Facebook Ray Ban AR glasses in the works, patent filed

Facebook has been working on its augmented reality glasses for a while now. The company had filed a patent for such a device back in May. Since then, however, the company did not comment on the progress of the work on such a device.

On Tuesday, the social networking company tied up with the parent company of Ray-Ban, Luxottica, according to a report. CNBC reported that the device, which has been code-named Orion, has been designed to showcase smartphone-like capabilities.

According to the publication's sources, the companies claim that these glasses are designed to "replace smartphones." They will allow users to take calls and show information to users on a small mounted-display. Most importantly, users will be able to live-stream their point of view to the world.

It will also be voice-activated and an artificial intelligence voice assistant will let the user input commands, similar to one of the company's ring device Agios. It lets input commands via its motion sensor.

The partnership with Luxottica will provide brand value to the company's AR venture. It will also add a form factor that may be more appealing to users, than a Google Glass kind of mechanism.

The augmented reality glasses will be developed out of Facebook Reality Labs in Redmond, Washington. The company along with Luxottica is expected to hold a commercial launch between 2023 and 2025.

Both companies have not commented on the matter. While the device is currently in research and development stage and has a long window for launch, it may not hit the shelves at all. But, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shown a lot of interest in it, which may be the reason for this partnership.

The device is expected to compete with a range of smart glasses including Microsoft's HoloLens, Snap's Spectacles, Magic Leap One AR glasses, and other such smart glasses.