Facebook's smart glasses can take calls and photos, lack augmented reality

Facebook Inc. unveiled its long-awaited smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban, entering a nascent wearables market with a focus on capturing photos rather than augmented reality.

The social network on Thursday showed off the glasses, called Ray-Ban Stories -- a direct rival to Snapchat’s Spectacles. The $299 Facebook glasses, which use EssilorLuxottica SA-owned Ray-Ban’s classic Wayfarer frame style, let users take photos and video, listen to music and answer phone calls. While they lack AR, the technology that overlays digital content on the physical world, Facebook says it eventually plans to embed that functionality.

“We are building towards AR glasses