Meta Platforms Inc. has released its first augmented reality (AR) glasses, which can display a combined view of the digital and real world, and is a key step for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to achieve his goal - one day, this will be a hands-free alternative to smart phones.

The new glasses, named Orion, released on September 25, look like bulky black-framed reading glasses, but the lenses can display text messages, video calls, and even YouTube videos in front of the user. These glasses are prototypes not for sale to the public, but will be used internally at Meta for testing and product improvement.

The wristband that comes with the glasses can detect neural stimuli, and the camera built into the frame can track eye movements. Wearers of Orion can 'click' or 'scroll' to display content using only hand gestures.

Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth expects these glasses to become consumer products in the next decade, with two more models currently in development.

Bosworth said in an interview on September 25 that the company hopes the pricing of these glasses will be 'affordable for consumers to use and developers to be willing to develop applications for.'

These glasses represent Meta's technological advancements and significant capital investment over the past decade, offering a glimpse into Zuckerberg's vision for the future of technology. In just the past four years, the company has spent billions for this purpose.

Meta has already been selling Ray-Ban smart glasses equipped with cameras and speakers, but Zuckerberg believes that AR glasses will become a mobile hands-free computing device, potentially rivalling smart phones one day as the preferred means of online communication and interaction. If smart glasses eventually become mainstream, Meta hopes to be a key player in this new industry, reducing reliance on competitors like apple and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, thus making it easier to offer its own products to consumers.

"These things usually happen slowly, but suddenly things change," Bosworth said in an interview, "Once you can replace existing use cases, people can transition quickly. Things like using AR glasses to replace phones will take longer."

Although the prototype product Orion has already made its debut at Meta's annual Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, it will still take several years to achieve this goal. The company originally hoped to launch this version of the device to the public, but executives say that these glasses are not compact enough or stylish enough. Over the years, these challenges have also plagued similar initiatives by other technology companies such as Google and Microsoft.

Snap Inc. launched its own augmented reality glasses earlier in September, but only made them available to developers.

Ultimately, Meta's executives believe that they can make the glasses light, thin, and powerful enough to attract mainstream consumers. Rahul Prasad, Senior Director of Product Management at Meta, said the goal is to bring Orion to the market in the 'next few years' at a price close to that of 'high-end laptops or smartphones'.

"Previous attempts in the augmented reality field have been wearable devices, goggles, and helmets," he said, "we want to make glasses."

Currently, Meta will continue to manufacture and refine these glasses internally until they are ready for public sale. Hundreds of Meta employees have been testing the Orion glasses. Now that the product has been publicly introduced, the company plans to significantly expand the testing scope.

Unlike competing products such as Apple's Vision Pro wearable device, Meta's Orion glasses can operate without bulky headbands or battery packs. Orion has seven cameras, two of which are used to track eye movements, allowing users to control displayed content through visible gestures. However, Orion works best when used with the accompanying wristband, which uses electromyography to detect subtler hand movements, enabling users to control the glasses with minor finger actions.

Meta has designed and manufactured more than 10 different computer chips embedded in the Orion glasses as part of the company's efforts to reduce glasses power consumption, as well as to minimize the heat generated by the glasses, ensuring they do not heat up when touched. Prasad said the lenses of Orion are made of silicon carbide, not glass, a material popular in some electric cars, lighter than glass, assisting in bending light at extreme angles.

While the use of silicon carbide is a significant breakthrough for Meta, Bosworth stated that the company is already looking for cheaper alternative materials to offer the same functionality at a lower cost.

Meta platforms have also released a cheaper new Quest virtual reality headset device to persuade consumers to spend more time using virtual reality and augmented reality technology to play games, watch videos, and chat with others.

The Quest 3S headset device has basically the same features as the existing Quest 3 device, but with less memory and a lower price by a few hundred dollars. This product will be available in stores starting on October 15th, priced as low as $300, while the Quest 3 device is priced at $500.