California (TDI): Owner of Facebook, Meta Platforms, unveiled Orion, their initial functioning prototype of augmented-reality (AR) glasses.
The startup based in California outlined its goals for products that will integrate virtual and real life experiences.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg abruptly removed the bulky black glasses from a metal case that was handed to him on stage and remarked, “This is the physical world with holograms overlaid on it.”
“At this point, I believe that viewing Orion as a time machine is the appropriate perspective,” he stated. “These glasses are real, fantastic, and a window into what I believe will be an exciting future.”
Along with a new Quest mixed-reality headset, Meta also demonstrated new AI chatbot capabilities for its services. On Wednesday, Meta shares reached a new closing high of $568.31, up 0.9%.
Meta created bespoke silicon that powers the magnesium alloy Orion eyewear. Voice control, wrist-based neural interface, and hand tracking will all be available ways for users to engage with the glasses.
After it is released to consumers, Zuckerberg stated that Meta intends to work on making it more affordable, sleeker, and smaller.
Although the most prominent AR devices developed by Big Tech have been flops, like Google’s Glass spectacles, the industry has been producing AR products for years.
When Zuckerberg originally steered the largest social media platform in the world toward developing immersive “metaverse” systems in 2021, he positioned augmented reality technology as a kind of magnum work.
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However, significant development costs and technological barriers have made product delivery difficult.
There is no denying Meta’s goal to make virtual and augmented reality goods as accessible and inexpensive as possible, according to Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight. It took some persuading, he continued, as consumers were “still wary of AI.”
According to a source cited prior to the event, Meta plans to provide its first pair of AR glasses to consumers in 2027, at which point advancements in technology should lower production costs.
During his presentation, Zuckerberg played a video that showed how users responded to Orion rather than giving a straight demonstration of its features.
The Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, was spotted among the testers in the film, which included brief shots of text messages and visuals seen via the AR glasses.
At the moment, the most similar product is the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which attracted minimal attention at first but gained popularity last year when an AI assistant was included.
In reaction to voice commands, users will be able to scan QR codes and stream music from Spotify thanks to AI improvements that Meta revealed for those glasses this year.
The company’s future goals include adding the capacity to create videos and translate between English and French, Italian, or Spanish in real time.
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During a live demonstration of the language tool, which speaks translations from English to Spanish and vice versa, Zuckerberg had a conversation with Brandon Moreno, a mixed martial arts fighter from Mexico.
SPENT TENS OF BILLIONS FOR AR GLASSES INNOVATION
Together with plans to begin automatically sprinkling personalized images made by the chatbot onto users’ Facebook and Instagram feeds, Meta also revealed a slew of additional new product offers for its ChatGPT-like chatbot.
One of the AI upgrades that was revealed was an audio enhancement for the digital assistant named Meta AI. This update allows the assistant to react to voice instructions and gives users the choice to have the assistant sound like Judi Dench or John Cena, among other celebrities.
“In my opinion, speaking with AI via voice will be far more natural than doing it through text,” Zuckerberg stated.
According to the startup, 185 million users return to Meta AI on a weekly basis, making over 400 million users utilizing it monthly.
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Meta published three new versions of its Llama 3 models, albeit withheld from the European Union due to laws, in line with its objective of sharing the AI models that drive its digital agent for largely free usage by others.
Meta also revealed the Quest 3S, a $300 mixed-reality headset that is less expensive than the Quest 3 that was released a year ago.
The corporation has been investing tens of billions of dollars in augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and other metaverse technologies, pushing up its forecast for capital expenses to a record high of between $37 billion and $40 billion by 2024.
Recent reports indicate that throughout the first half of this year, its metaverse division Reality Labs suffered an $8.3 billion loss. $16 billion was lost by it in the previous year.