Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrates Orion AR glasses during a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event held at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on September 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbergozo | Reuters
The most impressive aspects of Meta’s Orion augmented reality glasses have more to do with size and comfort than flashy computer graphics.
CNBC senior media and technology reporter Julia Boorstin was able to speak on Meta’s annual Connect conferenceshe was fascinated by the prototype’s compact form factor relative to the various Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro virtual reality headsets.
“What really struck me about these is how light they are,” Boorstin said.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the Orion glasses on Wednesday and described them as “a glimpse into what I think is going to be a very exciting future.” The glasses are black with thick frames and feature wireless “pucks” that allow the device to run applications such as digital chess or holographic games of table tennis, which appear as digital graphics spliced into the real world.
Experimental glasses are part of Zuckerberg multi-billion dollar plan Building the next generation of personal computing for the so-called Metaverse, Meta’s term to describe the way people interact online in virtual 3D spaces.
While Orion cannot place users in a completely virtual world, the glasses can overlay digital graphics onto the real world. Boorstin said that unlike wearing a VR headset for extended periods of time, she found the Orion glasses fit perfectly.
“This form factor is not significantly different from wearing a bulky pair of regular glasses, and it’s not uncomfortable to wear,” she said.
While the current iteration of the Orion AR glasses might make it into a movie prop in Revenge of the Nerds, Boorstin said she believes they will only get smaller as the technology improves.
“This is the first generation — four years from now, how much smaller will they be?” Boorstin said.
CNBC’s Julia Boorstin tries out Meta’s new Orion AR glasses on September 25, 2024.
Stephen DeSaulniers | CNBC
When wearing the AR glasses, Boorstin is able to see digital holograms showing visual icons for apps like Instagram and Facebook, as well as some additional features like browsers and video games, mixed with the environment in a small office at Meta’s headquarters. .
Boorstin saw these digital representations overlaid on top of her real-world surroundings. This is an improvement over the “pass-through” technology currently used in VR devices. For passthrough, the company uses a camera on the outside of the headset to show users a digital representation of the real world mixed with computer graphics through the device screen.
Orion can overlay digital imagery onto the real world using more expensive methods. Its lenses are not made from traditional glass or plastic, but from a refractive material called silicon carbide. When microprojectors built into Orion’s arms shine light into silicon carbide lenses, users can see “holograms” in their field of view, an experience that “feels completely normal and very natural,” Boorstin said.
When the holograms are turned off, Boorstin said, “it feels like wearing glasses or sunglasses without being distracting or nauseating.”
Boorstin is able to open, close and scroll through apps with the help of the wristband, which she says feels similar to older, lightweight Fitbit devices.
“The wristband senses your finger and hand movements so your hands are at your side,” Boorstin said, describing how her finger movements and hand gestures manipulate digital icons. “I was amazed at how accurate it was, that I could figure out these hand movements and that it captured them accurately.”
In one demonstration, Orion glasses were able to identify various food ingredients, such as chia seeds, spread out on a table. It then projects a suitable recipe, which appears digitally on top of the real-world seed. In another demo, Boorstin played a simple game of table tennis, with video game graphics projected onto a real-world table in front of her.
One demonstration that impressed her was when her face appeared digitally in front of her while her producer called from another room. Boorstin found the overall experience of the 3D video call “feeling very clear,” noting that the resolution of the graphics changed depending on where she placed it in her field of view. It was enough to make her question whether the producers could actually see her in real life, since he seemed to be right in front of her (he couldn’t).
“I could see him clearly, but he couldn’t see me,” Boorstin said. “But I could hear his voice, like I was on FaceTime with him, but he was in my glasses.”
Boorstin said that through experiencing Orion, she has a better understanding of how Meta’s research and development directly benefits the company’s other products, such as Quest headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses.
“They’re always trying to make these components smaller, smaller, more efficient, lighter,” she said.
