would want one is an entirely different discussion altogether.

Source: Gizmodo