The headline for Meta’s new fully functional prototype, Orion (pronounced O-Ryan), basically writes itself.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the Meta Connect event today that the glasses are “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.” It’s a bold claim, but one that not many are quick to dismiss. After all, Meta is coming into Connect on a high note, having had success with last year’s Quest 3 and Ray-Ban smart glasses.
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In a sense, Orion is said to combine the best of both worlds, offering mixed reality-like computing similar to the Quest 3 in a lightweight, standardized form factor similar to Ray-Ban smart glasses. Zuckerberg set out five simple, yet technically advanced requirements when designing Orion.
- It’s not a headset, so there should be no wires or cables hanging down, and it should weigh less than 100 grams.
- The glasses require a holographic display with a wide field of view (FOV).
- Your display must be sharp enough to capture the details of the real world.
- The display must be bright enough to show the visual overlay regardless of the environment.
- AR projection requires the ability to display a cinema-style screen or multiple monitors.
Following these principles means that Orion applies holograms to your real-world vision, rather than capturing and re-imaging what’s in front of you (a process commonly known as pass-through). A big advantage of this technology is that it reduces latency (if there is any).
Being able to visualize incoming messages, video call feeds, and other important information while still paying attention to the real world solves one of the biggest social problems modern VR headsets like the Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro have.
“This is a big thing,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during a demo of Orion.
Meta
According to Meta, there are three ways to interact with Orion: voice with Meta AI, hand and eye tracking, and neural interface. The first two are pretty simple, but the third option is exactly what you need to stay in the prototype world. Orion works in conjunction with a wrist-worn neural interface that can register clicks, pinches, and thumb pushes as input.
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For example, you can make a fist and run your thumb over the surface to scroll through the user interface. CNET’s Scott SteinMeta claims that the wristband can last a full day of use before needing to be charged.
This is promising, as I prefer to gesture with my fingers as I walk around or sit down, rather than yelling at an invisible voice assistant or waving my arms around in public. Meta says Orion is powered by custom silicon and a suite of sensors, with the battery housed in the arms of the glasses.
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Zuckerberg said Orion offers a glimpse of the AR glasses of the future, but there’s still a lot to be done before consumers can buy them. Tuning the display system to make it clearer, miniaturizing the design to make it more fashionable and affordable are all aspects Meta’s CEO wants to develop further. Until it hits the mass market, Orion will be offered as a development kit, primarily for internal software development, but also to a few external partners.
Once complete, the glasses will be positioned as “Meta’s first fully holographic AR glasses for consumers,” Zuckerberg said.
