Mark Zuckerberg wears Orion augmented reality glasses during an event in Menlo Park, California. Bloomberg
Mark Zuckerberg wears Orion augmented reality glasses during an event in Menlo Park, California. Bloomberg

Meta unveils Orion AR glasses as eventual smartphone rival



Meta Platforms unveiled its first pair of augmented reality glasses, which show a combined view of the digital and physical worlds, in a key step in chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of one day offering a hands-free alternative to the smartphone.

The glasses, introduced on Wednesday and called Orion, look like thick, black reading glasses, but have lenses that can display text messages, video calls and even YouTube videos on to the user’s field of vision. They are prototypes that are not for sale, but will be used internally at Meta for testing and improvements.

An accompanying wristband that detects nerve stimulation and cameras built into the frames that track eye movement allow Orion wearers to “click” or “scroll” on the display using just their hands.

The glasses represent nearly a decade of technological advancement and significant financial investment at Meta. They also offer a glimpse into Mr Zuckerberg’s vision for the future of technology, which has cost the company tens of billions of dollars over the past four years.

Meta is already selling Ray-Ban branded smart glasses equipped with cameras and speakers, but Mr Zuckerberg believes that AR glasses will become a kind of mobile, hands-free computer that could one day rival smartphones as the preferred way to communicate and interact online.

If smart glasses eventually become mainstream, Meta hopes to be a major player in that industry, which would also help the company to reduce its reliance on competitors such as Apple and Alphabet’s Google to deliver its products to consumers.

That goal is still years away despite the Orion prototype, which was unveiled at Meta’s annual Connect conference in Menlo Park, California. The company had hoped to make this version of the device available to the public, but executives said it is not yet small or stylish enough. Those same challenges have plagued similar efforts by other tech companies over the years, including Google and Microsoft.

Snap unveiled its own pair of AR glasses this month, but is only releasing them to developers.

Eventually, Meta executives believe they will be able to make the glasses so thin and powerful that general users will buy them. The goal is to bring Orion to market in the “next few years” for the price of a “high-end laptop or smartphone”, said Rahul Prasad, a senior director of product management at Meta.

“Any kind of prior attempt at AR has been a headset, goggles, helmets,” Mr Prasad said. “We want to get to glasses.”

For now, Meta will continue to build and refine the glasses internally until they are ready for public sale. Hundreds of Meta employees have been testing the Orion glasses. The company plans to expand that group considerably now that the device has been unveiled to the public.

Unlike competing products, such as Apple’s Vision Pro headset, Meta’s Orion glasses do not require a bulky head strap or battery pack to operate. Orion has seven cameras, including two for tracking eye movements, which allow users to control the display using visible hand gestures.

Orion works best, though, when paired with the accompanying wristband, which uses electromyography to detect much more subtle hand movements so users can control the glasses with minor finger movements.

Meta designed and produced more than 10 different computer chips embedded in Orion, as part of a plan to reduce energy consumption for the glasses but also to decrease the amount of heat generated so that they are not warm to the touch.

Instead of glass, Orion’s lenses are made of silicon carbide, a material popular in some electric vehicles, which is lighter than glass and also helps to bend light at extreme angles, Mr Prasad said.

The company also announced a new, cheaper version of its Quest virtual reality headset, freshening its effort to persuade consumers to spend more time using virtual and augmented reality to play games, watch videos and chat with others.

The Quest 3S headset has much of the same functionality as the existing Quest 3 device but offers less memory and is cheaper.

The headset will be available in stores starting from October 15 and will cost as little as $300, compared to the $500 Quest 3 devices.

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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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THE BIO

Bio Box

Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul

Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader

Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Favorite food: seafood

Favorite place to travel: Lebanon

Favorite movie: Braveheart

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Updated: September 25, 2024, 9:56 PM