Meta AR Glasses: Meta’s AR glasses have reportedly gone through some cost-cutting – Times of India

Meta, who happens to own Oculus, the company that makes Quest VR headsets, is working on a pair of AR glasses. While the glasses are years away, the company plans to release a pair meant for development purposes next year, and some new details give us an idea of what the upcoming AR glasses could be like.
Codenamed Artemis, Meta’s first pair of AR glasses, will not be made available to purchase until 2027, reports The Information. While the ambitions were high initially, Meta is now cutting some corners, as it tries to control spending.
According to a recent report from The Information, the initial release of Meta’s augmented reality glasses for consumers will not include the advanced display technology that was originally intended for the device. Instead, sources say that the glasses will feature older display technology and lenses.
The company has decided to go ahead with the Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) instead of MicroLED displays for its AR glasses.
LCoS is an older display technology that was originally used for movie projectors in the 1990s. The technology does not particularly result in bright pictures, which is said to be a crucial factor for AR products, as the glasses or even headset need to be able to project graphics onto the real world, even in bright environments.
While “Orion,” the pair of development-purpose glasses, which is said to be available next year, should feature microLED technology.
Furthermore, Meta’s Artemis glasses may have a limited field of view of only 50 degrees, as they will use a glass waveguide instead of silicon carbide.
The use of silicon carbide would have been a differentiating factor since it would allow 70-degree field-of-view, but it seems like the glasses would not be much different than Microsoft HoloLens’, which also happens to offer a 50-degree field-of-view.
Similar to Apple’s Vision Pro, the glasses would have an oval-shaped wireless puck with the purpose of offloading some computing tasks, while also acting as a battery, a 5G modem, a touchpad, and a lidar sensor.
Meta’s metaverse struggles are known to everyone, and the Quest Pro headset is reportedly taking the bait. According to a report, once Meta uses up its current parts, it will cease production of its most expensive headset. Additionally, the second-generation Quest Pro has been pushed back as Meta focuses on less expensive headsets, such as the upcoming Quest 3.
While Apple’s entry in the AR/VR segment was thought to give a new life to the segment, it is happening otherwise. The projections for Vision Pro do not look enticing, and Meta has cut back on its fancy AR glasses, while Google has entirely shut down the Iris project. Though, the competition might get lively as more manufacturers, such as Samsung, have plans to enter the segment in the coming years.