From the ‘most advanced glasses the world has ever seen’ to actors voicing its AI. Here’s what happened at the Meta event.
Meta has teased new augmented reality (AR) glasses and artificial intelligence (AI) that will be able to speak in the voice of actress Dame Judi Dench.
The Facebook parent company unveiled a trove of new hardware and software at its annual Connect conference in Menlo Park, California on Wednesday.
Here is what you missed from the event.
Orion
The most exciting piece of tech announced was the so-called Orion glasses, which is like a computer that you wear as a pair of bulky glasses.
It can project digital representations of people and communications onto the real world.
According to a journalist from The Verge who tested them out, the glasses could identify ingredients on a table to create a smoothie recipe and correctly place labels over the ingredients.
There are no wires and are designed to weigh less than 100 g, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a crowd of developers and journalists.
The glasses also have a “wrist-based neural interface” – it lets you send a signal from your brain to the device, using a wristband that translates nerve signals into digital commands.
The glasses have similar generative AI (GenAI) capabilities as Meta’s current Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Zuckerberg called them “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen”.
“The technical challenges to make them are insane,” he added.
While no release date has been set for the prototype, Zuckerberg called it a “glimpse of the future.”
“I am particularly excited to see the pace of developments with smart glasses, which naturally blend a virtual environment with the real-time physical presence. A huge leap forward compared to its predecessor,” technology analyst Paolo Pescatore told Euronews Next.
But he said, users are still wary of AI and need to be convinced of the merits and need help on the journey.
“This is a marathon and there are no quick returns in this supremacy to own the user with AI,” he added.
Smart glasses
While we wait for an Orion release, Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are getting an update.
The glasses, which launched last autumn will have more AI features, including reminders and live translation.
Meta AI upgrade
Meta also said it was launching its first open-source model capable of processing both images and text.
The new model, Llama 3.2, could allow developers to create more advanced AI applications.
Another AI update will allow people To interact with Meta AI by speaking to it and it replying using voices from celebrities such as John Cena, Judi Dench and Awkwafina.
“We are trying to build a future that is more open, more accessible, more natural, and more about human connection,” Zuckerberg said.
There is another AI update aimed at influencers that allows them to craft AI versions of themselves — for interacting with fans. On the keynote stage, an AI version of creator Don Allen Stevenson III appeared on the screen and answered a few questions just as the actual creator would.
Meta Quest
As for virtual reality (VR), Meta will release the new Quest 3S, which is a cheaper version than its predecessor the Quest 3, which costs $299 (€260).
Meta also said it would stop selling the Quest 2 and the Quest Pro by the end of the year.
