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I didnt want to love it.
But I cant do that because I enjoyed every bit of it, almost to the point of giddiness.
The look like fat glasses
Lets back up for a minute.
Orion looked like everythingGoogleonce hopedGoogle Glasscould be and, honestly, everything Apple Vision Pro should be today.
I read some of the early hands-on' with interest and some jealousy.
The look like fat glasses
Even so, I assumed it couldnt be that good.
Meta invited me to its New York headquarters this week to wear and try Orion for myself.
Meta worked quickly in the intervening years to shrink the system.
You can bend some at the hinges, but I never fully collapsed them
By 2022, the project, then known as Balboa, was a torn-down Quest Pro.
It was only marginally smaller in 2023.
Even so, Meta has yet to fit everything inside the frames.
This is how we got here. Yes, the guy on the left is wearing a backpack.
Some supporting custom silicon lives in the wireless puck.
Ive used some of the EMG bands in the past and they were bulky and uncomfortable.
Orions companion band is not much thicker than a sweatband and no less comfortable.
The puck has some vestigial technology that’s not being used. During my demo, I never touched it.
Orions defining feature, though, may be its display system.
The resolution ends up being 13 pixels per degree (ppd).
The specs are fascinating, but the experience is what convinced me.
This band provides Electromyography input. If it’snot tight enough, it pickup receive the signals.
I just got a glimpse of our AR glasses' future.
The only adjustment Metas team insists on is finding the right nose piece.
He mostly troubleshoots and reboots from afar; otherwise, I get to drive Orion.
The right nose guard is important.
In addition to the smart glasses, Im fitted with an EMG band.
I had less success with a flicking gesture that was supposed to let me scroll.
Throughout my lengthy demo, the EMG band slowly slips down my wrist and eventually hangs like a bracelet.
Meta supplied mewith some b-roll images of the experiences. These images closely match what I saw.
Naturally, this means it can’t read any of my gestures.
If I keep it high and tight on the wrist and use slightly assertive gestures, it works consistently.
I have several core Orion experiences, and each one was impressive in its own way.
Differnt room but the collection of ingredients is basically the same and, yes, I saw the labels appear right over the ingredients.
When I get up and move around, the screen stays in place.
I can even look at it from the side.
It really looks like part of my real world.
“Give me a recipe”
I can see the home gesture to pull the interface in front of me.
Then I say, Give me a recipe.
Its something we do all the time without the assistance of AI.
Multitasking in AR is a thing.
The 3D mapping here is spot on.
Within a few moments, I have a usable recipe that I could page through.
The flick gesture doesn’t work here, either.
I get very serious when I’m playing AR games.
As we talk, I look around at the three screens.
Its hard to assess the image quality at the edges because, well, Im not looking there.
When I do, everything is in focus.
This multiplayer game was a lot more fun than it looks.
Put another way, the image doesnt distort if you look at it incorrectly.
I think this is what helps with the casually immersive feel of the Orion experience.
If the headset wasnt on right, things looked weird.
Yup, this accurately represents what I saw.
Orion can play games.
I dont know why it’s happening, but I quickly return to gameplay by using the home gesture.
After that, we play a multiplayer game.
I don’t fare as well here, though, and lose both rounds.
After we play, they encourage me to step around the play area to see it from the side.
My losing playfield is aglow; I reach out to touch…nothing.
The material remains very much on the list of display technology possibilities.
They had the pair in the room and offered to let me try them out.
It looked pretty good.
Now, though, on the 26ppd Orion smart glasses, there was a noticeable difference in image quality.
The players faces and the ballpark were all clearly sharper.
Orion felt like glasses, very, very smart and AR-capable glasses.
What if the future is almost now?
