By Carsten Krause – September 26, 2024

In a world where augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR) are rapidly evolving, Meta has unveiled its first true AR glasses, Orion. With a design philosophy reminiscent of the earlier Google Glass, Orion takes smart glasses technology into uncharted territory. However, unlike Apple’s Vision Pro, you can’t rush out to buy these new AR glasses just yet.

A Look Back: Google Glass and AR’s Journey

When Google Glass launched over a decade ago, it set the stage for AR’s potential. By beaming heads-up display information directly into the wearer’s line of sight, Google envisioned a world of hands-free access to digital information. While it never became a mainstream success, Google Glass was a bold experiment that shaped the direction of wearable technology. Now, Meta is carrying that torch forward with Orion, aiming to address the limitations and shortcomings of earlier attempts at AR eyewear.

Meta’s previous venture into the smart glasses space with its Ray-Ban Stories was relatively low-key, offering users the ability to take photos and use an AI assistant, but Orion is an entirely different beast. It represents a deeper, more immersive leap into AR, which could set the course for the future of both consumer and enterprise-level augmented reality.

Key Features of Meta’s Orion AR Glasses

Cutting-Edge Technology and Design

Orion AR glasses leverage microLED projectors that cast images onto optical-grade silicon carbide—a significant upgrade over the glass or plastic used by earlier devices. The result is a remarkably immersive AR experience with a 70-degree field of view (FoV). For comparison, that’s much broader than Google Glass or many current AR glasses, which often provide a narrower, less immersive view of the augmented world.

The sleek frame of the glasses is made from magnesium, keeping them lightweight yet durable. Inside, custom silicon runs the AI and AR experiences, with Meta designing the glasses to consume less power and generate less heat. This is critical for a product meant to be worn for long periods of time, aiming to strike a balance between performance and comfort.

The Compute Puck and EMG Wristband

One of the unique aspects of Orion is Meta’s decision to decouple some of the computing power from the glasses themselves. Orion’s AR capabilities are supported by a wireless compute puck—a separate device that handles much of the app logic and complex processing. Meanwhile, the EMG (electromyography) wristband is designed to enable gestures like swiping and clicking, making interaction with the glasses intuitive and fluid.

The glasses themselves are responsible for managing hand tracking, eye tracking, and AR world-locking, all while displaying sharp AR visuals. By offloading some of the computational workload to external devices, Meta is able to keep the glasses’ form factor manageable without sacrificing performance.

Meta AI Integration

Meta’s foray into AI has played a crucial role in the development of Orion. With Meta AI running on the glasses, they can recognize objects you are looking at and offer contextual information and interaction options. The AI is powered by the Llama model, which is also found in the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. This AI integration demonstrates Meta’s vision of making AR not just a visual augmentation, but an interactive digital assistant seamlessly integrated into your daily life.

Imagine taking hands-free video calls, sending messages on WhatsApp, or multitasking with several AR windows open—no laptop required. The glasses allow users to interact with the real world and the virtual world simultaneously, creating a unique and practical AR experience.

What You Can (and Can’t) Do with Orion

While Meta Orion shows significant promise, it’s still more of a prototype than a finished consumer product. Some of the features Meta has demonstrated include:

• Hands-free communication: Take video calls, send messages via WhatsApp and Messenger, and stay connected without needing to pull out your phone.
• Shared AR experiences: Play AR games or collaborate with colleagues using virtual tools, all within a mixed reality space.
• Multitasking in AR: Instead of toggling between tabs on a computer, users can open multiple AR windows at once, moving seamlessly between tasks in the virtual space.

However, there’s still plenty of work to be done. Meta acknowledges several challenges, including optimizing display quality, improving the form factor, and bringing down production costs to make Orion accessible to a broader audience. But these challenges are not unique to Meta—most AR pioneers have struggled to solve the same issues, including Microsoft with its HoloLens.

Challenges Ahead

Despite the buzz, Meta’s Orion AR glasses are still facing several hurdles before they can be a commercial reality. Meta has stated that they are working on refining the display quality to make it even sharper, reducing the overall size of the device, and eventually driving down the cost of production to make it affordable for consumers.

For now, Orion remains a “polished product prototype” rather than a research concept, but Meta has yet to reveal any details about pricing or availability. In essence, it’s a sneak peek at what the future of AR could look like, but one that’s still just out of reach.

A Comparison with Apple’s Vision Pro and other glasses

It’s impossible to discuss Meta’s Orion AR glasses without drawing comparisons to Apple’s Vision Pro, which has garnered significant attention. Unlike Orion, Apple’s Vision Pro is already available (though at a premium price), allowing customers to experience XR technology today.

While Apple’s XR headset is built to create fully immersive experiences, Meta is positioning Orion as a more practical and lightweight alternative for everyday AR interactions. Orion’s design aims to blur the lines between the real and digital worlds subtly, whereas Apple’s Vision Pro seems more focused on enveloping the user in a virtual environment.

Meta’s approach might be seen as more pragmatic, particularly for users who want AR without losing touch with the physical world around them. However, without a price or release date, it’s hard to determine how competitive Orion will be in the burgeoning AR/XR market.

Feature	Meta Orion AR	Apple Vision Pro	Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2	Microsoft HoloLens 2	Magic Leap 2	Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Display Technology

MicroLED projectors on silicon carbide

Dual micro OLED displays

Optical head-mounted display

Holographic lenses with laser projection

MicroLED

No display (camera and voice assistant only)

Field of View (FoV)

70°

120°

80°

52°

70°

N/A

Input Method

EMG wristband, gestures

Eye-tracking, hand gestures, voice

Touchpad, voice commands, head movements

Hand gestures, eye-tracking, voice commands

Hand gestures, voice, controller

Voice commands, touch control on frame

Processor

Custom silicon + wireless compute puck

M2 chip, R1 chip

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850

AMD x86 architecture

Qualcomm Snapdragon chip

Operating System

Meta OS with AI capabilities

visionOS

Android-based

Windows Mixed Reality

Proprietary OS

Meta OS

Key Applications

AR gaming, multitasking, Meta AI assistant

Immersive media, XR collaboration, multitasking

Enterprise-focused, remote support

Enterprise solutions, healthcare, manufacturing

Enterprise, collaboration, design

Hands-free media capture, messaging, and voice assistant

AI Integration

Meta AI (Llama model)

Siri and Apple AI

Google Assistant

Custom AI for enterprise solutions

Custom AI integration

Meta AI Assistant

Connectivity

Wireless compute puck, Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3

Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth

Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

Weight

~300g (estimate)

680g

51g

566g

260g

49g

Battery Life

Unknown

2 hours (external battery)

8 hours

2-3 hours

~3.5 hours

6 hours

Price

Not available

$3,499 Apple Vision Pro

$999 Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2

$3,500 Microsoft HoloLens 2

$3,299 Magic Leap 2

$299 Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Availability

Prototype phase

Available (2024)

Available (enterprise-only)

Available (enterprise-only)

Available (enterprise-only)

Available

This table highlights the most advanced AR and XR devices from leading tech companies. While some devices, like the Apple Vision Pro and Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, are available now, others, like Meta’s Orion AR, remain in the prototype stage. Enterprise users will likely find robust solutions in the Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap 2, while consumers have fewer affordable options for now.

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses focus more on casual, everyday applications, offering a lightweight form factor with a built-in camera and voice assistant. While not designed for full AR experiences like Meta Orion or Apple Vision Pro, these smart glasses are an accessible introduction to wearable tech for hands-free communication and content capture. They come at a significantly lower price point compared to the other options, making them more consumer-friendly but without immersive AR capabilities.

The market for AR and XR devices is maturing rapidly, but it remains to be seen when affordable, consumer-friendly AR glasses will become mainstream.

Privacy Concerns and Opt-in Functionality

As much as the potential of Meta’s Orion AR glasses excites me, the privacy implications are bound to set off alarm bells for regulators and privacy advocates alike—count me in as one of them. The idea of digitizing people, scanning environments, and pulling up information at the edge or in Meta’s cloud raises significant concerns. In fact, I just wrote an article at CDO TIMES about training AI resistance and the regulatory challenges Europe is facing with public data usage. I’m sure that GDPR regulators will have a field day with AR tech like this.

Think about it: if you’re walking around with these glasses, particularly in regions like Europe or California, you’ll theoretically need to ask everyone for consent. “Is it okay to look at you because my glasses might upload data to Meta’s cloud, analyzing who you are and retrieving information about you?” In a world of stricter privacy laws, this could turn casual social interactions into a logistical nightmare.

But as a glass-half-full person, I see a path forward. If the technology brings enough value, I’m willing to trade some personal information in exchange for its benefits and become “AI scannable”—if that’s even a term. However, the key here is control. Perhaps a business model will emerge where users can opt-in to share specific information about themselves, rather than letting AI crawl the web for whatever it can find. For instance, I might be okay with allowing Meta access to my professional LinkedIn profile or showcasing certain achievements, but I’d want a clear option to turn it off when I’m not in “public mode.”

Imagine a simple slider button on LinkedIn that lets you activate or deactivate visibility based on context. Want to turn off the AI scan when you’re out for an evening walk? Just slide it off. This would balance the cool factor of the technology with the need for privacy and control, making AR less invasive and more acceptable to the public, particularly in highly regulated environments.

The future of AR might depend not only on its technological advancements but also on how well it can navigate the complex waters of privacy and regulation.

The Future of AR Wearables

Meta’s Orion glasses are a clear sign that AR is moving forward, not just as a tech demo but as a viable future computing platform. The key question is when consumers will actually be able to buy such products at a reasonable price point. AR has always had the potential to reshape industries, from manufacturing to education, and even everyday life, but it has yet to reach a tipping point.

Meta seems to understand that for AR to be successful, it needs to go beyond novelty. Orion’s focus on practicality and comfort could give it an edge over previous AR attempts, provided Meta can address its current challenges and bring the product to market.

The CDO TIMES Bottom Line

Meta’s Orion AR glasses may not be available to consumers yet, but they represent a significant step forward in the evolution of AR wearables. With microLED projectors, a wireless compute puck, and a gesture-based EMG wristband, Meta is tackling some of the biggest challenges in augmented reality. While there’s still no word on pricing or availability, Orion is a promising prototype that could be the future of AR if Meta can solve its remaining issues. As more companies continue to explore the potential of AR, the competition is heating up, and Orion is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in this rapidly growing market.

Stay tuned for more updates on Meta Orion AR Glasses!

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