Key information
- Meta plans to add a display function to its Ray-Ban smart glasses as early as the end of 2025.
- The social media giant aims to integrate a small screen into its $300 sunglasses, currently produced in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica.
- Meta faces several challenges to develop fashionable augmented reality headsets with adequate performance, good battery life and affordable price.
Meta plans to introduce a display function in its Ray-Ban smart glasses as early as the end of 2025. The social media giant wants to integrate a small screen into its $300 sunglasses, currently produced in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica. This update could allow users to view notifications or interact with Meta's virtual assistant through the screen. This is what the Financial Times.
The move is part of Meta's broader strategy to move into wearable technology and augmented reality (AR). The company sees augmented reality as a potential successor to smartphones as consumers' primary computing device. Competitors such as Apple, Google and Snap are also actively engaged in developing similar products.
Accelerated development
Following positive reactions from the first testers, Meta accelerated the development of its AR glasses prototype, Orion. Although they are still several years away from being commercialized, the company has accelerated its plans to bring Orion to market.
Orion's compact design, lightweight frame and innovative displays, which overlay 3D content on the real world, have been hailed as revolutionary advancements in augmented reality headsets. These features help fill the gaps in products like Google-backed Magic Leap and Microsoft's Hololens.
Challenges ahead
Despite positive consumer reception to Ray-Ban Meta glasses launching in September 2023, which feature discreet speakers, cameras and microphones for music, photography and voice interactions with Meta's AI assistant , the first display version will probably show basic text and images. This is an important step towards Meta's long-term vision of AR glasses capable of displaying a virtual world overlaid on the real world.
Meta faces several challenges to develop fashionable augmented reality headsets with adequate performance, good battery life and affordable price. Supply chain constraints are also a significant obstacle. One of Orion's key innovations is the use of silicon carbide lenses, which create a larger, brighter image for users than conventional glass lenses. However, the high cost and limited manufacturing scale of these lenses pose a barrier to mass production without compromising Orion's visual capabilities.
Industry Progress
Experts believe that products such as Ray-Ban's Meta glasses and Apple's Vision Pro are gradually making consumers more comfortable with the concept of smart headsets, overcoming the difficulties faced by Google Glass ago. about ten years.
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