Mark Zuckerberg finally took the wraps off what Meta considers to be the Holy Grail of AR glasses.
The Orion holographic AR glasses, which debuted during Meta's Connect 2024 livestream, were formerly known as "Project Nazare," and the "True AR glasses" generated tons of interest even before being announced on Wednesday.
Meta considers Orion the "most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made" and while the prototype looks like a somewhat clunky pair of regular plastic-frame glasses, the AR device features two holographic lenses that can display both 2D and 3D content.
Here's everything you need to know about Orion and Meta's vision for mixed reality.
What are the Orion smart glasses?
Orion, a pair of fairly compact smart glasses, has support for gesture, voice, and eye-tracking control as well as a neural interface that uses a wristband to measure the correct biometric signals for truly hands-free and voice-free control.
The glasses combine several recent breakthroughs in "virtually every field of modern computing" according to Meta and hope to create the most seamless AR experience yet. Assuming, of course, that Meta can deliver on its lofty promises.
We've seen prototypes of Orion in action thanks to the Meta Connect stream, and Meta has put the device in the hands of employees and select members of the media.
The company is currently expanding the Orion test pool to seed it as a developer platform, so once the glasses (or a version of them) finally go on sale, it will launch with a fully populated ecosystem. The glasses will also be getting some hardware changes before the consumer launch to make the displays clearer and to make the glasses more affordable. We'll have to wait a bit before we see Orion on the shelves, but the glasses' appearance on the Meta Connect stream today is an indication that we may not be waiting for too long before we can experience a truly sci-fi AR experience.
And when you compare the Orion prototypes to the Apple Vision Pro and Snap's Spectacles AR Glasses, Orion feels like a clear win for Meta. It's not a headset, it has no wires, and you can take it anywhere. It's not bulky and the glasses look just a bit thicker than a pair you might wear normally for eye-correction or for the sake of pure fashion.
So, yeah. Meta's Orion is absolutely worth being excited over. We might finally get AR glasses that are useful, seamless, portable, and that look at least a little stylish.
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