Recently, Meta introduced three new AI features to its Ray-Ban smart glasses: real-time AI conversation, real-time translation, and Shazam’s music recognition.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Meta plans to add displays to Ray-Ban smart glasses to compete with smart glasses manufacturers like Apple and Google. These displays will show notifications or interact with the Meta AI virtual assistant.
This update is a collaboration between Meta and eyewear company EssilorLuxottica. The updated Ray-Ban smart glasses are expected to be released in the second half of 2025.
Although the first version of the display may only show some simple text or images, it will be an important step towards achieving Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s long-term goal for augmented reality (AR) glasses. Zuckerberg hopes it will become “the next computing platform.
In 2021, Meta launched its first Ray-Ban smart glasses, “Ray-Ban Stories.” From September 2021 to February 2023, about 300,000 pairs of these glasses were sold, with 27,000 monthly active users, less than 10% of the sales volume. Overall, the market performance of the first-generation product was not ideal.
However, after the new version of these glasses was launched in September 2023, it unexpectedly received a warm welcome from consumers. Data shows that the new generation product launched by Meta in October 2023 exceeded the total sales of the previous generation within a few months.
Currently, Ray-Ban smart glasses are equipped with in-ear speakers, a camera, and a microphone, allowing users to listen to music, take photos, and have voice conversations with Meta’s virtual assistant.
Michael Miller, head of hardware at augmented reality game developer Niantic, stated that these lightweight glasses “can be quite fun and useful even without a display.”
Engadget editor Lawrence Bonk said he “really likes the simplicity of the current design” and hopes “the addition of a display won’t interfere with this simplicity.” He also believes Ray-Ban smart glasses are the “perfect device for capturing pets.”
In addition to quickly updating Ray-Ban smart glasses, Meta is also accelerating the development of another AR smart glasses called “Orion.” Orion is currently in the prototype stage, but Meta has already planned to turn it into a “consumer product.”
Unlike Ray-Ban smart glasses, Orion was designed with a display solution using MicroLED and diffractive waveguide lenses, and it uses innovative but “expensive” silicon carbide lenses. These lenses can provide users with a field of view up to 70 degrees, which is almost the “widest field of view” among similar products.
Due to the high cost and manufacturing difficulty of silicon carbide lenses, Miller stated that the way to commercialize Orion is to “narrow the field of view,” that is, to replace the silicon carbide material with more common glass material.
In 2024, the shipment volume of wearable glasses products increased by 73%. Experts say that products like Ray-Ban smart glasses and Apple Vision Pro are gradually making consumers accept the concept of “smart headwear devices,” so the sales growth is not surprising.
Additionally, Meta’s Quest 3S VR headset performed strongly during the 2024 “Black Friday” sales. It is worth noting that Meta’s department responsible for developing Ray-Ban smart glasses and the Quest series VR headsets, “Reality Labs,” has been operating at a loss since its establishment in 2020.
Meta’s Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth believes that Meta’s VR hardware and AI glasses products are already quite mature, and he is therefore full of expectations for the future, stating that 2025 will be the “most important” year in Reality Labs’ history.
Source from ifanr
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