In September of last year, and after having generated great expectations, Meta (Facebook, at that time) officially presented the Ray-Ban Stories, his first smart glasses, made in partnership with the well-known brand Ray-Ban, one of the references in the world market for sunglasses.
At first, the glasses were only available in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Italy, but six months later, Mark’s company has decided to take a step forward in its expansion and officially launch them in Austria, Belgium… and yes, Spain.
And they come with news.
How do the Ray-Ban Stories
with a price from €329, Ray-Ban Stories will be available both on the Ray-Ban website and in selected stores both from Spain, Austria and Belgium from today, and from April 14.
“During these six months, we have been amazed at how people have used their Ray-Ban Stories in their everyday lives. From parachute jumps to city walks to their favorite concerts, Ray-Ban Stories has helped spontaneously capture and share moments while allowing them to be there and not miss a thing.”the company explained.
The design is much more discreet and the thinnest that has been seen in this type of wearables until now. It has two integrated 5MP cameras that will allow users to take photos and videos, as well as listen to music and take phone calls with the speakers that are integrated into the mount.
to work the glasses must be connected to an iOS or Android device, although users will be able to take and store hundreds of photos or dozens of videos in the glasses before transferring them to their mobiles through their new .
If you were wondering why Ray-Ban and Facebook decided to integrate twin cameras into their glasses, it’s simple: They will allow you to add much more detailed 3D effects to images and videos once they are loaded into the application.
The new glasses weigh less than 50 grams and a hard leather charging case is included, while the battery promises an “all day” life. To control the glasses, a couple of physical buttons are included: the “capture” for recording media, and an on/off switch.
They also include a touch panel on the right arm of the glasses with which users can slide to adjust the volume or answer phone calls.
New features for Ray-Ban Stories
Meta has explained that from April it will present new combinations of colors and lenses, thinking of offering glasses for every day, “that filter light for perfect vision in all situations: indoors or outdoors, day or night, on top of a mountain or in front of the television.”
Among the new colors and lenses, the Ray-Ban Stories can be configured in 28 different combinations. Also, Meta has launched an augmented reality filter in Ray-Ban so that users can “try on” all the models and find out which glasses are best suited to them.
In addition to the new combinations, the software will include new features:
- Ray-Ban Stories will be able to record up to 60 seconds of video. Until now, they were limited to a maximum of 30 seconds. You will be able to select the length of videos between 30 and 60 seconds in the Facebook View app starting with the April update.
- sound notifications so you can know when the battery is running low, the storage is almost full, or the glasses are too hot or too cold (available in English).
- Use voice commands to control the glasses, as well as control the battery level (available in English).
- Ability to make calls, send messages and listen to voice memos from Messenger using your voice (available in English).
- The Facebook View app is available in SpanishFrench, Dutch and German.
Regarding this launch, Mark Zuckerberg assures that “Ray-Ban Stories are an important step towards a future where phones are no longer a central part of our lives and you don’t have to choose between interacting with a device or interacting with the world around you”.
The announcement about the new smart glasses on Ray-Ban’s page in September coincided with a post by Mark Zuckerberg, which he made alongside Andrew Bosworth, director of virtual and augmented reality at Facebook. In his video, taken from Bosworth’s point of view, it shows the two of them rowing a boat, wearing glasses that could be the same Ray-Ban and Facebook smart glasses.in an environment designed to highlight active scenarios and with diverse weather and environmental conditions, very conducive to showing the operation of the new glasses.
Following in the footsteps of Snapchat
Despite the great expectation, the idea of Facebook’s smart glasses is very similar to what it was a few years ago: glasses that are capable of capturing video to present it in the first person, a vision of the world as we see it, and that presumably now you can share directly on Facebook and Instagram, the
Of course, Zuckerberg’s vision could be to take his smart glasses further in the near future, and turn them entirely into an AR system, integrate a display screen that overlays digital elements directly onto your view of the world. In fact, this is part of the one that Facebook shared in September of last year and that we can see in the following video, where they describe the great potential that smart glasses could have:
However, as stated in the video, perhaps the long history of problems with it puts in check this more futuristic vision of the use of the giant’s glasses. In January of this year before your smart glasses and assured that the first version would not be equipped with augmented reality.
In fact the augmented reality factor would not be something new either: in 2014 the project of the , which, in effect, is a augmented reality goggle type “display device” even though they haven’t been fully released yet. In fact, last year Google began its tests to integrate Meet into its glasses as a way to improve videoconferences in teleworking.
Also keep in mind that while the functionality of capturing images and videos while wearing sunglasses dates back to 2016, the glasses designed to share content on Snapchat have not had the expected success, and that if the internet giant itself has not been able to complete the launch of its augmented reality glasses, it is very difficult to predict the future of Facebook smart glasses.
Despite the similarities with other types of wearables, this release is interesting on its own. especially given the fact that the style and design of the glasses will be handled by Ray-Ban, with a model that promises to be much more modern and attractive than the Spectacle or even the Google Glass.
As Bosworth: «Certainly, they are smart glasses that will provide many features, but we are being quite cautious about announcing the features that we will offer soon. We’re excited about the launch, but we don’t want to overdo it. We don’t even call it “augmented reality”, just “smart glasses”.
With the moderate launch of smart glasses that only transmit video to their favorite social networks, a function that many users are already accustomed to, perhaps Facebook can counter negative public perception in advance, And when you have your augmented reality ready, you can launch it with less resistance from users and the general public.
As for how similar smart glasses will be to Spectacles, Facebook could expect the sheer penetration of Facebook and Instagram usage globally by people of all ages to drive adoption. Be that as it may, we are sure that this launch is only the first contact of Facebook smart glasses with the world, and this week will possibly mark the first step towards a new stage of digital connection.
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