Facebook’s teaming up with Ray-Ban for smartglasses project

Facebook is working with Ray-Ban on a pair of smartglasses, according to a new report.

CBNC reports that Facebook has sought external help after struggling to make headway with its internal smartglasses projects, which have yielded the odd patent sketch and leak over the last couple of years, but no actual products.

Read more:Our guide to Facebook’s plans in the AR space

The partnership with Luxottica-owned Ray-Ban might well accelerate Facebook’s progress, and it’s now hoping that smartglasses could be in the hands of consumers sometime between 2023 and 2025. In other words, this isn’t exactly imminent in terms of the market.

Codenames are always fun, though, and Facebook’s come up with a doozy – the glasses are called Orion for now, according to CNBC’s sources.

In more grounded terms, though, apparently the glasses will allow users to take calls, and would project information to the wearer with a small display.

You’ll also apparently be able to livestream your viewpoint on social media sites – something that even Snap’s latest Spectacles can’t do in real-time.

Most current smartglasses, if they have cameras, send images or clips captured to your smartphone for sharing and viewing.

It’s become clear over time that Mark Zuckerberg is particularly interested in the idea of consumer smartglasses, and Facebook’s reportedly had hundreds of employees working on the project in recent years.

But, as Google Glass demonstrated, it’s difficult to fit technology into an attractive consumer product. This partnership could change that – we’ll continue to keep track of Facebook’s movements on smartglasses moving forward.