Facebook, Ray-Ban Co-Developing AR Glasses, Named “Orion”

According to a report by CNBC, Facebook is partnering with Luxottica, the parent company to Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Coach, to speed up development on augmented reality (AR) glasses for release by as late as 2025. The AR glasses, codenamed “Orion,” are aimed to replace the need for smartphones altogether.

Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), the division spearheading this project, formerly known as Oculus Research, has worked steadily over the years on various in-depth VR projects, such as experimenting with creating life-like virtual avatars (“Codec Avatars”). Earlier this year, FRL filed a patent for a “cartilage conduction audio system” as a feature that they plan on including with their AR glasses. In terms of actual consumer products made available, FRL has come up with things like the Super Libra G Lenses for Oculus Go and a Software Developer Kit (SDK) called Oculus Audio SDK. That said, FRL’s goal has long been to develop their own Augmented Reality (AR) glasses.

While Facebook’s artificial intelligence (AI) division announced the creation of AI Habitat, an AI platform for creating photo-realistic 3D environments, back in June, the division has also been working on an AI voice assistant to compete with rivals like Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Assistant. CNBC has also speculated that this AI voice assistant project could debut in FRL’s Orion glasses. While FRL has high hopes and promising developments, there’s already stiff competition for AR glasses products, including the project that Apple is reportedly working on (which, it seems, is really meant to be an accessory to the iPhone, not a replacement).