Zuckerberg unveiled new AR glasses “Orion” and other innovations at Meta Connect
Date: 2024-09-26 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
At the annual Meta Connect conference, which was held on September 25 in California, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled “the most advanced smart glasses in the world” called Orion. These AR glasses have built-in miniature projectors that display virtual images directly on real objects, creating an augmented reality effect.
“At this point, I would call Orion a time machine,” Zuckerberg said, demonstrating the glasses. According to him, this device opens a window into the future, promising new possibilities in interacting with digital systems.
A special feature of the glasses is control by voice commands, as well as through a special “neural interface” - a bracelet that allows the user to make gestures to control applications on the glasses. The event featured a video of Zuckerberg and tech blogger Roberto Nixon playing virtual Pong and communicating via augmented reality video.
Zuckerberg emphasized that Orion represents a step away from traditional computers and smartphones, allowing users to interact with technology while remaining immersed in the real world.
In addition to Orion, Meta unveiled an updated version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses. They now support real-time AI features, including video calling and instant translation into multiple languages, including English, French, Italian, and Spanish.
Also unveiled at Meta Connect was a new, more affordable Quest 3S headset. It will retail for $299 for the 128GB version, a significant discount compared to the previous Quest 3 model, which costs $500 and is scheduled to be discontinued. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets will also be discontinued, but the 512GB version of the Quest 3 will remain on the market at a reduced price.
Meta also showed off an updated AI model, Llama 3.2. This version will allow developers to create more complex AI applications and better understand text and images. One of the new features is the addition of famous voices to Meta AI, including John Cena and Judi Dench. Users will now be able to interact with virtual assistants using these famous voices.
