July 03, 2024 – Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, publicly discussed the company’s AR glasses prototype, hinting at its possible debut at Meta Connect 2024 in September. According to Zuckerberg, early testers have expressed great excitement after trying out the prototype.
Echoing Zuckerberg’s sentiments, Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, spoke about the AR glasses prototype during an Instagram Q&A session. “We’ve discussed these glasses before, and I fully agree with Zuckerberg’s comments,” said Bosworth. “It’s really gratifying to show the glasses to people outside our team and observe their reactions, which have been very positive.”
Describing the prototype as a “fully functional AR glasses with a clear display and a wide field of view,” Bosworth emphasized that it’s currently for internal use only and still in the prototype phase. “It’s like a ‘time machine’ to the future,” he added. “Wearing it for the first time was one of the coolest things in my career. It’s amazing and represents years of hard work and huge investments.”
Bosworth further explained that with the developer platform they now have, they can start building software, experiencing, and intuitively feeling the different input modes of full-featured augmented reality, which is the future they’ve been striving to create.
It’s worth noting that “time machine” is a term Meta often uses to refer to prototype machines, which are designed to give people a “glimpse” into future technology and are not intended for commercialization. Over the past few years, Meta has showcased various VR prototypes that demonstrate future VR capabilities such as variable focus lenses, retinal resolution, and HDR, but these machines are not sold as prototypes.
Meta’s first true AR glasses, codenamed “Orion,” are reported to be produced in a limited quantity of 1,000 units due to high manufacturing costs, solely for internal use and developer testing. However, Meta plans to utilize Orion as the foundation for the software of a commercial AR glasses named “Artemis,” which is slated for release in 2027 and is expected to have a more streamlined functionality compared to Orion.
Bosworth described the prototype as “the most advanced product created in the consumer electronics field by humans so far,” while AR glasses hardware lead Caitlin Kalinowski stated that the prototype would bring a similar shocking effect as the Oculus Rift prototype did in the past.
Through Orion, Meta aims to reignite people’s enthusiasm for AR glasses and demonstrate to investors the fruitful results of its hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development investments.
