Ray-Ban’s new Meta smart glasses will be able to translate text

Meta just took the wraps off its latest smart glasses at today’s Connect event in Menlo Park. We were able to spend a bit of time with the new wearables and were impressed by what they can do — specifically livestreaming, the biggest missing feature from the last gen.

Turns out Ray-Ban Meta will be getting additional features through a software update next year. The “multi-modal” update brings some intriguing real world features, including the ability to identity landmarks in front of you and translate signs.

It’s not quite the live voice translation Google promised on its still unreleased smart glasses a few years back, but it definitely paints the picture of how these sorts of glasses will become more capable moving forward. Of course, the lack of a head’s up display limits potential functionality, so the devices do most of the work through voice commands.