Meta today unveiled a prototype of its first AR glasses, codenamed Orion. The glasses are impressively compact, have a class-leading field of view, but also rely on a wireless computing unit that fits in your pocket.
While Meta has been selling Ray-Ban smart glasses for several years, the company has never introduced a glasses-sized device with a screen until now.
Meta says it has been working on Orion for years, working to produce a truly glasses-sized product that retains the wide field of view and performance needed to run the display and operations.
The 70-degree field of view is allegedly class-leading for something in this form factor, but it’s still small compared to typical VR headsets. The company says that in order to achieve this wide field of view, it had to use silicon carbide for its lenses instead of glass or polymer. From the description, it appears that the Orion AR glasses use a diffractive waveguide with silicon carbide as the underlying medium. While other glasses use diffractive waveguides, using silicon carbide as the underlying medium provides a higher refractive index and allows light to be directed across a wider field of view.
Getting this neat glasses-sized device requires a bit of ‘trickery’—most of the headset’s processing power is channeled into a processing unit designed to fit in your pocket. But the company is not wireless This eliminates a major complaint: the annoying cable that has to run from the glasses to the disc.
The glasses are said to handle basic capabilities like head tracking, while the compute disk handles the processing of content. Offloading that processing power to the disk means the headset can not only be smaller, but also cooler, eliminating the key issue of heat dissipation in such a compact device.
And Orion leans on another device to complete the experience: a wristband packed with sensors. The EMG wristband can detect subtle movements of the user’s hand and fingers, providing precise input without requiring users to hold their hands in front of them.
Meta also makes sure that AI is integrated from the very beginning, allowing the Meta to provide similar functionality to the Ray-Ban, but with the advantage of a screen.
With a 70-degree field of view, immersive content isn't the focus. Instead, the core operating system and capabilities are geared mostly toward flat panels and spatial computing.
Meta clearly states that the Orion glasses are still just a prototype, but “not a prototype.” research This means the company actually thinks it could bring a similar device to market using these technologies. The company says it will use them mostly internally to continue improving the size, performance, and cost of the device.
“While Orion won't be in consumer hands, make no mistake: This is not a research prototype. It is the most polished product prototype we've ever developed, and is truly representative of something that could ship to consumers. Rather than rushing to get it on the shelves, we've decided to focus on internal development first, meaning we can continue to build rapidly and push the boundaries of technology and experiences,” the company wrote in its Orion announcement.