Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s next-gen AI-powered wearable: smart glasses with a small display in the lens. The Meta Ray-Bans Display glasses represent a shift towards reducing phone screen time, allowing users to interact with Meta’s AI, messages, and photos through glasses resembling regular eyewear. These innovative wearables are key to integrating AI into daily life as Meta competes to create advanced models. “Glasses are ideal for personal super intelligence, enabling presence while accessing AI to enhance communication and memory,” Zuckerberg said at Meta’s Connect event in Menlo Park, California. The company also introduced the Gen 2 Ray-Ban smart glasses, new Meta Oakley Vanguard sport glasses, and new experiences for the Quest 3 VR headsets, including a Disney+ partnership for Horizon. Despite being niche, smart glasses adoption is growing, with Meta’s partner EssilorLuxottica reporting a tripling of revenue from Meta glasses .Furthermore, the company aims to manufacture 10 million pairs of Meta glasses annually starting in 2026.
The Displays are equipped with a small screen located in the inside right corner of the right lens. This display appears to project several feet ahead of the user’s immediate surroundings. Additionally, there is a navigation feature that indicates the user’s location on a map in real-time, allowing them to navigate without the need to constantly check a maps application on their smartphone. Furthermore, live captioning and translation capabilities enable users to view what their conversation partner is saying in real-time. Users can also pose questions to the Meta AI assistant, which will provide responses through information panels on the display, as well as deliver audio answers. The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2, retailing at $379, resembles its predecessors but features updated colors, enhanced battery life, and an improved camera. The battery life has been extended to eight hours, and the accompanying charging case offers an additional 48 hours of power.
