Facebook’s Ray-Ban Glasses Leaked and They Look Awfully Familiar

After years of murmurs, Facebook was all set to formally announce its first pair of “smart” sun shades at this time. Ray-Ban, Facebook’s accomplice on this venture, even put up a splashy site teasing the announcement two days in the past. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even posted video clips supposedly taken with the gadget. And then the glasses leaked.

The photos have been posted on Twitter by prolific leaker Evan Blass. And they appear a helluva lot like Snap’s Spectacles. Not the newest one, however the earlier variations that flopped laborious a number of years in the past. From the pictures, it seems just like the glasses are known as Ray-Ban Stories, and are available three kinds dubbed Round, Wayfarer, and Meteor. Like Snap’s Spectacles, there’s a digicam on every hinge and at a look, they appear to be an everyday pair of Ray-Bans. Otherwise, there are chunky arms—which probably home the battery—and a set of button controls on the correct. Other than that, it’s laborious to inform if this stuff will do the rest moreover report video.

None of this could come as a shock. We’ve recognized that these glasses have been coming since 2019. We additionally knew this pair wouldn’t have the superior AR options you’d affiliate with the time period “smart glasses.” The firm blatantly instructed the Verge that the glasses wouldn’t have an AR display final yr. In a current earnings name, Zuckerberg additionally stated the glasses would have Ray-Ban’s “iconic form factor” and would “let you do some pretty neat things.” He additionally commented that he was wanting ahead to “full augmented reality glasses in the future.” The principal query is whether or not these “pretty neat things” embody something aside from taking brief movies.

Facebook hasn’t been shy about its AR and VR ambitions. Facebook Reality Labs Research, the division that works on these initiatives, has printed a number of deep dives into how the corporate envisions how AR will form our technological future. That contains all the things from “smart audio” and facial recognition, to delicate wristbands to manage AR along with your thoughts. Based on the pictures, nonetheless, it’s most likely secure to say that these glasses received’t be that a lot totally different from the good glasses we’ve already seen.

The Echo Frames, Bose Frames, and Razer Anzu are all comparable glasses—although they lack the power to report video. They perform extra like headphones in that they allow you to take calls, hearken to music, and use your telephone’s digital assistant. It’s attainable the Ray-Ban Stories can even do this stuff, although we’ll have to attend for the official particulars to know for positive.

Another query is how snug individuals will really feel about sporting sun shades made by Facebook with cameras built-in. The Portal gave individuals the heebie-jeebies. Back in 2014, a lady in San Francisco was additionally assaulted for wearing Google Glass at a bar. A giant purpose why that occurred? People on the bar have been reportedly upset at the possibility of being recorded. Combine these two issues, and it’s straightforward to see why Facebook branding is essentially absent from the glasses themselves.

We’ll need to see how the Ray-Ban Stories do. So far individuals haven’t appeared notably eager on this kind of good glasses, and technically, we’ve been right here earlier than with the Snap Spectacles. But who is aware of? Maybe Facebook’s figured one thing out.