Facebook working on smart glasses with Ray-Ban, code-named ‘Orion’

guest · Sep 17, 2019

Facebook enlists Ray-Ban to help develop ‘Orion’ smart glasses, a secret project underway for years
September 17, 2019
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/fac...maker-luxottica-to-make-orion-ar-glasses.html

Facebook has been working to develop augmented reality glasses out of its Facebook Reality Labs in Redmond, Washington, for the past couple of years, but struggles with the development of the project have led the company to seek help.
Now, Facebook is hoping a partnership with Ray-Ban parent company Luxottica will get them completed and ready for consumers between 2023 and 2025, according to people familiar.

The glasses are internally codenamed Orion, and they are designed to replace smartphones, the people said. The glasses would allow users to take calls, show information to users in a small display and live-stream their vantage point to their social media friends and followers.
Given the long lead time, there’s no guarantee that the glasses will be completed on time or ever ship.
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The Verge: Facebook is reportedly teaming up with Ray-Ban on its smart AR glasses

CNBC stated that Facebook partnered with popular eyewear brand Luxottica, makers of Ray-Ban glasses, to bring them to market in the next few years, possibly between 2023 and 2025. A recent post by The Information claims that Ray-Ban will be directly involved, but the fruits of its collaboration with Facebook won’t be seen on “Orion,” but on a completely different set of smart glasses, codenamed “Stella.”
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guest · Mar 30, 2020

Facebook and Plessey pair on consumer AR glasses with microLED screens
March 30, 2020
https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/30/...on-consumer-ar-glasses-with-microled-screens/

[...] U.K.-based display maker Plessey announced today that it’s working with Facebook to create “new technologies for potential use in the AR/VR space,” notably including consumer AR displays.
The deal between Plessey and Facebook isn’t an acquisition, but rather a dedication of Plessey’s LED manufacturing operations to Facebook’s use.

Early AR displays have struggled to produce eye-filling, bright, and colorful visuals, instead “augmenting” only a postage stamp-like box within the user’s field of view, but Plessey says its CMOS-based RGB displays combine high pixel density and very high brightness, delivering low power consumption despite high frame rates.
According to earlier reports, Facebook is working on both an all-day AR wearable as its long-term vision — potentially for release between 2023 and 2025 — and an interim alternative that will fill the gap until the complete solution is ready for release.
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The company is said to be working with glasses maker Luxottica on fashionable frames, and its top researchers expect AR technology to become one of the key transformational technologies of the next 50 years.
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Plessey: microLED display developer to work with Facebook

United Kingdom: Monday 30th March 2020: Plessey, an embedded technologies developer at the forefront of microLED technology for augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) display applications, is today sharing news of an exciting new venture.
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guest · Sep 16, 2020

Facebook teaming up with Ray-Ban maker for first smart glasses in 2021
Facebook and Luxottica will make the glasses as part of a multiyear partnership
September 16, 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/zuc...st-pair-of-smart-glasses-with-luxottica-.html

Facebook on Wednesday announced a partnership with Luxottica, the maker of Ray-Ban, to release its first pair of smart glasses in 2021.

“After spending time with their team and visiting their factory, I knew that they were the right partner for us to help bring the best technology together with the best glasses,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a live stream from Facebook Connect, the company’s online event for its virtual and augmented reality products.
Facebook and Luxottica will make the glasses as part of a multiyear partnership. The pairing of the two companies was first reported by CNBC last year.
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Zuckerberg also announced that the company plans to release Project Aria, a research device that the company will use to learn as it develops its consumer smart glasses.

Project Aria glasses will be worn by Facebook employees and contractors around the company’s campus and in public starting in September, said Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, Facebook’s head of hardware.

“It’s a research device that will help us understand how to build the software and hardware necessary for real, working AR glasses,” Bosworth said.
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Beyond thrilled to finally share a sneak peek of our Facebook partnership with Ray-Ban! Our first smart glasses will launch next year, and that’s just the beginning… The future will be a classic and it's coming in 2021 pic.twitter.com/l9992ZQGoy
— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) September 16, 2020
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EssilorLuxottica: Facebook and EssilorLuxottica Announce Collaboration for Smart Glasses
Facebook: Announcing Project Aria: a research project on the future of wearable AR

guest · Jan 6, 2021

Facebook's smart glasses to arrive this year sans AR overlay tech
Traditional augmented reality is in a holding pattern for now
January 5, 2021
https://www.techspot.com/news/88192-facebook-smart-glasses-arrive-year-sans-ar-overlay.html

In brief: Facebook’s upcoming smart glasses are set to arrive “sooner than later” this year but they will be missing a key feature often associated with such wearables. Instead, it sounds as if the social networking leader is content to take its time and let AR mature a bit before adopting the tech.

Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president of virtual reality and augmented reality, suggested to Bloomberg that the glasses, which are being built in collaboration with Luxottica Group subsidiary Ray-Ban, won’t overlay digital objects over the real world.

“These are certainly connected glasses, they are certainly providing a lot of functionality, [but] we’re being quite coy about which functionality precisely we are providing,” Bosworth said. The executive noted that they are excited about the product but don’t want to over-hype it.
“We’re not even calling it augmented reality, we’re just calling it ‘smart glasses,’” Bosworth added.
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guest · Jul 29, 2021

Facebook's next product will be its long-awaited Ray-Ban smart glasses
The device is part of its plans to become a "metaverse company."
July 29, 2021
https://www.engadget.com/facebook-ray-ban-smart-glasses-100518155.html

Facebook's booming business is dominated by digital ads, but it also has hardware ambitions beyond VR. During the company's latest earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said its next product release would be a pair of smart glasses from Ray-Ban.

"The glasses have their iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things," the Facebook co-founder said. "So I'm excited to get those into people's hands and to continue to make progress on the journey toward full augmented reality glasses in the future."
Facebook's sunglasses have been the subject of rumors since 2019. Back then, sources told CNBC that Facebook was working with Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica on AR eyewear nicknamed "Orion."
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For Facebook, the glasses hold the key to its future. Alongside virtual reality, augmented reality (AR) is integral to building the "metaverse," Zuckerberg said. In the future, Facebook will morph into a shared, liveable platform that lets you "teleport" between different social experiences using VR and AR, Zuckerberg explained.

The term metaverse is the latest buzzword seized upon by Silicon Valley and futurists.
For Facebook, the metaverse is more than just a fad. The company is spending billions in order to build its shared universe, which will be populated with Facebook users and digital ads, according to Zuckerberg. In order for it to become a reality, the company needs more people to buy its computing hardware. Therefore, the plan is to make those devices more affordable.
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guest · Aug 25, 2021

The manual for Facebook’s Project Aria AR glasses shows what it’s like to wear them
It seems uncomfortable
August 25, 2021
https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/25/...ented-reality-ar-research-glasses-user-manual

A manual uploaded to the FCC gives us a look at Facebook’s experimental Project Aria AR glasses, which apparently go by the codename Gemini (via Protocol).

Facebook announced Project Aria in September 2020, with a message big on vision and light on details — though it was clear that the device exists to help Facebook in its quest (no pun intended) to create a computer that sees and understands the world. Seeing the actual headset’s manual gives us a bit of an idea about how it does that.
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And, of course, it’s loaded with things that normal glasses don’t have, like a proximity sensor, Qualcomm chip, and, according to Protocol, the same camera sensors found in the Oculus Quest 2.

While the manual gives us an interesting look into a project that Facebook hasn’t shared a ton about, it’s not an up-to-date one. It seems the version found on the FCC’s site is version 0.9 of the document, which is dated August 28th, 2020 — it’s likely that Facebook has made some changes in the past year or so.
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Facebook says on its Project Aria site that the glasses aren’t a commercial product. They’re not acting as a prototype for something that the general public will eventually buy. That’s reiterated by the manual’s many statements that the headset is an engineering product and is only for use by people working for Facebook.
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guest · Sep 14, 2021

Hands-on with Facebook and Ray-Ban’s first pair of smart glasses
September 9, 2021
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22662809/facebook-ray-ban-stories-camera-smart-glasses-hands-on

Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses made by Facebook and Ray-Ban are going on sale for $299. They’re called Ray-Ban Stories, and you’ll be able to find them pretty much anywhere Ray-Bans are sold, including LensCrafters and Sunglasses Hut stores.

In doing camera-equipped smart glasses, Facebook has also found one of the last things to copy from Snapchat. Both Bosworth and Basilico didn’t mention Spectacles by name in our conversations, but it was clear that they think Ray-Ban Stories are going to be more universally appealing than Spectacles. And they’re probably right.
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There will likely be resistance by some to wearing cameras and microphones made by Facebook, regardless how well the glasses are designed. But given how Facebook’s brand is nowhere to be found on the glasses themselves, I’m not sure that stigma will significantly hinder interest in Ray-Ban Stories.
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Facebook: Ray-Ban and Facebook introduce Ray-Ban Stories, first-generation smart glasses

Today we’re excited to launch Ray-Ban Stories: Smart glasses that give you an authentic way to capture photos and video, share your adventures, and listen to music or take phone calls — so you can stay present with friends, family, and the world around you. Starting at $299 USD and available in 20 style combinations, the smart glasses are available for purchase online and in select retail stores in the US as well as Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and the UK.
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guest · Sep 26, 2021

Facebook’s wearable glasses can succeed where Google Glass flopped
September 26, 2021
https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/26/facebooks-wearable-glasses-can-succeed-where-google-glass-flopped/

Facebook recently announced its highly anticipated wearable sunglasses that can record video from a user’s perspective. Despite many of our legitimately squeamish reactions to this new product, one of Facebook’s decisions in this launch is likely to make it a success where Google Glass failed.

Taking a page from the business school curriculum, Facebook leveraged an effectual approach to its launch by partnering with Ray-Ban — a lesson all new product managers would do well to remember.
Another important aspect of the Google Glass launch was that the design of the product was done in-house and marketing was carried out by a somewhat unintentional public relations campaign led by co-founder Sergey Brin, seen wearing them everywhere from Silicon Valley to Fashion Week.
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Fast forward to earlier this month. Facebook launched new wearable sunglasses that are immediately and often compared to Google Glass. The question on everyone’s mind (other than whether the person next to me will be recording me without my permission) is whether Facebook’s attempt will tank like Google Glass.
However, the decision to partner with top sunglass maker Ray-Ban to utilize one of the most recognized brands, the Wayfarer glasses, as the actual wearable is likely to make Facebook’s version a success.

Facebook moved forward through the unknowable by finding someone it knew to help it navigate a key uncertainty of its new product. For that reason alone, it has a better chance of success.
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