Meta's AR Glasses Prototype A Leap into the Future of Technology

TapTechNews July 2nd, last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly talked about the company's AR glasses prototype, which may make its debut at Meta Connect 2024 in September. He said early testers were "very excited" after trying out the prototype.

Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth talked about this AR glasses prototype again in an Instagram Q&A event, stating, "We've discussed this glasses before, and I completely agree with Zuckerberg. Showing the glasses to people outside the team and observing their reactions is truly very comforting, and the feedback is very positive."

"This is a full-featured AR glasses with a clear display and a wide field of view. Currently for internal use only and still in the prototype stage. It's like a 'time machine' to the future, and putting it on for the first time is one of the coolest things in my career. It's amazing and represents years of our efforts and huge investment." Bosworth added, "Now we have a developer platform, we can start building software, experiences and intuitively feel the different input modes of full-featured augmented reality, which is the future we've been striving to build."

It should be noted that 'time machine' is a term that Meta often uses to refer to prototypes, which are designed to give people a 'glimpse' into the future and are not for commercialization. In the past few years, Meta has shown many VR prototypes, and these machines will not be sold in prototype form but to show the effects of future VR functions such as variable focus lenses, retinal resolution, HDR, etc.

Meta's first true AR glasses have the code name "Orion." It is reported that due to the high manufacturing cost, Meta will only produce 1,000 units for internal use and developer testing. However, Meta is planning to use Orion to lay the software foundation for a commercial AR glasses named "Artemis," which is planned to be launched in 2027 and will have much fewer features than Orion.

TapTechNews noticed that Meta has set high expectations for this device. Bosworth called it "the most advanced product ever created by humans in the consumer electronics field," while AR glasses hardware lead Caitlin Kalinowski said the prototype would have the same impact as the Oculus Rift prototype back then.

Through Orion, Meta hopes to rekindle people's enthusiasm for AR glasses and prove to investors that billions of dollars in R & D investment have paid off.