Smart glasses will be future of computing, Meta executives say

The future of computing will revolve around smart glasses and headsets powered by AI and able to help users with everything they do throughout the day, Meta executives have suggested.

Last year, Meta teased a new pair of augmented reality smart glasses named Orion, which it said it had been working on for around 10 years and which overlay digital icons and content on to a user’s field of vision – technology normally only found in larger mixed reality headsets.

Currently, the tech giant offers a range of virtual and mixed reality headsets in its Quest range, and has its Meta Ray-Ban glasses, which include a camera, microphones and speakers for content capture, audio playback and some voice control.

Mark Rabkin and Alex Himel, two vice presidents at the tech giant who work on wearables and its virtual and mixed reality products, said the future of this technology, and indeed computing itself, could be these two product ranges coming together. Mr Rabkin is leaving the company this month.

“We’re going at it from both ends,” Mr Rabkin told the PA news agency, in reference to the Quest virtual reality headset range, and the Meta glasses which currently are “a device that’s frankly a fashion item”.

“I think eventually, in some long number of years, these will meet in the middle, but we’re really trying to cover the whole spectrum of devices to help people augment their life and improve their life in the best way possible, given what they need,” he said.

Orion was Meta’s proof that it could fit all the technology needed for true augmented reality capabilities into something as small as a pair of glasses for the first time.

Now Mr Himel said artificial intelligence (AI) was becoming a key factor powering the future of what Orion and similar devices could do in years to come, including being able to take action on something simply by having the user look at it.

“The thing about AI right now is that it feels like something that is infinitely capable, but people often don’t know where to start – it’s an empty text box or a microphone you can say anything into and it’s like, ‘where do I start?’,” he told PA.

“The announcements we had last year are really meant to take specific use cases and make them work great – for example you can look at a phone number and say, call it.

“AI is probably the thing I’m most excited about, it has the ability to open up a session with AI where you’re constantly chatting back and forth and it’s constantly aware of what you’re looking at.

“I feel like the potential of AI is pretty huge and we’re excited to really lean into it.”

Highlighting the potential of such technology going forward, Mr Himel said relying on virtual versions of physical items such as televisions or picture frames could eventually become normal.

“I think with Orion, we also demonstrated that true augmented reality glasses are going to be available earlier than we had previously thought, I think we demonstrated that we were able to build a pair of glasses that have a large field of view – 70 degrees plus – in a glasses form factor, where you can render virtual content on top of the world that you’re physically looking at,” he said.

“When we talk about augmented reality, we talk about looking at the physical world and seeing digital stuff on top of that, whether that’s digital television instead of having to buy a real one, whether that’s a virtual picture frame on your desk, and we showed that it was possible – which I think is a major milestone.”

But on the ultimate aim of such devices, Mr Himel said Meta’s overall aim remained focused on connectivity.

“I think fundamentally, we’re trying to connect people, and in order to connect you with everyone who matters to you and all the interests you have, the devices need to be accessible broadly,” he said.

“If you go to use the device and you can’t connect with one of the most important people to you, then I think we failed at the job.

“But for us, accessibility also means we believe we’re building wearables which you need to like how they look on you. They need to be comfortable.”

Last year saw a noticeable spike in tech giants focusing on mixed, virtual and augmented reality headsets, with Google announcing plans to build new devices in this category – confirming a headset built with Samsung is on the way – while Apple rolled out its Vision Pro “spatial computing” headset in the UK for the first time.

On a potential increase in competition, Mr Himel said: “The more people enter the space, the most consumer choice – that’s great.

“We all want more selection of things we can buy, but it should also decrease the cost and make it easier to manufacture these devices, which is good for everyone.”