Meta unveils AR glasses prototype 'Orion,' a wireless spatial computing device with a 70-degree field of view and eye tracking
Orion , a prototype AR glasses, was announced at Meta's presentation '
Orion: True AR Glasses Have Arrived | Meta Quest Blog | Meta Store
https://www.meta.com/ja-jp/blog/quest/orion-ar-glasses-augmented-reality/
Orion is a prototype of AR glasses that has been developed in parallel with Ray-Ban Meta , a smart glass jointly developed with sunglasses manufacturer Ray-Ban. Meta claims that AR glasses are the key to realizing the next big leap in human-centric computing, and declared at an event in 2019 that 'We are building AR glasses.'
The Orion development project, called 'Project Nazare,' aims to launch an AR device with a large holographic display and a personalized AI assistant by 2024.
Meta said, 'Five years after the announcement, we're announcing five words that could turn the world upside down: We have built AR glasses.'
You can get a good idea of what Orion is like with its AR glasses by watching the following movie.
Orion, Explained - YouTube
The person wearing Orion is Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO (Chief Technology Officer).
Orion looks like a pair of thick, black-framed glasses, but it houses seven cameras, sensors, and a battery. To maintain extremely high optical accuracy - about one-tenth the width of a human hair - it detects even the slightest movements such as the expansion and contraction of the frames at room temperature and digitally corrects all necessary optical adjustments within milliseconds.
The frame is made of magnesium alloy, which is used in spacecraft and F1, to reduce heat and weight. Also, since it is not possible to build a fan into the frame of the glasses, a custom chip developed by Meta is used, taking into account thermal design and power efficiency.
Orion is capable of eye tracking, so the cursor can be controlled by eye gaze.
The AR display has a viewing angle of 70 degrees. The lens is made of a new material called silicon carbide, and incorporates a nanoscale 3D structured waveguide. A micro LED mini projector is built into the bridge, and refracts light within the lens to project holographic images of various depths and sizes.
According to
In addition, as shown in the movie below, it is possible to use AI to examine and tag what you are looking at through the glass.
Meta AI on Orion - YouTube
Additionally, a wristband capable of hand tracking using surface electromyography (EMG) was announced as an input device for Orion.
The EMG wristband appears to use technology from CTRL-Labs, a startup
Facebook is developing a wristwatch-type device that allows you to control a computer with just your hand movements and has released a movie - GIGAZINE
According to a CNET reporter, at the time of writing the article, the accuracy of the gesture tracking provided by the EMG wristband was not particularly high, but he expressed hope that 'when combined with eye tracking and sensors built into the frame, it could become the next generation of input interface.'
Most existing AR glasses are connected to smartphones, but Meta says that 'true AR glasses need to be wireless and small,' and is developing a wireless computing pack for Oiron. Hand tracking, eye tracking, AR graphics processing, etc. are performed by the Orion itself, and the application operation is performed on the wireless computing pack. Meta says that this will also extend Orion's battery life.
At the time of writing, Orion is still in the prototype stage, but Meta has stated that it is 'not a research prototype' and is willing to actually bring a device equivalent to this prototype to market. Meta employees and a small number of users will be allowed to access the Orion prototype for one year from Meta Connect 2024. Meta's future challenges for commercializing Orion are to improve the quality of AR, further miniaturize it, and reduce the price through mass production.
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