Hands-on with Meta’s Orion augmented-reality smart glasses prototype

The most impressive aspect of Meta‘s Orion augmented reality glasses has more to do with size and comfort than flashy computer graphics.

CNBC senior media and tech correspondent Julia Boorstin was able to use Orion this week at Meta’s annual Connect conference, and she was captivated by the prototype’s compact form relative to the various Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro virtual reality headsets.

“What was really striking to me about these was that they were incredibly lightweight,” Boorstin said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the Orion glasses on Wednesday and pitched them as “a glimpse of a future that I think is going to be pretty exciting.” The glasses are black and thick framed and come with a wireless “puck” that allows the device to run apps like a holographic game of digital chess or pingpong that appear as digital graphics spliced into the real world.

The experimental glasses are part of Zuckerberg’s multibillion-dollar plans to build the next generation of personal computing for the so-called metaverse, a term used by Meta to describe people interacting with one another online in virtual 3D spaces.

While Orion is not capable of putting users in fully virtual worlds, the glasses can overlay digital graphics onto the real world. And unlike VR headsets that can be cumbersome to wear for extended periods, Boorstin said she found the Orion glasses to be a good fit.

“The form factor didn’t feel meaningfully different than wearing a pair of heavy, ordinary glasses, and they were not uncomfortable to wear,” she said.

Though the current incarnation of the Orion AR glasses could pass as a movie prop for the film “Revenge of the Nerds,” Boorstin said she believes they’re only going to get smaller as technology improves.

“This is the first generation — four years from now, how much smaller will they be?” Boorstin said.

When wearing the AR glasses, Boorstin was able to see digital holograms displaying the visual icons of apps like Instagram, Facebook, and some extras like a browser and a video game mixed with the surroundings inside a small office at Meta’s headquarters.

Boorstin saw those digital icons overlaid atop her real-world surroundings with her own eyes. That’s an improvement over “passthrough” techniques used by current VR devices. For passthrough, companies use cameras on the outside of their headsets to show users a digital representation of the real world blended with computer graphics through their device screens.

Orion is able to overlay digital imagery on the real world using a much more expensive method. Its lenses aren’t made from traditional glass or plastic but rather a refractive material called silicon carbide. When the Orion’s miniaturized projectors, built in to the arms of the glasses, beam light into the silicon carbide lenses, users can see “holograms” in their field of vision, an experience Boorstin said “felt totally normal and very natural.”

When the holograms were turned off, “it felt as if you were wearing glasses or sunglasses, and it wasn’t distracting or nauseating,” Boorstin said.

Boorstin was able to open, close and scroll through the apps with the help of a wristband, that she said felt similar to an old, lightweight Fitbit.

“The wristband can sense your finger and hand movements, so your hand can be by your side,” Boorstin said, describing how her finger movements and gestures manipulated the digital icons. “I was surprised that it was so accurate and that I could figure out these hand motions, and it picked them up exactly.”

In one demo, the Orion glasses were able to identify various food ingredients, like chia seeds, that were spread out on a table. It then projected a suitable recipe that appeared digitally above the real-world seeds. In another demo, Boorstin played a simple game of pong, except the video game graphics were projected onto a real-world desk in front of her.

One demo that really impressed her involved seeing the face of Stephen Desaulniers, her producer, digitally appear in front of her while he called from another room. The overall experience of the 3D video call “felt very clear” to Boorstin, who noticed that the graphic’s resolution would change depending on where she placed it within her field of vision. It was enough to startle her into questioning whether or not the producer could actually see her in real life since it appeared as if he was there in front of her (he could not).

“I could see him perfectly, and he could not see me,” Boorstin said. “But I could hear him, and it was like I was FaceTiming with him, but he was in my glasses.”

By experiencing Orion, Boorstin said she has a better sense of how Meta’s research and development is directly benefiting the company’s other products, like its Quest headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses.

“They’ve been working so hard to make these components teeny, tiny, efficient, weightless,” she said.