Facebook Releases First Generation Ray-Ban Stories Smart Glasses

Social Media giant, Facebook, has been at the forefront of virtual reality since its acquisition of Oculus, and investing heavily in VR and AR in the recent years.

Earlier this month, Facebook launched its first smart glasses as the first step towards true augmented reality.

In partnership with Ray-Ban producer, EssilorLuxottic, the Facebook AR glasses enables users to receive calls, listen to music, take photos and videos, and share on Facebook.

The glasses is called "Ray-Ban Stories" will be on sell for $299. The Ray-Ban Stories is equipped with 5MP cameras. The twin-camera setup allow wearers to add 3D objects to their videos and pictures after uploading to the app.

The glass has a capture button as well as on-off switch. It also has a touch control that enables users to adjust volume and make/receive phone calls.

It comes with a pairs of discrete open-ear speakers and multi-direction microphone to capture audio sounds from all directions. According to Facebook, the Ray-Ban Stories glasses utilize beam forming technology to reduce background noise through suppression algorithm to enhance quality of phone calls. A portable leather can is used to charge the Bluetooth powered glasses, which lasts six hours per charge for continuous usage.

For safety and privacy measures, Facebook integrated a white LED to alert people around the Ray-Ban Stories wearers that photos and videos are being taken. User can capture 50 videos or 200 videos before uploading them onto a smartphone app, called the View , available for download from Apple store and Google Playstore.

One immediate disadvantage of this new generation smart glasses is that it isn't waterproof or splashproof. 

The Ray-Ban Stories is available for sales online here, as well as selected retails stores across US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom.