Facebook Anounces Smart Ray-Bans Ahead Of Apple Glass’ Debut

Facebook announced its plan to launch its own set of smart glasses. The social media giant revealed that it is working with Ray-Ban to produce the first pair of smart glasses aimed at consumers. The announcement underlined that Facebook would not allow Apple Glass to saturate the intelligent glasses industry all to itself.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement about smart Ray-Ban glasses at the opening keynote of the all-virtual Facebook Connect conference. At this point, it is not clear what features the upcoming device will have. However, Facebook reportedly confirmed to The Verge that it would not be classified as an Augmented reality (AR) device.

Additionally, the smart Ray-Ban glasses will not come with an integrated display. Essentially, the upcoming spectacle could be something closer with Amazon's Echo Frames or that of Snap Spectacles. These smart glasses are part of the company's AR space.

These smart Ray-Ban glasses would be reportedly built on Project Aria-the company's research prototype. Currently, Project Aria prototype shows a Wayfarer-like design sporting thick frames. It seemingly has dual cameras positioned beside the lenses and a large overall mold that curves inward to the head.

Facebook Reality Labs Vice President Andrew Bosworth describes them as the "the first truly fashionable smart glasses." The upcoming smart glasses will enable wearers to utilize communication apps. Many tech companies have a high interest in augmented reality applications and wearable devices and smart glasses are the conduits of the two.

The social media giant is planning to start testing Project Aria in real-world conditions in the coming days. It would definitely work on ironing out issues concerning video recording, privacy and design details. Unlike Facebook's smart Ray-Ban glasses, Apple AR Glasses seemed to be focused on the display and on how it could be used to interact with the real world.

A recently discovered Apple patent described how the rumored Apple AR Glass could chroma key a background easily to sync with an iPhone and display text, games, emails and other apps. Another patent reveals that the Apple AR Glass could adjust itself without the need for prescription glasses.

Facebook aims to release the smart Ray-Ban glasses in 2021.