The head of AR Glasses Hardware at Meta claims that they all give the same response “Oh, my god!” “I can’t believe it!” Caitlin Kalinaowski claimed this in an interview she gave on
. Kalinowski previously served as the head of VR Hardware on the Oculus Rift consumer product, Oculus Go and Rift S. She also worked for Oculus Quest Quest 2 and Quest Pro. It’s not clear if Kalinowski is referring to the Oculus Rift Developer Kit, launched over 10 years back, that showed that affordable, mass-produced VR hardware could offer a wide field of vision. Or the 2016 consumer Rift. Regardless, it’s clear that what Kalinowski means here is that trying Meta’s AR glasses is just as mindblowing as trying good VR for the first time.
Kalinowski didn’t reveal any specific details of the glasses, other than to mention them offering “high field of view immersion”.to Android CentralThe Demonstrator, Or The Eventual Product?
What’s also unclear is whether Kalinowski is referring to the AR glasses demonstrator hardware Meta may be planning to demo at Connect later this year, or the downgraded product it reportedly plans to bring to market in 2027.
Meta has been working on AR glasses for at least eight years now, spending
on the project that Mark Zuckerberg hopes will one day deliver him an “iPhone moment”. In 2017, the company announced its intention to introduce AR glasses in 2020. The effort was first revealed in 2021. Heath reported that Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth agreed with Heath’s report in an interview conducted in December. Bosworth claimed that the “glasses might be the most
we’ve produced as a race”, to the point that “they were built on an prohibitively expensive tech path” and not fit for a product. Ma reported that the Orion prototype glasses use microLED displays and silicon carbide waveguides.
MicroLED is a truly new display technology, but no company has yet figured out how to affordably mass produce it with decent resolution. The pixels are self-emitting, like OLEDs, so they emit light and color. They don’t require a backlight. It is also more energy efficient, and theoretically can reach a higher brightness. It is therefore ideal for sunglasses that need to work on sunny days, but are powered by small batteries. Ma said that Facebook had contacted a new startup in 2019, but the company still hasn’t achieved a high production yield. This means they are only able to produce small numbers of displays for a very high price. It is more expensive than glass waveguides that are used to make current transparent AR headsets but can provide a larger field of vision. The US Government has strict export restrictions on the material because it is used for military radars, sensors and other devices. That means glasses using it will have to be assembled inside the US, significantly raising the production cost, despite most of the manufacturing and components coming from China and Taiwan.tens of billions of dollarsTo ship AR glasses as an actual mass producible product, Ma reported Meta will use called Project Nazare: LCoS displays and glass waveguides.
LCoS displays are essentially LCD microdisplays, though using reflection instead of transmission to form an image. LCoS technology is not new. It has been in AR devices like Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 1, as well as movie projectors, since the 1990s. The silicon carbide in Orion’s waveguide can achieve an alleged field of vision of 70deg, however, in reality, it will have only a 50deg field of viewing. This is similar to HoloLens 2, Nreal, and HoloLens 2. In our product reviews, we criticized both reported &
for their field of views. Ma reported in January that this AR glass product would be available around 2027. Of course, it’s possible this plan has changed in the months since the report.appeared to confirmOrion Prototype[consumer electronics device]Consumer Product
Meta Might Demo A True AR Glasses Prototype In 2024
Meta hinted it might demo a “prohibitively expensive” true AR glasses prototype in 2024. “In the domain of consumer electronics, it might be the most advanced thing that we’ve ever produced as a species.”
Introductionthe reporting2024
2027secured the entire future outputAvailability
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Meta Reportedly Downgrading Key Specs Of AR Glasses
Meta is reportedly downgrading key specs of its in-development AR glasses to achieve a lower cost. Full details here:
& Meta staffdowngraded componentsConsumers
(at high price)
DisplaysHoloLens 2MicroLEDNreal LightLCoS
Waveguides
| (Field of View) | Silicon Carbide | |
| (70deg diagonal) | Glass | (50deg diagonal) |
| These downgrades reflect the wider difficulties across the industry in the struggle to try to bring compelling transparent AR glasses out of the realm of science fiction and into real products. Apple | last year “indefinitely”, and Google the project to make it for other companies instead. |