Facebook and Ray-Ban to Announce Smart Glasses on September 9th

Facebook/Ray Ban

Facebook and Ray-Ban plan to reveal (or release) their collaborative smart glasses on September 9th and are already offering email updates to interested customers. While these Ray-Ban smart glasses probably lack any mixed reality features, new videos from Zuckerberg suggest that they could replace your GoPro.

Mark Zuckerberg first shared Facebook’s plans to release a pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses back in July. He hinted that the frames will “do some pretty neat things,” though AR support an integrated display seem very unlikely. It seems that Facebook is saving any mixed reality features for a retail version of its experimental Project Aria frames.

So what will the Ray-Ban smart glasses do? We originally predicted that they would feature smart assistant tools and built-in speakers, much like Amazon’s Echo Frames. While those features are still a possibility, an integrated camera seems to be the glasses’ flagship feature.

😎 on a windless swell-less day.

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, September 6, 2021

The above video, which appears to be shot from Mark Zuckerberg’s sunscreen-coated forehead, shows the CEO water-skiing with Facebook augmented reality lead Andrew Bosworth. There are a ton of similar videos from Zuckerberg and Bosworth, all posted on September 6th, leading us to believe that the duo are teasing the Ray-Ban smart glasses.

If we’re correct, then we’re impressed—these videos are all shot in fairly high quality with image stabilization and stereo sound. The water-skiing video is particularly interesting, as it suggests that the Ray-Ban smart glasses feature some waterproofing.

Given Facebook’s involvement, these Ray-Bans probably pack in some social media tools, like automatic uploads to Instagram or Facebook Stories. But we won’t know for sure until September 9th, when Facebook and Ray-Ban will announce (or maybe even release) the smart glasses.

Source: The Verge

Continue Reading