Meta announced yesterday (Wednesday) at its development and hardware conference, Meta Connect 2024, a series of technological innovations, but the highlight was undoubtedly the unveiling of an initial prototype for revolutionary augmented reality (AR) glasses, called "Orion".
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, opened the conference by announcing the Meta Quest 3S, a new VR helmet with an accessible price of $299.99. The helmet, which will hit the shelves on October 15, offers the same features as the Quest 3, with slight differences in design, lenses In addition, Zuckerberg announced that it will be possible to connect computers with the Windows 11 operating system to the Quest helmets.
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) also received significant emphasis at the conference. Zuckerberg announced that Meta AI is on track to become the most popular artificial intelligence assistant in the world, with over 400 million monthly users. Now, users will be able to communicate with Meta AI via voice on platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Soon, the assistant will also be able to adopt the voices of familiar characters such as John Cena and Kristen Bell.
Meta also unveiled Llama 3.2, the company's first open AI model with vision capabilities, allowing it to understand both image and text. In addition, Zuckerberg introduced a series of new capabilities for Ray Ban Meta glasses. The glasses will be able to remind users of things like parking locations, call a phone number and scan QR codes. Integrating apps like Spotify and Shazam into the glasses is also in development.
On stage, another significant breakthrough in the field of real-time language translation was also revealed. The glasses will be able to translate conversations between English, Spanish, French and Italian speakers in real time, through the built-in speakers.
As mentioned, the highlight of the conference was the unveiling of Orion, a prototype of revolutionary AR glasses, which have been in development for a decade. According to the company, Orion glasses answer a series of significant technological challenges: First and foremost they are glasses (and not a helmet), without cables, and they weigh less than 100 grams. However, the launch date or price has not yet been revealed.