Meta Announces Orion, Real Brain-Powered AR Glasses in a Tiny Package

During Wednesday’s Meta Connect event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the Orion glasses, which he described as “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.”

The glasses, which are noticeably smaller than Snap’s recently announced Spectacles 5, are true AR. Orion uses tiny designs built into the arms of the glasses to create a heads-up display; think 2024’s version of Google Glass.

The glasses, which Zuckerberg said have been working on for a decade, don’t appear to be too far beyond the conceptual stage at this point. “These glasses exist, they’re amazing, and they’re a glimpse of the future that I think is going to be exciting,” the executive noted during the presentation. He added that the team still has a lot of “fine tuning” to do before Meta is ready to turn them into an official consumer product.

It’s worth noting that in addition to the standard voice prompts, Orion will be controlled via a “neural interface.” This will be possible thanks to Meta’s 2019 acquisition of CTRL-Labs, which makes a wristband compatible with the devices.

The company is positioning the upcoming glasses as a sort of successor to its current live-streaming product, the Meta Ray-Bans. It notes,

But while Ray-Ban Meta opened up a whole new category of displayless, AI-powered glasses, the XR industry has long dreamed of true AR glasses—a product that combines the benefits of a large holographic display and personalized AI assistance in a convenient, all-day package. Orion is up to the challenge.

There are a lot of claims being made at the moment, like “Orion has the largest field of view in the smallest form factor of AR glasses to date,” but it’s far too early to give any details at this point. However, this could be seen as a dig at the new Spectacles, which are incredibly large and have a very narrow field of view.

“This field of view opens up truly immersive use cases for Orion, from multitasking windows and big-screen entertainment to life-size holograms of people,” Meta notes, “all digital content that can seamlessly merge with your view of the physical world.”

One key thing Orion does share something with the new Spectacles in that they’ll initially be available only to developers. That’s a common move in this world, of course. Companies treat these announcements as a kind of proof of concept to get people building on the platform.

The Ray-Ban Meta has been a surprise hit for the company, especially given the steady, if slow, growth around the Quest line. If the product sticks to the demos, it’s hard to accuse Zuckerberg of overreaching when compared to products like the Snapchat Spectacles on one hand and the Apple Vision Pro on the other.

The recent addition of Meta AI to Ray-Bans could also be seen as a stepping stone to fully realized augmented reality glasses. Features like translation and navigation would be even more powerful with a visual element in the game.

Not surprisingly, there were some obstacles along the way. According to one recent report, Orion cost about $10,000 to build per unit. We know Meta is used to losing money on Quest headsets, but not this much.

The same report also suggested that Meta will ship a version of the glasses with a much smaller HUD display, along with a wrist strap, ahead of the Orion’s launch.

“You can expect to see new devices from us in the next few years that build on our R&D efforts,” Meta writes. “Orion isn’t just a window into the future—it’s a glimpse into the very real possibilities that are within reach today. From Ray-Ban Meta to Orion, we’ve seen the power of enabling people to be more present and empowered in the physical world while also taking advantage of everything the digital world has to offer.”