Meta Previews Feature Updates for Ray-Ban Display Smart Glasses
Meta announced upcoming software enhancements for its Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, featuring real-world landmark-based navigation, granular notification management, and an "Explore" hub for web apps. The update also introduces AI-generated Hologram avatars for WhatsApp video calls, animating user expressions in real time using microphone audio. These updates significantly improve the day-to-day usability of AR wearables by delivering intuitive visual navigation cues and reducing notification fatigue. Furthermore, using audio-driven AI avatars elegantly solves a major physical limitation of smart glasses, where outward-facing cameras cannot record the wearer's own face during video calls. Setting up the Hologram avatar requires scanning one's face in the Meta AI mobile app and providing a one-minute audio sample. In addition to landmark cues such as turning at recognizable buildings, the updated navigation engine adds dedicated modes for cycling and public transportation.
## BACKGROUND
Smart glasses place cameras pointing away from the user to record their surroundings, which prevents standard selfie-style video chatting. Audio-driven facial animation models allow systems to synthesize realistic 3D avatar movements matching spoken audio in real time, enabling virtual presence without needing inward-facing facial cameras.