Facebook is reportedly working under the project name Orion on an augmented reality headset that will serve as a replacement for smartphones. The AR glasses should appear by 2025 at the latest. Facebook would be working with Ray-Ban’s parent company on glasses with cameras.
The AR glasses Facebook would be working on would allow users to have conversations and display information on a small screen, CNBC writes, citing sources familiar with Project Orion. Users could also live stream their field of view to other people.
Facebook’s goal would be to release the AR glasses in 2023 or 2024, with a possible rollout to 2025. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would prioritize the project, but the development team would struggle to bring the glasses back to a small size. and it is unclear whether this will work.
Facebook is said to have partnered with Ray-Ban’s parent company Luxottica for development assistance, according to CNBC, but according to The Information, the partnership is about a different project. The goal of this project, called Stella, would be to create glasses with cameras, similar to Snaps Spectacles.
For both glasses, Facebook would work on a voice assistant for the operation. Stella’s secondary goal would be to see if people are comfortable wearing devices that bear the Facebook name.
Concept of AR glasses, shown at Facebook F8 2017