Facebook has announced launch smart glasses that will give consumers a “new way to capture photos and video, share your adventures”, apart from listening to music or taking phone calls — a step towards real augmented reality for mass consumers, but a move that some critics described as possible ‘launch of 24×7 surveillance’.

The smart glasses, built in partnership with Facebook and Ray Ban owner EssilorLuxottica, start at US$299 and will be available for purchase in 20 style combinations online and in select retail stores in the US, as well as Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and the UK.

The Ray-Ban Stories, as the smart glasses have been named,  has a dual integrated 5MP camera that let the wearer capture life’s moments as they happen from a “unique first-person perspective”.

“You can easily record the world as you see it, taking photos and up to 30-second videos using the capture button or hands-free with Facebook Assistant voice commands. A hard-wired capture LED lights up to let people nearby know when you’re taking a photo or video,” Facebook said in a statement Thursday.

The smart glass pairs with the new Facebook View app, so one can share stories and memories seamlessly with friends and social media followers. The Facebook View app on iOS and Android makes it easy to import, edit and share content captured on the smart glasses to apps on your phone: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat and more.

“You can also save content to your phone’s camera roll and edit and share from there. And new, exclusive post-capture enhancements built into Facebook View let you create unique content to put a special spin on your posts.

“Streamlined, open-ear speakers are built in, and Ray-Ban Stories’ three-microphone audio array delivers richer voice and sound transmission for calls and videos. Beamforming technology and a background noise suppression algorithm provide for an enhanced calling experience like you’d expect from dedicated headphones,” the tech company said.

However, the glasses have also raised privacy concerns. “We designed Ray-Ban Stories with privacy in mind, adding numerous built-in features to provide control and peace of mind to both device owners and bystanders. More information on these features, as well as our new guidelines for responsible use, can be found on the Ray-Ban Stories privacy microsite,” the company has added.

Facebook India head Ajit Mohan on LinkedIn Friday morning said: “Excited to share that we launched Ray-Ban Stories yesterday, our first-generation smart glasses…that give you a new way to capture photos and video, share your adventures, and listen to music or take phone calls.”

Commenting on Mohan’s post, a tech industry expert Ajit K. Menon said, “Massive privacy intrusion ! Sorry to spoil the party!” Singapore-based Fashion TV exec Manivel Malone chipped in by saying “fully agree (with Menon)” 

However, skepticism on privacy apart, people around the globe are looking forward to the FB Ray Ban Stories.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report stated that major tech firms, including Amazon.com Inc., Google, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, and Snap Inc., have raced to develop various smart glasses products, but early offerings like Google Glass proved difficult to sell to consumers who were put off by high price points and design issues.

Snap, which unveiled its smart Spectacles in 2016, this year launched AR glasses but they are not for sale and are offered only to AR creators. Snap’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, said in 2019 that he expected it would be a decade before consumers widely adopted AR smart glasses.

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, recently announced the company was setting up a team to work on building the metaverse, a shared virtual environment which it is betting will be the successor to the mobile internet.

“We’ve believed for a long time that glasses are going to be an important part of building the next computing platform,” said Zuckerberg in a video posted on his Facebook page on Thursday.

The company also said it would not use the content of the photos or videos captured using the glasses and stored in the Facebook View app for personalizing ads, and said the glasses would be an “ads-free experience.”