- Facebook is reportedly working on a smart glasses product in partnership with Ray-Ban parent company Luxottica
According to a CNBC report, Facebook is partnering with Ray-Ban parent company Luxottica to build a smart glasses product, which would be available for consumers between 2023 and 2025. The smart glasses product — which is codenamed Orion — would be based on augmented reality and Facebook Reality Labs in Redmond, Washington has been prototyping smart glasses for the last couple of years. The company is hoping that a deal with Luxottica would help bring the product to market.
With the smart glasses, users would be able to take phone calls and show information to users in a small display. Plus users would also be able to live stream content to their followers on Facebook.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Facebook is building a smart assistant product similar to Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, and Google Assistant. And Facebook’s digital assistant would be able to control the smart glasses.
While it is not guaranteed that the smart glasses will ever released, it is rumored that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is personally interested in seeing it happen. And Zuckerberg reportedly requested VP Andrew Bosworth to make the project a priority.
If Facebook releases a smart glasses product, then it would not be the first company to release an augmented reality-based headset. Snap sells smart glasses called Spectacles, which captures HD photos and videos that can be shared on social media. Luxottica also previously partnered with Google to launch Google Glass back in 2014.
Earlier this year, Facebook-owned Oculus started selling the Rift S augmented reality headset — which has insight tracking features, built-in sensors, room scale virtual reality, and an ergonomic halo headband. However, the Rift S is primarily used for gaming.
