Facebook Launches Ray-Ban Stories, Its First Smart Glasses: 10 Points

Facebook and Ray-Ban’s Ray-Ban Stories glasses price is set at $299 (roughly Rs. 21,970).

By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 10 September 2021 12:20 IST

Facebook Launches Ray-Ban Stories, Its First Smart Glasses: 10 Points

The Facebook glasses also have a physical switch for turning them off

Highlights

Facebook said it was combining specialists from across hardware, gaming
Cameras of Ray-Ban Stories are built into the front of the frames
Users can take a video clip of up to 30 seconds on Ray-Ban Stories

Facebook and iconic eyewear brand Ray-Ban on Thursday, September 9, launched their new smart glasses, the latest effort in a tricky, niche market but which the social media giant sees as a step toward its future. The Ray-Ban Stories shades can take pictures and video upon the wearer's voice commands, and the frames can connect wirelessly to Facebook's platform through an app. "We took our Wayfarer (frames), born in 1952, and we reinvented the design squeezing in some cool technology," said Fabio Borsoi, global research and design director at the EssilorLuxottica group, Ray-Ban's maker.

Facebook is wading into a market that has already seen 2013's Google Glass, which sparked a privacy backlash over built-in cameras and prompted the tech titan to pivot its focus for the device away from the general public. Messaging app Snapchat has also released its camera-equipped Spectacles, but they are pricey and have struggled to catch on broadly with tech lovers.

Ray-Ban Stories: Here are 10 points on its price, features, more

Priced starting at $299 (roughly Rs. 21,970), the Ray-Ban Stories will roll out in Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and the United States.
Notably, the Ray-Ban Stories glasses will not have augmented reality (AR) features -- technology that can mesh online computing with visual cues such as mapping or face recognition. Instead, the shades are an early step toward efforts to create futuristic eyewear that adds to real-world views with data or graphics from the Internet, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said previously.
The company had said in July it was combining specialists from across its hardware, gaming, and virtual reality units to build an immersive digital world known as the "metaverse."
Cameras are built into the front of the frames, while the arms are designed to act as directional speakers for listening to calls or streamed audio.
A white light in the front of the frame goes on when the cameras are being used, which is intended as a privacy feature to alert people they could be filmed.
Users can take a picture or a video clip of up to 30 seconds by pressing a button at the temple or using a voice command, both of which can be cues that a camera is on. "We need the user to feel completely in control of their capture experience," said Facebook Reality Labs product manager Hind Hobeika. "And, similarly, we need people around them to feel comfortable that these smart glasses exist and always be in the know when a capture is happening," Hobeika added, referring to filming.
The glasses also have a physical switch for turning them off.
Users log into the glasses' Facebook View app using their accounts at the social network. Ray-Ban Stories frames sync wirelessly to a smartphone app designed specifically for handling images or video captured by the glasses.
Users can decide using the app whether they want to share pictures or video they have just captured, such as posting to Facebook or attaching them to an email.
Only data needed to run the app is gathered, and no information is used for targeting advertisements, said Hobeika.

How will India's new liberalised drone rules impact the industry? And where are they left wanting? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.