Meta's Aria Gen 2 paves the way for truly smart smart glasses

Meta's got a pair of smart glasses that are so packed with bleeding edge tech, they truly deserve the "smart" moniker.

Announced earlier this year, the Aria Gen 2 are Meta's "research glasses," meaning they probably won't be available to the general public any time soon. However, the technologies used will probably bleed into Meta's other projects like Orion. In a new blog post Wednesday, Meta revealed some of the capabilities it managed to build into these fairly regular-looking glasses.

The Aria Gen 2 glasses are equipped with an array of cameras, including one for eye-tracking and four computer vision cameras, seven spatial mics, a barrage of sensors including an ambient light sensor, a barometer, a heart rate monitor, and stereo speakers. The glasses themselves are fairly lightweight, weighing 74 to 76 grams, depending on size.

Meta puts all that hardware to good use. The company says the four computer vision cameras produce a wider field of view and enable advanced 3D hand and object tracking. The new ambient light sensor also aids computer vision and processing, as its ultraviolet mode can distinguish between indoor and outdoor lighting.

The company says it uses SubGHz radio technology to broadcast timing information, so that it can align time and minimize delay between other Aria Gen 2 devices or compatible devices that support this tech.

The glasses also have an advanced eye tracking system that knows when the wearer is blinking or when their pupils dilate. And the photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, built into the nosepad, enables the glasses to track the wearer's heart rate.

Meta says it will open up applications that work with Aria Gen 2 "later this year," and researchers who'd like to try out the tech can sign up for the Aria Gen 2 interest list.

The advances listed above are notable as other manufacturers, including Apple, reportedly race to build their own version of lightweight smart glasses. Judging by the work that Meta's engineers have put into the Aria Gen 2, Apple will have to push hard to match or surpass them.

We'll probably find out more about the Aria Gen 2 smart glasses in a week, as Meta plans to showcase them during the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR) which starts June 11 in Nashville, Tennessee.