Meta And Ray-Ban Flag off Smart Glasses in India

After smartphones and smartwatches came smartglasses and the pioneers in this arena were Meta. Through a tie up with Ray-Ban, it had come up with snazzy models that looked and felt like ordinary spectacles, if only a little thicker. But while it had been on the market for years, Indians could only get it from abroad. On May 19, Meta will launch it here officially; preorders are available now on Ray-Ban’s website. Stores will also start selling it from that date onwards. Prices are in the range of ₹29,900 to ₹35,700, depending on model.

The glasses do a range of things from shooting photographs to playing music that can be heard without earphones. It can look at something and provide information on it. If, for example, you see a product in a shop, a voice command can make it give details. Another use is live translation while someone is speaking in a different language. Shooting photos and videos are easier because there is no additional step of pulling a mobile phone out.

Within its frame, the glasses have tucked away a power button, a 12 mega pixel camera that can also take short videos, small open speakers directed at the ear, a touchpad that increases volume by swiping, and can play or pause media. Battery life is four hours on a charge but with the case, which is also a charger, gives up to 36 hours.

Meta has integrated it with artificial intelligence (AI). A voice command brings up the chatbot that performs AI utilities. Its website says more features will become available later integrating it with Instagram. It states, ‘Coming soon, you will be able to send and receive direct messages, photos, audio calls, and video calls from Instagram hands-free on their glasses.’

Smart glasses are the precursors of augmented reality glasses which at present are clunky and lack portability, like Apple Vision Pro. Meta has one in the works that is close to a regular spectacle as possible but the launch date for that is undecided. With Xiaomi and Google also active in AR glasses, they have the makings of being the next thing in wearables.

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