Zhitong Finance has learned that Meta (META.US) has launched its first augmented reality (AR) glasses, Orion, a device that can display a combined view of the digital and real world. Additionally, Meta also released a multi-modal big language model and the Quest 3S, the latest virtual reality (VR) headset. After the news was announced, Meta's stock price rose 2.2% in the short term to $575.77, a record high; in the end, the closing increase narrowed to 0.88% to $568.31.

AR glasses

AR glasses are a key step for the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg — its goal is to one day provide a smartphone replacement; but for the time being, it's just a prototype product and won't be sold to consumers for a short time.

Zuckerberg said Meta hopes that the next version of Orion will be offered to consumers as the company's first complete AR glasses, but he didn't give a specific timeline. The AR glasses are not a prototype for sale, but will be used internally at Meta to test and improve the product.

Orion is Meta's first “fully functional” prototype AR glasses. It uses a wristband component to receive users' neural signals and let them use their brain to control Orion. This technology stemmed from the company's acquisition of Ctrl-Labs in 2019.

Zuckerberg explained that Orion can be used to play games and can also have video conferences with people around the world through virtual avatars. The included wristband detects nerve stimulation, and the camera built into the frame tracks eye movements, so the wearer can “tap” or “roll” the display with their hands.

Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth said he expects the glasses to become a consumer product within the next ten years, adding that the next two glasses are under development. Bosworth said in an interview on Wednesday that the company wants to price the glasses so “not only will consumers use it, but developers will also develop products for it.”

The glasses represent almost a decade of technological progress and a major financial investment for Meta. They also gave us a glimpse into Zuckerberg's vision for the future of technology, which has cost tens of billions of dollars over the past four years alone.

Meta is already selling Ray-Ban (Ray-Ban) brand smart glasses equipped with a camera and speaker, but Zuckerberg believes AR glasses will become a mobile, hands-free device that may one day become the preferred method of online communication and interaction in competition with smartphones. If smart glasses eventually become mainstream, Meta hopes to become a major player in this emerging industry, which will also help the company reduce its dependence on competitors such as Apple (AAPL.US) and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.US) to provide products to consumers.

“These things happened very slowly and then suddenly,” Bosworth said in an interview. When you can replace existing use cases, people can switch quickly. Like using AR glasses to replace your phone, it's going to take longer.”

Although Orion debuted at Meta's annual Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, it will take years to achieve this goal. The company had hoped to introduce the device to the public, but executives said it wasn't small enough or stylish enough. These challenges have plagued similar efforts by other tech companies such as Google and Microsoft (MSFT.US) for years. Snap (SNAP.US) launched its own AR glasses earlier this month, but only released them to developers.

Meta executives believe that eventually they will be able to make these glasses thinner and more powerful, making ordinary consumers willing to buy them. Rahul Prasad, Meta's senior director of product management, said the company aims to bring Orion to market “within the next few years” at the price of a “high-end laptop or smartphone.” “Any previous attempt at augmented reality was headsets, goggles, and helmets,” he said. We want to make glasses.”

Currently, Meta will continue to manufacture and improve the glasses in-house until they are ready for public sale. Hundreds of Meta employees have been testing Orion glasses. Now that they've made their public debut, the company plans to significantly expand this group.

Unlike competing products like Apple's Vision Pro headphones, Meta's Orion glasses don't require a bulky headband or battery pack to operate. Orion has 7 cameras, 2 of which track eye movements, so users can control the display with visible gestures. However, Orion works best when paired with a matching wristband. The wristband uses an EMG to detect more subtle hand movements, so users can control the glasses with slight finger movements.

Meta designed and manufactured more than 10 different computer chips and embedded them into Orion glasses as part of the company's plan to reduce the energy consumption of the glasses, while also reducing the heat generated by the glasses so they don't heat up when touched. Prasad said Orion's lenses are made of silicon carbide, not glass, a popular material in some electric cars, which is lighter than glass and also helps to bend light at extreme angles.

While the use of silicon carbide was a major breakthrough for Meta, Bosworth said the company was already looking for a cheaper alternative that would provide the same functionality at a lower price.

New Quest VR headset

Meta also released a cheaper Quest virtual reality helmet, further persuading consumers to spend more time using VR and AR to play games, watch videos, and chat with others. Meta has released its latest virtual reality (VR) headset, the Quest 3S, with a starting price of $299.

Quest 3S headsets have most of the same features as existing Quest 3 devices, but have less memory and are hundreds of dollars cheaper. The headset will be available in stores starting October 15, and the Quest 3 will be priced at $500.

Meta positions the Quest 3S as a multi-tasking computer and plans to use this device to compete with Apple's Vision Pro.

According to the company, the S in the Quest 3S represents the “beginning,” implying that this device is the starting point for users to begin to experience the VR world, and also represents Meta's expectations for this product.

Meta emphasized that the VR perspective function (Passthrough) has been improved in Quest 3S, that is, when users enable this function, the camera on the headset will capture the surrounding real-time environment and deliver images to the VR environment, so that users can see images of the real world in the virtual world. Additionally, by adding a dedicated button, users can quickly turn perspective mode on or off to see the real environment around them when needed.

Meta said the Quest 3S is positioned as a computing device rather than a gaming console because of its ability to multitask and run apps. Meta CEO Zuckerberg pointed out that the Quest 3S can complete all kinds of tasks that a normal computer can do, and is a complete solution.

In the demo, Meta showed that the device was running up to four apps simultaneously on the screen, including YouTube videos, the browser, Amazon Music, and Meta's app store.