Meta aims to win smart glasses race at its Meta Connect conference Daniel HowleySeptember 16, 2025 at 9:10 PM 1 Meta (META) is spending tens of billions of dollars building out its AI infrastructure and software.
- - Meta aims to win smart glasses race at its Meta Connect conference
Daniel HowleySeptember 16, 2025 at 9:10 PM
1
Meta (META) is spending tens of billions of dollars building out its AI infrastructure and software. The company is expected to showcase at least some fruits of that labor during its Meta Connect conference at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Wednesday.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg will kick things off with a keynote at 8 p.m. ET. He's expected to reveal a number of new smart glasses, including the company's anticipated Hypernova glasses, which feature a built-in display that can provide users with walking directions, translate text, and more.
Meta is already a leader in the smart glasses space thanks to its Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses. While those include built-in cameras, microphones, and speakers and provide AI capabilities, they don't include a display.
During Meta Connect 2024, the company unveiled a prototype of its Project Orion smart glasses that include a built-in display and augmented reality functionality that projects virtual items onto the real world.
The Hypernova glasses won't take things that far. They'll have a screen, but according to a video clip posted to Meta's YouTube page and spotted by UploadVR before it was mysteriously removed, the glasses, which could be called Meta Ray-Ban Display, will provide things like turn-by-turn walking directions, live text translation, and more.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion AR glasses at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Sept. 25, 2024. (Reuters/Manuel Orbegozo/File Photo) (Reuters / Reuters)
A wrist strap allows you to input text by writing things out on a flat surface and translating your movements into words and phrases, according to the video.
But don't expect the Hypernova glasses to come cheap.
"To get some traction among consumers, I'd expect the 'Hypernova' glasses to ... sell between $800 and $1,000," Forrester vice president and principal analyst Thomas Husson explained.
"At such a price point, they aren't likely to be volume sellers and will primarily focus [on] early adopters who can afford them," he added. "We're still far away from the ... full-fledged 'computer' described in the Meta Orion project, but no doubt the heads-up display (HUD) glasses partially controlled by a wristband will demonstrate innovation capabilities."
TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X that he expects Meta's glasses to enter mass production in the third quarter and for the company to ship between 150,000 and 200,000 units over the first two years.
In addition to the Hypernova glasses, Meta is expected to show off a new style of its Oakley-branded smart glasses using the line's Sphaera styling. Unlike the company's Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, which have cameras on the left and right arms, the cameras will be moved to the center of the glasses, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Meta isn't the only company working to bring smart glasses to mainstream consumers. Google (GOOG, GOOGL), which famously unveiled its Google Glass smart glasses in 2013 before discontinuing sales in 2023, is developing its own AR-based glasses.
During its I/O developer conference in May, Google provided demos of glasses running its Android XR augmented reality software and Gemini AI assistant.
According to The Information, Amazon (AMZN) is also developing consumer AR smart glasses, as well as glasses for its drivers. Apple (AAPL) is also working on its own smart glasses, according to Bloomberg's Gurman.
Smart glasses are seen as a potential successor to smartphones. Zuckerberg has chafed for years at the control Apple and Google have over app developers. If the company can take hold of the smart glasses market like Apple and Google did with the smartphone market, Zuckerberg would no longer have to worry about third-party companies controlling his apps.
In addition to its smart glasses, expect Meta to reveal updates to its Meta AI app and services. Zuckerberg previously said that Meta AI has more than 1 billion monthly active users, though that's via apps like Instagram that have the AI assistant already built in rather than through the company's standalone Meta AI app.
Meta and rival OpenAI (OPAI.PVT), among others, are also facing increased scrutiny around so-called AI delusions, in which some users begin to believe that AI chatbots are intelligent beings. Child safety related to AI bots has also become a major issue.
In April, the Wall Street Journal published a report showing that Meta's AI bots could have sexual conversations with users, including children. And in August, Reuters reported that Meta's own internal documents allowed its bots to have "romantic or sensual" chats with children.
Earlier this month, the FTC launched an inquiry into AI chatbots and their impact on children and teens.
Sign up for Yahoo Finance's Week in Tech newsletter. (yahoofinance)
Email Daniel Howley at [email protected]. Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley.
Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Source: "AOL Money"
Source: DEVI MAG
Read More >> Full Article on Source: DEVI MAG
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities