A year ago I test-drove Meta’s next-generation concept AR glasses, called project Orion, in a room on the company’s campus in Menlo Park, California. They incorporated 3D displays and a wireless processor puck, but what wowed me was the futuristic neural wristband I wore to control them.
Meta’s research in EMG — electromyography, or sensing muscle impulses via electrical signals using wearable sensors — is becoming a reality. I expect Meta to release that neural band as an accessory to a new pair of glasses with embedded displays, code-named Hypernova, at its Meta Connect conference on Sept. 17. I’ll be there, so stay tuned for all the news.
Meta has plenty of other improvements that need to be made to its smart glasses (and VR, too), despite how good Meta Ray-Bans have already gotten. But the EMG band’s possibly imminent debut is one of the biggest shifts to Meta’s wearables strategy in years.
This means people could be wearing it very soon. And what exactly will be possible with the tech over time? We’re about to find out.
Mark Zuckerberg demoing an earlier version of the EMG band with me and other reporters in 2022.
A doorway to neural tech opens
EMG bands are what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg considers a whole new future paradigm for interfaces. Instead of camera-based hand tracking or controllers, these bands can register gestural moves like pinches, taps, thumb swipes, and maybe even typing over time.
When I tried the band last year, I was able to do a variety of small gestures to scroll, select things and navigate. Meta’s chief scientist for Reality Labs Research, Michael Abrash, has told me about the possibilities for its neural input tech over the years, which was acquired via CNTRL-Labs in 2019.
With my Orion demo, I also used my eyes. Eye tracking and wristband gestures were combined to make the interface navigation work. The experience was similar to what can be done in the larger Apple Vision Pro, but with an EMG band, gestures can be done even when out of sight of the glasses or headset, since it works independently.
Meta’s next glasses may not have eye tracking onboard, meaning the EMG band won’t necessarily feel as instantly responsive as my gaze-driven experiences a year ago. We’ll see.
The EMG band probably won’t be cheap. It’s expected to come packaged with Meta’s step-up display glasses, costing at least $800.
The EMG band on my wrist as I tried thumb gestures a year ago. Will the band stay screen-free, or become a watch, or both?
It could be a fitness watch, too. And how much will it cost?
Meta could go further with this muscle-sensing tech. Reports suggest Meta could make its own smartwatch that could help track fitness and health in VR and AR, and that watch could have EMG on board too. Meta’s wearables head, Alex Himel, already hinted to me that fitness news is coming soon.
It would also make sense for Meta to enable these bands to work with as many glasses and VR headsets as possible, but that might not happen. Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth told me in 2024 that a wristband wouldn’t be as necessary with display-free glasses, including existing Meta Ray Bans, since there wouldn’t be as much of a need for navigating an interface. Meta could see voice commands still being the way to go for display-free glasses.
EMG bands would also be a foot in the door to develop the technology ahead of Meta’s further moves in AR glasses, and a reportedly smaller VR visor coming in the future. And Meta needs to keep advancing this gestural tech as soon as possible, especially with competing options already emerging.
Apple already has some gestural functions on Apple Watch, and is expected to have AirPods with infrared cameras to register hand gestures next year. Other companies are trying to unlock gestures through cameras in-glasses, or via connected ring accessories or existing smartwatches.
Google’s display-enabled glasses are just one of several competing options happening at the same time.
Expect more glasses evolution, too
There are lots of other practical improvements I want to see from Meta Connect, too. I agree with my ZDNET colleague Jason Hiner that better battery life, improved camera quality, more AI functions, and general improved reliability and serviceability are important for Meta’s next-gen glasses.
Meta should also be pushing the boundaries on its smart glasses with an embedded display this time around, to compete with display-enabled specs from Google, Samsung, Amazon, Snap, TCL and many others expected in the next year or two.
That wristband, though, is something no other company has shown me before. To my eye it looks to be the most fascinating smart glasses wild card of all.
