The headline for Meta's new fully functioning prototype, Orion (pronounced O-Ryan), basically writes itself. They're "the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during today's Meta Connect event. That's a bold claim but not one that many will quickly discredit.
After all, Meta is coming into Connect hot, having seen success with last year's Quest 3 and Ray-Ban smart glasses . Also: Everything announced at Meta Connect 2024: Affordable Quest 3, AR glasses, and more In some ways, Orion is the best of both worlds, supposedly offering mixed-reality-like computing similar to the Quest 3 in a light, normalized form factor akin to the Ray-Ban smart glasses. Zuckerberg set out five simple yet highly technical requirements when designing Orion: They can't be a headset, meaning there should be no wires or cables dangling off of them, and they should weigh less than 100 grams The glasses need holographic displays with a wide field-of-view (FOV).
The displays should be sharp enough to pick up details in the real world. The displays should be bright enough for visual overlays no matter what the environment is like. AR projections should be able to display a cinema-like screen or multiple monitors.
Following these principles means Orion applies holograms to your vision of reality instead of capturing and reimaging what's in front of you, a process commonly known as pass-through. The big benefit of this technology is the reduced latency, if any. Being .