Hands On With Meta's Amazing 3-D Glasses, Which Are Poised To Take The World By Storm

Tucked away in the hills of Portola Vally, California, overlooking grass and trees and even some deer, you'll find the headquarters of Meta, which has been working on augmented reality glasses that they hope will change the future. And the world. 

The glasses aren't just for entertainment, and they're not just a smartphone for your face. This is a whole other segment of computing that enhances how you interact with the world around you.

A team of fewer than 50 people lives in a huge rented mansion on a 20-acre estate overlooking the wilderness west of Silicon Valley. It's something out of a movie, with a pool, a tennis court, and pictures of "Iron Man" Tony Stark adorning the walls. 

That's because the glasses that Meta is developing resemble something from an "Iron Man" movie. Look through the lenses, and physical objects are rendered virtually. Then, whatever you're looking at — be it a phone or a document or even a keyboard — can be all manipulated by your hands. 

"The future that we're envisioning has to do not only with showing awesome-looking holograms, but it has to do with collaborating and it has to do with eye contact," Meta CEO Meron Gribetz told me on a sunny Friday afternoon. "This is the first computer ever to allow you and I to make eye contact while we are looking at digital information at the same time. And we see it from different perspectives."

Meta has several experts on its team, including Professor Steve Mann, the inventor of wearable computing. Meta has also hired Jayse Hansen, the designer behind Tony Stark's holographic interfaces in the first and third "Iron Man" movies, to create a user interface that's basically the same as in the films.

The Meta 1 glasses have been shipping out to developers for $667. The MetaPro glasses, for consumers, however, will take things a step further, offering more-functional and better-looking frames. They'll arrive in the fall for around $3,650. But, Gribetz assured me, that price tag will be coming down "soon" for regular customers. 

"This is all going to be very cheap in the future," Gribetz said. 

You can preorder a pair, or sign up for a development kit, on their website.

The possibilities for such glasses are endless, whether it be playing games on your living room floor or sculpting a vase and sending it to a 3-D printer. You can check out videos on YouTube showing you what the glasses are capable of. And companies like Salesforce are already signed on to use the glasses for upcoming products.