META UNVEILS CHEAPER VR HEADSET, AI UPDATES AND SHOWS OFF PROTOTYPE FOR HOLOGRAPHIC AR GLASSES

Meta unveiled updates to the company’s virtual reality headset and Ray Ban smart glasses on Wednesday as it tries to demonstrate its artificial intelligence prowess and the next generation of computing platforms beyond smartphones and computers.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg also showed off Orion, a prototype he called “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.”

“The technical challenges to make them are insane,” Zuckerberg told a crowd of developers and journalists at Meta’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters. The holographic augmented reality glasses, for one, needed to be glasses not a bulky headset.

There are no wires and they have to weigh less than 100 grams (3.5 ounces), among other things. And the beyond interacting with your voice, typing or hand gestures, Orion has a “wrist-based neural interface” — it lets you send a signal from your brain to the device, using a wristband that translates nerve signals into digital commands.

There is no release date for Orion — Zuckerberg called it a “glimpse of the future.”

Seemingly in his element speaking to a cheering crowd, Zuckerberg said Meta is working to “bring the future to everyone” with its headsets, glasses and AI system. As part of an update to its Llama model, people will now be able to interact with Meta AI by speaking, with voices from celebrities such as John Cena, Judi Dench and Awkwafina.

“We are trying to build a future that is more open, more accessible, more natural, and more about human connection,” Zuckerberg said. “This is the continuation of the values and ideas that we have brought to the apps and technology that we have built over Meta’s first 20 years.”