For years, clunky designs and technical limitations held them back. However, Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses have proven that this future is still possible after their first launch in 2021. This week, Meta announced new features for their glasses, which is exciting news for AR/VR fans who have always been rooting for this form factor.
The new features include video call support and AI capabilities such as image recognition. These glasses can be used for video calls via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. However, the person on the other end of the call can only see “your point of view” since the cameras on the glasses aren’t facing you but the environment around you.
In one of the viral videos on Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg was seen video calling a lady using Meta Ray-Bans while standing in front of a mirror. This is ideal for video calls if you want the other person to see your face. Even though the experience of video calls may sometimes not be as seamless as using your phone, having this feature on the Ray-Bans is welcome and can be helpful in some situations.
Besides the video calls, these glasses now support Meta’s multimodal AI tech to recognize and tell you the things in your environment. With this feature, all you have to do is look at something and ask the Meta glasses to tell you what it is. This feature can be useful for people with sight problems.
Another practical use case for image recognition could be interpreting text such as a food menu in a foreign language. The image recognition feature has been in beta for several months but is now gradually rolling out to users in Canada and the US.
Besides the new technical features, Meta has also released two more styles for these glasses, including the Skyler frame and a low-bridge option for the Headliner style. These new styles are both available for preorder here.
