Partnership shapes future of smart eyewear

Building on the success of Ray-Ban’s Meta glasses, EssilorLuxottica and Meta have entered a long-term partnership to develop multi-generational smart eyewear products.

EssilorLuxottica chairman and CEO Francesco Milleri said the company is looking forward to continuing to chart the future of the category together with Meta. “The incredible work we’ve done with Meta, still in its early stages, has already proven to be an important milestone in our journey to making glasses the gateway to the connected world.”

Striking the right balance between form and function, the two generations of Ray-Ban Meta glasses released to the market have garnered excitement and widespread adoption, said Milleri. The glasses, now a mainstream product, are in high demand in the markets they’re available in, including the US, Australia and many European countries including the UK and France, he added.

Introduced in 2023, the latest generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses have advanced technology built seamlessly into Ray-Ban’s iconic frames, offering hands-free connectivity, including the ability to make phone calls, capture and share photos and videos, listen to music and livestream content.

In other news, Meta has also revealed its new working prototype of augmented-reality glasses, Orion. Users will interact with the device using hand-tracking, voice commands and a wrist-based neural interface. Before its planned release in 2027, the company said it plans to refine the design to make it smaller and more affordable The Ray-Ban smart glasses are being upgraded with AI enhancements allowing real-time language translation and music streaming via voice commands. Meta said it also plans to introduce video generation capabilities and further AI functionalities across its platforms.