Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta’s live-translation Orion smart glasses offer ‘glimpse of the future’

Mark Zuckerberg says users will be able to interact with Meta’s Orion glasses by using their hands and voice. Photo / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta’s new holographic smart glasses and a chatbot that uses the voice of Dame Judi Dench as he set out his vision for augmented reality technology.

The Facebook founder donned a pair of black-rimmed smart glasses, named Orion, at the tech giant’s annual Connect conference on Wednesday, declaring “this is the physical world with holograms overlaid on it”.

Made of magnesium alloy and powered by custom silicon designed by Meta, users will be able to interact with the glasses by using their hands and voice.

Living in the future. Photo / Getty Images

The glasses, which have no wires and weigh less than 100g, are able to live-translate words spoken in other languages. Users can also dub their videos into another language so it appears they are speaking natively.

Beyond interacting with voices, typing or hand gestures, Orion has a “wrist-based neural interface” which lets you send a signal from your brain to the device, using a wristband that translates nerve signals into digital commands.

Unveiling the glasses, Zuckerberg said: “A lot of people have said this is the craziest technology they’ve ever seen. The technical challenges to make them are insane.”

The Meta chief executive did not demonstrate Orion’s capabilities directly during his announcement, instead playing a video showing how people reacted to the device when they tried it. The video showed a few glimpses of text messages and images displayed through the glasses, with Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, one of the testers.

Zuckerberg unveiled the new tech as he wore a T-shirt comparing himself to a Roman emperor. The T-shirt was emblazoned with the phrase “Aut Zuck aut nihil”. The original phrase, “aut Caesar aut nihil”, means “either Caesar or nothing” and is used to express absolute ambition.

There is no current release date for Orion, which Zuckerberg called a “glimpse of the future”.

The tech giant also announced an audio upgrade to its digital assistant, Meta AI, which will respond to voice commands with the voices of celebrities, including Dame Judi Dench and the wrestler-turned-film-star John Cena.

The company said more than 400 million people are using Meta AI monthly, including 185 million who are returning to it weekly.

Zuckerberg said: “I think that voice is going to be a way more natural way of interacting with AI than text.

“We are trying to build a future that is more open, more accessible, more natural and more about human connection.

“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.”

He added that Meta is working to “bring the future to everyone” with its headsets, glasses and AI system.

Meta AI now has 500 million users, according to the company. The company, which renamed itself from Facebook in 2021, still makes nearly all of its money from advertising. In its most recent quarter, 98% of its revenue came from ads.

At the same time, the company is investing heavily in AI, which Zuckerberg sees as the next generation of computing platforms such as virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses.