Meta launches Orion: augmented reality glasses that promise to replace cell phones

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has taken another bold step into the world of technology. At this year’s Connect event, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Orion, the company’s first pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses, formerly known as Project Nazare. With an industry-leading field of view, silicon carbide lenses, complex waveguides and μLED projectors, the Orion represents Meta’s most advanced and sophisticated product prototype to date.

What is Orion?

Orion is a pair of smart glasses that offers an immersive augmented reality (AR) experience without the limitations of a smartphone. With it, you can:

• Create holographic screens: Imagine having a giant screen floating in front of you, displaying your favorite apps, videos or documents.
• Interact with the digital world: The glasses allow you to touch and manipulate virtual objects as if they were real, opening up new possibilities for games, design and productivity.
• Make video calls: Chat with your friends and family as if you were in the same room, even if you’re thousands of kilometers away.
• Access information in real time: Receive notifications, translations and other relevant information directly on your glasses.

How does it work?

The technology behind Orion is impressive. Micro-projectors integrated into the glasses create high-quality holograms, projecting images directly onto the lenses. Contextual artificial intelligence allows the glasses to anticipate your needs and offer personalized suggestions.

Impressive technological innovations

Orion has a field of vision of approximately 70 degrees, the largest ever achieved in an Augmented Reality glasses format. This opens up possibilities for immersive experiences, from multi-window multitasking to life-size holograms of people, integrating digital content naturally into the physical environment.

To achieve this, Meta has implemented a number of innovations:

• Silicon Carbide Lenses: A new application of this material in AR glasses, providing lightness, high refractivity and eliminating optical artifacts or stray light.
• Complex Waveguides: 3D nanoscale structures that diffract light to achieve the desired wide field of view.
• μLED Projectors: Extremely small and energy-efficient display technology, enabling exceptional clarity and brightness.
• Compact and Elegant Design: Built with magnesium frames, the same material used in Formula 1 cars and spaceships, ensuring rigidity and thermal efficiency.
• Seven Integrated Cameras and Sensors**: Discreetly incorporated into the edges of the frame, they enable eye tracking, hand tracking and advanced spatial perception.

Natural and Intuitive Interaction

One of the Orion’s outstanding features is its input and interaction system. Combining voice, gaze tracking and hand movements, the glasses come with an electromyography (EMG) bracelet that allows the user to swipe, click and scroll with ease, while keeping the arm comfortably supported.

The EMG bracelet detects electrical signals generated by the smallest muscle movements of the hands. A machine learning processor interprets these signals to produce input events that are transmitted wirelessly to the glasses. This enables subtle and almost imperceptible interactions, making the wearing experience fluid and natural.

Challenges overcome and the way forward

Developing Orion was no simple task. Meta faced significant challenges in miniaturizing the necessary technology into a compact glasses format. According to the company, there was less than a 10% chance of success in this endeavor.

Some of the main challenges included:

• Heating and Cooling: Without the possibility of using fans in such a small device, Meta employed materials similar to those used by NASA to cool satellites in space.
• Custom Silicon: The company built highly specialized, energy-efficient chips optimized for AI, machine perception and graphics, significantly reducing power consumption and heat generation.
• Optical Precision: Optical precision had to be maintained at a tenth of the thickness of a human hair, digitally correcting any misalignment in milliseconds.

Availability and Next Steps

Although Orion is not yet available to the general public, Meta is opening up access to the prototype to employees and selected external audiences. The aim is to learn, iterate and develop an Augmented Reality glasses product line for consumers, planned to be commercialized in the near future.

The company is focused on:

• Improving Display Quality: Making images even sharper and more realistic.
• Optimizing Design: Further reducing size and weight for more comfortable use.
• Scale up Production: Make the glasses more affordable through large-scale production.

Orion innovations are already being applied to current products such as the Meta Quest 3S, and technologies such as the subtle gesture input system and EMG wristbands are being explored for future consumer devices.

Industry prospects

Augmented Reality glasses are seen as the next big leap in human-oriented computing. They promise to seamlessly integrate contextual AI, provide limitless digital experiences and maintain genuine human interaction by allowing people to see each other’s faces and expressions.

Meta’s launch of Orion represents a significant milestone on this path, offering a glimpse of a future in which there will be no need to choose between the physical and digital worlds.

Note: Orion is still in the prototype stages and there is no exact release date for the general public.However, Meta reaffirms its commitment to continue innovating and pushing technological boundaries to make this vision a reality accessible to all.