Meta shared a short video showing off the operating system interface of its Orion AR glasses prototype.
The Orion AR glasses prototype was presented at Meta Connect 2024 in September. Meta plans to release AR Glasses that will “build upon our R&D with Orion”, but with a narrower field of view.
As a part of its Orion project, Meta put together a prototyping operating system including user interfaces and key applications in the months prior to Connect’s reveal. The new video shows off this interface, as well as some of those apps.
To Meta’s credit, the video appears to show the field of view cutting off realistically and most virtual interfaces and objects as translucent, reflecting the limitations of the display system.
Developer Alex Coulombe, who published his Orion demo impressions on UploadVR, confirmed that the video is not a concept. “For those wondering, no this is not a concept video, this is actually what it looks and feels like in there”, Alex said on 𝕏.
It’s interesting to note, however, that despite being less than 20 seconds, Meta’s new video seems to show at least six separate app launcher main menu interfaces. This could suggest that some are concepts, or just that the company is experimenting with multiple approaches.
The six separate app launcher main menu interfaces shown.
You may be wondering why Orion doesn’t just use Horizon OS, Meta’s operating system for its Quest headsets. Two reasons are likely to be the cause of this. AR glasses and mixed reality headsets are separate categories. The design constraints and considerations are quite different from AR glasses that you would want to wear outdoors or on the move.not a replacementThe other is the performance envelope. Meta’s Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said that the “compute envelope” is “10x smaller than Quest”, and a former Meta employee stated he had told his staff to consider Orion “more like a Gameboy Advance, DS or PS2 rather than a PS3”. That means a simplified interface with a different architecture and
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It’s a situation somewhat akin to why iPhone didn’t run macOS and Apple Watch didn’t run iOS. Meta says that while Orion OS and Horizon OS share the same core technology, their app architectures are different due to the differences in form factors. Meta’s first consumer product is reportedly due for release in recently said of Orion. The company will spend the next three year figuring out which interfaces and approaches work best with the AR glasses form factor.