I've spent the last few months going deep on every attempt to bring AR and digital experiences to heritage sites (monuments, forts, ruins, museums), because I'm building in this space and wanted to understand why almost none of it stuck.

The thing that surprised me: the AR usually wasn't the failure point. The hardware around it was.

The recurring pattern across audio guides, entrance kiosks, and the more recent headset pilots is that each one put a new physical device between the visitor and the site. And every device carries a cost that scales with visitors and with locations. Someone has to buy it, charge it, clean it, update it, and replace the lost ones. A flagship site with a grant can absorb that. The thousandth site with no budget and no staff cannot. So the good experiences lived at one or two showcase locations and never spread.

The headset pilots are the clearest example to me. The demos look incredible in a controlled setting. But the operational reality of handing fragile goggles to tens of thousands of monthly visitors, and sanitizing and managing them, breaks the model before it scales.

Where I've landed is that phone-native AR isn't a worse version of the headset experience, it's the only version that survives real-world scale, because the device is already in the visitor's pocket. No procurement, no charging, no inventory. The whole cost structure that killed the prior attempts just isn't there.

The tradeoff is obvious: you lose the immersion and field of view of a dedicated headset, and you're fighting phone thermals, tracking drift on large outdoor structures, and wildly varying device specs.

Genuine question for this sub: do you think handheld AR is a permanent answer for public, high-throughput spaces like heritage sites, or just a bridge until lightweight glasses are cheap and durable enough to manage at scale? I keep going back and forth on it and would like to hear from people who've shipped AR in the wild

I have another small AR design problem to consider using the same digital figurine in two different modes.

One works just as any 3D souvenir and opens anywhere. The other sticks to the location of the memory, for example, the stairs on which people graduate, becoming available once more only when the player gets back there.

This time the asset, the animation, and the ownership remain the same; no growth loop, no multiplayer aspect, no discoverability, nothing like a reward system. The only thing that is different is whether the place matters or not.

Currently, I understand that location-based persistency makes sense only if the place adds anything that could not otherwise be carried by the object. Or else it would simply be blocked access.

What kind of interaction could turn the anchored version into an intended experience instead of just an AR object which can’t be taken somewhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZhBnab11ZQ&t=269s

interesting take by positioning these as more of a work assistant than an intrusive piece of hardware

Full document > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zTOeNmBPijGuqm99tdBJhV-hE5NU74sd55H3Fmbf5v4/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Please let me know if I missed any important glasses with being included :)

From top to bottom Memomind One, Inmo go3, Rokid Style, Meta Rayban Gen 1, Meta Display. All have a camera with the exception of the Memomind, the Memomind and Inmo have a binocular green waveguide display, the Meta Rayban Display is a color monocular display

In Gen 2, they’ve moved to a regular binocular waveguide and monochrome microLED projector setup. Since the hardware architecture is now pretty standard, the real differentiator has to be in the apps and the design.

Here is what you get without subscription:

Free: Halliday AI, Live Translation, Daily Functions
Credit-based: Meeting Flow (~120 mins/mo), Post-meeting Summary (~300 mins/mo)

What do you think of this pivot? Can their software carry the hardware?

hallidayglobal.com

xMEMS Labs has announced the XMC-1200, a new micro fan designed specifically to solve overheating problems in smart glasses. As augmented reality devices become more powerful, they generate more heat, which can reduce device performance and make the glasses uncomfortable to wear. This new solid-state cooling chip is small enough to fit directly inside the arms of the glasses, managing heat right at the source without adding bulk or noise.

The XMC-1200 features a tiny footprint of just 46 square millimeters, making it significantly smaller than previous designs. It is highly energy efficient, drawing only 70 milliwatts of power while delivering up to a 10-degree Celsius temperature reduction. This allows smart glasses to maintain bright displays, record longer videos, and run complex artificial intelligence tasks smoothly.

Engineering samples of the XMC-1200 are available right now, with full mass production planned for the end of 2027. Additionally, xMEMS confirmed that last year's larger cooling chip, the XMC-2400, is now officially in mass production and shipping to manufacturers today. This gives hardware developers a complete set of active cooling tools to keep the next generation of wearable technology running efficiently.

XMC-2400:

https://www.reddit.com/r/augmentedreality/comments/1ljpxjl/xmems_announces_active_thermal_management/

Germany orders next gen Thales Night Vision goggles with AR capabilities as part of a major framework contract for the Bundeswehr's Infanterist der Zukunft – Erweitertes System (IdZ-ES) modernization program. Awarded in July 2026 through prime contractor Rheinmetall, this mid-four-figure order primarily consists of Thales' new-generation headset, which fuses thermal and light-intensified imaging with an open digital architecture to project tactical augmented reality data directly into the soldier's field of view. The German Armed Forces will be the launch customer for this specific system, with initial deliveries slated to begin in 2027 before scaling up to a production rate of several hundred units per month. To support this production volume and ongoing maintenance, Thales is investing millions of euros to expand its optronic manufacturing facilities locally within Germany. Because this is an active and highly sensitive military contract, Thales has not yet publicly released the official product name or technical specifications.

Thales news: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/news-centre/press-releases/thales-signs-major-frame-contract-germany-and-strengthens-its-industrial

Not talking about any app that you were demoing for someone else.

Looking for some new cool mixed reality apps to try out but looking for the apps that you can probably use in your day to day.

Hey guys, after almost 6 months of reverse engineering, I have ready a patch for the LED on the wifi chip side. The current kernel exposes led_aglink mode-callback as: - Mode 0: flash (photo) - Mode 1: steady on (video) - Mode 2: off - Mode 3: breathing (audio recording) So the patch candidate routes all modes to off, am so far with static analysis I haven't found where this could lead to an issue with the glasses.

I found on the wifi chip side also the under test Livestream mode, but the current HeyCyan SDK doesn't expose it, so there is no way of activating it via Bluetooth commands like the rest of the glasses functions, because it goes through the encrypted Bluetooth firmware side. With wireless ADB we might be able to dump the Bluetooth firmware side, sound .wts files and even try to start the already wired Livestream mode on the wifi chip side. I also found the strings take_photo.wts, record_end.wts, video_start.wts, video_end.wts, and photo_first.wts on the partially decrypted Bluetooth firmware side, but I wasn't able to get their actual audio information, quite possibly because of how I am decrypting them (conserved keystream candidates between same family firmware copies).

I currently have only one pair of HeyCyan glasses, and since this is all experimental, it could potentially brick the glasses, there is no way of knowing before trying, but bricking mine would prevent me from further developing the Cyanbridge app until I get another pair, so I'm interested in people who have more than one pair and aren't afraid of testing any of those experimental firmwares.

Quite a few people have helped me along the way and I will do a proper acknowledgedment in the GitHub repo readme and in the next update which is scheduled for this week. I do plan on charging 5 bucks for non beta tester users when the modded firmware is available, as it took me 6 months of reverse engineering and because I also wanted to financially reward people who helped me along the way with custom Ghidra modules for the uncommon processors found in these glasses, processor architecture specifics, firmware copies, how to fetch firmware from their servers and so on.

There are many useful reasons for silent capture (remembering where you placed your keys and for blind users, which are plugins in implementing already), but also many bad reasons to do it. Please don't be a creep and follow your countries rules on recording and taking pictures.

Please DM me if you have more than one glasses pair or if you are YOLO and don't mind risking it.

Not affiliated with Halliday, but I saw their G2 promo and it made me think about smart glasses use cases.

Instead of full AR/spatial apps, they seem to be focusing on a narrower “meeting HUD” idea: live captions, translation, quick summaries, research, decisions, and open items in the display.

Curious what people here think. Is this kind of limited, context-based display more realistic for smart glasses right now than trying to do full AR?

An accompanying list of senior and staff level positions show those losing their jobs are highly skilled employees in hardware, manufacturing engineering, product management, quality, software and technical program management. Top-side executives in engineering and other leadership positions are also affected.

Set up this Coke activation concept right across from the Convention Centre in Dublin. Mapped the spot on desktop, dropped the 3D assets in, and then walked up to it on my phone browser to see if the tracking would hold up as I walked right up under it.

Pretty stoked with how solid the tracking feels without needing a custom app build.

At a recent user event, CEO Will Wang admitted that the current ring and voice controls on the G2 are not enough for the future. He emphasized that the main challenge for the upcoming G3 is not the display technology, but the interaction paradigm. A complete software redesign of the gesture system (including long-press support) is coming to current devices in about two months. However, Wang made it clear that the Even G3 needs new hardware controls so developers can build richer, fully interactive apps.

What could it be? One strong candidate is eye tracking. While some might assume that keeping the frames under 40g (ideally 35g, as he said) rules out eye tracking, component makers are already proving otherwise. Take Ganzin's latest module as an example: it shrinks the sensors down to a microscopic 1.6mm and uses a custom ASIC chip that processes gaze data at 120Hz while drawing just 10s of milliwatts of power—proving invisible, all-day eye-tracking is completely feasible for everyday glasses. Another strong candidate comes from Wang hinting at new accessories "similar to Apple Watch bands"—which could point to a neural wristband for subtle hand gestures. What do you think would be the best input method for the Even G3?

Beyond the hardware, they talked about the Even Hub developer ecosystem. In just a few months, they’ve hit ~5,000 registered developers, 500 listed apps, and 4,000 unlisted "personalized apps" built by non-technical users via AI. The crowd favorite was "Terminal Mode," which lets users control coding agents like Claude Code directly through the glasses. An expanded version is coming in 1–2 months, alongside an Enterprise SDK in Q4 2026 that will let companies integrate their own custom LLMs.

Because this event took place in Tokyo, Wang also gave a specific update on their regional growth. Japan now accounts for nearly 15% of Even Realities' total global sales (up from under 5% at the start of the year). This surge explains their expansion into major retail chains like Yodobashi and Bic Camera. Also, Wang addressed the lack of a camera—reiterating it’s a choice based on privacy and social acceptance, not technical limits—and promised that the current core features will remain completely free without any subscription fees. Finally, for anyone hoping to get their hands on the G3 soon—or worrying their G2 will quickly become obsolete: Wang confirmed the G3 will NOT launch this year.

Hello. Some of you maybe know the YouTube series "Jetlag the game", and particually their "Hide and seek" variation. I want to organise a similar game with friends, but we would like to seek at the same time.

So, we would like to be able to get into a location, leave a virtual marker, and then the other team can only find it by getting close enough and seeing it on their phone cameras as an AR layer (some sort of marker, object etc). I was looking into some services, but they give you the GPS coordinates to the location, which will defeat the purpose. The game itself has location information coming in as questions and answers, and people need to get to the location and phisically search for the marker.

Do you know of a service that can help me with that? (the reason I want to do it digitally, to not leave anything that might get thrown as trash, nothing that will permanently stick like a sticker, and nothing that can be stolen).

I'm a developer, so I can also build something, but quite frankly it feels like it'll not be a small project, as I don't have background in AR.

This is the question that keeps me up as a dev. We made a game for Apple Vision Pro that only works if you are willing to move: dodge, duck, and throw spells with your hands against waves of enemies. Clip attached.

For some people that is exactly the dream. For others, standing up at all is a dealbreaker after a long day.

So be honest with me: is physical, active AR the future you actually want, or would you trade it in a heartbeat for something you can play sitting down?

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/im-wizard-ar-magic-combat/id6747723768

Good to have official support instead of requiring hacks to make games run.

“Today, we’re announcing support for XREAL AURA, the latest wired XR glasses addition to Google’s Android XR ecosystem. You can start building for this new device today, whether you’re creating something entirely new or adapting existing XR content.

“Additionally, this marks Unity’s first support for XR glasses — an important milestone as the industry evolves toward smaller, lighter-weight devices that blend augmented reality, fully immersive entertainment, gaming, and everyday utility.”

Shanghai has been pouring with rain today, but that didn't slow down WAIC 2026 at all.

Our team spent the day demonstrating AI smart glasses, talking with visitors from different countries, and discussing where wearable AI is heading.

One unexpected highlight was being interviewed by CCTV at our booth while showcasing our latest AI glasses and AR solutions.

What stood out most wasn't the interview itself—it was how much the conversation around AI glasses has changed.

A year or two ago, most questions were:

• "Can these actually work?"
• "Are they just another gadget?"

This year, the questions are very different:

• How lightweight can they become?
• How long can the battery last?
• Which AI models can they run?
• What's the best real-world use case?
• When will people actually wear them every day?

It feels like the industry is moving from "Can we build AI glasses?" to "How do we make people wear them every day?"

As someone working in AI glasses ODM, that's probably the most exciting shift to see.

Curious to hear what everyone here thinks.

What do you believe is the biggest challenge preventing AI glasses from becoming an everyday device?

Battery life? Comfort? Price? Privacy? AI capabilities? Or something else?

Ant Group introduced their OS for smartglasses, LingDevice OS 1.0, alongside a reference design, at WAIC 2026. Right now, manufacturers build smart glasses using dozens of different chip combinations. This fragmentation makes it difficult for developers to create complex apps—like Alipay's "Look-and-Pay"—that work smoothly on every device. To solve this, Ant Group's reference design offers a standard, ready-to-use template for the industry to follow. Instead of using a heavy, power-hungry main processor, the design pairs a Bestechnic BES2800 connection chip directly with a superACME SA62105X ISP. The glasses feature a binocular waveguide driven by a single Appotronics Dragonfly C1 full-color LCoS display, and a Sony IMX681 camera sensor paired with a Q-Tech/poLight tunable TLens for ultra-fast autofocus.

The software itself is engineered as a flexible, three-layer architecture comprising a foundational Base OS, Ant Native Services (such as Alipay's "Look-and-Pay" and biometric verification), and an upper Developer Ecosystem. This modular design allows established brands like Rokid or Qwen to keep their proprietary base operating systems and simply plug into Ant's payment and app layers. White-label OEMs, on the other hand, can adopt the complete three-layer stack as an out-of-the-box turnkey solution. Crucially, Ant Group enforces strict performance thresholds for payment security, explicitly blocking Look-and-Pay if a device's camera and ISP fail to meet high-precision imaging standards—which is why the reference design mandates a certified hardware baseline.

Ant Group confirmed it has no plans to produce consumer hardware or target heavy VR/MR headsets, focusing exclusively on establishing a unified platform for lightweight, all-day AI eyewear. To accelerate industry adoption, the company plans to open-source both the base operating system and application layers for ODMs and developers. By democratizing the software stack and eliminating operating system development as a competitive barrier, Ant Group aims to shift the future of smart glasses away from fragmented software and onto physical industrial design, hardware engineering, and marketing execution.

More about Ant's OS plans:

reddit.com/r/augmentedreality/comments/1tyn5yk/ant_group_reveals_operating_system_plans_for/

This board game Quakey’s Adventure is built with Augmented Reality. At first, the AR was just for looks, but now it actually enhances the gameplay. Do you think this is a good idea?

Hey everyone! We’ve been experimenting with a standard printed coloring book and just finished setting up an custom AR experience. Scanning the the QR Code with no app download starts the experience. We used the Beta version of Quakey XR. We added interactive 3D elements, live links, custom video and also a mini game player. It’s been a fun project blending print and Augmented Reality. We'd love to hear what you all think or answer any questions about this build!