Oorion - describes what's near, helps avoid obstacles and helps find items and text

Introduction

OOrion, spelt O O R I O N, is a free app which offers five powerful tools for exploring what's around you and finding specific items. It's very simple to use and works well with VoiceOver. All of Oorion's 5 tools work without an internet connection although more detailed information is provided when an internet connection is available. 

Oorion has an AI voice assistant front end but can also be used with touch gestures. It is also possible to use the camera of Meta AI glasses for hands-free use of Oorion with spoken commands.

Voice Assistant

Oorion's AI voice assistant can be used to start any of its five tools. If you ask for assistance with your surroundings, the assistant will start the most appropriate tool. Alternatively, you can just ask it to start the tool.

Thanks to the 6 April DoubleTap podcast Oorion demonstration by Shaun Preece, I now know that the voice assistant is more powerful than I previously understood and doesn't just start one of the 5 tools. Shaun demonstrated it responding very well to a request to advise him of obstacles in his path and updating as he walked along a very quiet street. I've now tried this several times myself. My vision is good enough to know that warnings are sometimes too late and also incomplete but this feature does provide useful additional information that a long cane or guide dog obviously can't. It did stop me from walking into a low fence that I hadn't spotted between two low bollards in a long row of bollards. Use this kind of tool in association with all your usual mobility skills. The AI can provide fantastically useful information but can sometimes be too late or simply just wrong. Don't let it override your judgement.

OOrion's five tools

Search object

This lets you search for one of a long list of pre-defined objects. The list is extremely varied and includes items like ascending staircase, banana, bus stop, chair, ear buds case and much more. You can search within the list and also select from a list of recent searches. This tool also uses AI to search for items not in its pre-trained list. Once seen, guidance to the object is given.

Search text

This helps you find a word or phrase. I use this quite a lot while shopping, especially when the network isn't good enough for my Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses to assist with their own search. When spotted, guidance to the text is provided.

Nearby objects

This speaks all the objects that are visible to the camera together with location information. If left running this behaves similarly to a Live AI and performs well with Meta AI glasses but prolonged use with the glasses will drain their battery fairly quickly.

Nearby text

This speaks any short sections of text you point the camera towards. It's designed primarily for reading notices and posters.

Personal Objects

This allows you to scan and name your own objects after which you will be able to search for them.

Use of Oorion with Meta AI glasses

In April 2026 my impression is that this feature is still a work in progress not just with Oorion but also with the toolkit that Meta provides for developers. Following upgrades to Oorion its stability with the glasses now seems to be good.  The app's instructions for setting up the glasses worked without hitch for me and now, if I'm wearing my glasses when I start the app, it uses the camera on my glasses automatically. When I have finished my session with Oorion it seems to be necessary to close Oorion in the App Switcher to regain control of the glasses with Meta commands. 

When Nearby Objects or obstacle alerts are requested there is a continuous flow of images and text between the phone and glasses and this places a high load on the glasses battery. If you want to use these features for a prolonged period I suggest you experiment first with fully charged glasses to discover how long to expect this to work before the glasses give their "shutting down soon" warning at 15% battery level.

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last updated 30 April 2026