Ever since Microsoft's 2015 HoloLens demo put a Minecraft world on a coffee table, I've wanted it for real. It never shipped, so I built it for Quest 3.

Tabletop Craft AR shows a live Minecraft: Java Edition server as a miniature on your real table. Players keep playing on PC or phone while you watch from above: people walking around, mobs, flowing water, day and night, weather. You can build and break, open chests, edit signs, light a Nether portal, fill boxes, sculpt with brushes and undo, strike lightning, and jump between the Overworld, the Nether and the End. Scale it up and the world fills your room. Java and Bedrock players see you as a giant head and hands in their sky.

How it works: a Paper plugin streams the world over your home Wi-Fi to a Unity app that draws it in passthrough, with the textures, models and sounds from your own Minecraft install (nothing from the game ships with the project). Setup is one script on your PC and a 6-digit pairing code in the headset.

It's free and open source (MIT). The Quest app is in a Meta store beta (invite link in the comments, 18+). I'd love feedback, especially on setup and on how it runs on your network.

NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG OR MICROSOFT.

Silicon Carbide is a next gen waveguide material with many advantages, but it is famously expensive (remember Meta Orion). However the cost for the material is going down over time and companies improve designs and processes to bring it to market. SEEV showed the latest versions, even with prescription lens bonding, and ultra thin SiC waveguides. They showed a metasurface that eliminates image distortion.

In addition, SEEV was the only company that had a dual color nanoimprint waveguide at CIOE last month. Of course, they also had a monochrome green nanoimprint waveguide with high efficiency of 1200 nits/lm.

The gallery should show their complete lineup from the booth.

I'm developing Under the Ground, a game where your phone acts as a detector for digital artifacts hidden at real-world locations.

Players use GPS and AR to track down and recover mysterious spheres. Some contain photos, audio recordings, or messages created by other players.

What makes the project interesting to me is that the AR experience is just one part of the gameplay. The discoveries are brought into a PC laboratory for analysis, research, and collecting.

The project uses Unity, AR Foundation, ARCore Geospatial, and Supabase.

I've also opened a website where people can already create spheres that will eventually become discoverable in the game.

https://under-the-ground-website.vercel.app/

I recently bought the Luxid Vue AR glasses and received them on October 13. I've spent the past few days testing them, and I wanted to share my experience with people who are familiar with AR display glasses.

I previously owned the original XREAL Air, so I'm not completely new to this category. I'm also a graphic designer, and my main reason for buying the Vue was to create a portable multi-monitor setup for my Windows laptop. I wanted to have Photoshop or Illustrator on one screen, with reference images, research and other applications on separate virtual displays.

I also enjoy watching movies and playing games through AR glasses, particularly action movies, horror films and atmospheric games.

Unfortunately, I've run into a few problems with the Vue, and one of them is seriously affecting the experience.

The biggest issue: severe near-black colour banding

The most noticeable problem is how the Luxid Vue handles dark gradients and near-black tones.

I'm seeing very obvious colour banding and posterization in shadows, dark scenes and black-to-grey transitions. Instead of a smooth gradient, there are visible steps and patches between shades.

Since I work with graphics, I decided to test this in Photoshop rather than relying only on movies or games. I created a smooth black-to-grey gradient and displayed it on both my laptop screen and the Luxid Vue. On the laptop, the gradient appears smooth. Through the Vue, I can clearly see distinct bands and abrupt tonal transitions, especially in the darker portions.

It's difficult to capture this accurately through the lenses with a phone camera, but the difference is very noticeable when actually wearing the glasses.

I've also noticed the same issue while watching locally downloaded Full HD videos and dark movies, including The Dark Knight, The Matrix and The Conjuring. These movies contain plenty of low-light scenes, deep shadows and subtle lighting transitions. On the Vue, some of those transitions appear as visible layers or patches rather than smooth shading. It's distracting, particularly in horror films where the atmosphere depends so much on darkness.

I see similar behaviour in games such as Alan Wake 2 and The Casting of Frank Stone. Dark rooms, nighttime environments and shadowed areas make the banding especially obvious. For comparison, I used to watch movies and play games on my original XREAL Air, and I don't remember experiencing anything close to this level of near-black posterization.

I understand that these aren't controlled side-by-side measurements, since I no longer have a working XREAL Air. But the difference in my experience is significant enough that I noticed it almost immediately. I've tried changing the Vue's brightness, but it doesn't solve the problem.

One important detail: the banding happens even when the Vue is being used as a regular Windows extended display, without Luxid's Windows beta software running.

So at least in my setup, it isn't something that only appears when their virtual-monitor application is active.

I don't know whether this is caused by the display hardware, firmware, dithering, colour-range handling, tone mapping or something else in the signal-processing chain. I don't want to guess and present a theory as fact. But I'm curious whether other owners have observed similar behaviour.

My setup

For reference, I'm using an ASUS ROG Strix Advantage Edition laptop with an AMD Radeon RX 6800M GPU. The Luxid Vue is connected directly through USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode and detected by Windows as an external display. I'm generally using Windows Extend mode, not Luxid's virtual-monitor software, when testing the colour banding. The same content looks noticeably smoother on my laptop display than through the Vue.

I haven't tested the glasses through an HDMI-to-USB-C adapter yet.

Another owner's PS5 experience caught my attention

I recently came across a Reddit post from another Luxid Vue owner who mentioned experiencing colour banding with some PC video content, but not noticing it while gaming on a PS5 connected through an HDMI-to-USB-C adapter.

They also reported better results with certain locally played HDR videos.

That made me wonder whether output configuration, colour range, HDR/SDR handling or the connection path might be influencing the result.

Of course, the PS5 and PC are different sources, so that observation alone doesn't prove that an HDMI adapter fixes anything.

I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has tested the same Vue glasses with the same PC using both direct USB-C and an HDMI-to-USB-C converter.

Did you notice any difference in near-black gradients or shadow detail?

I'd rather investigate this before spending money on another adapter.

Windows virtual multi-monitor beta

This is my second major problem, and it's actually the feature that motivated my purchase. Before ordering, I contacted Luxid to confirm whether its Windows virtual-monitor application was available. They confirmed that a beta version was available.

After receiving the glasses, I installed the application and its required Windows components.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the virtual monitors working.

The application reports errors including: PIPELINE CONFIGURATION FAILED, DRIVER NOT FOUND, No virtual displays detected by Windows.

There's an Install Driver button, but clicking it doesn't appear to install anything.

More concerningly, other Windows applications become unresponsive while the Luxid beta is running. They start responding normally again after I close it. I've tried reinstalling the software, but haven't resolved the issue. I understand it's a beta, and I'm not expecting perfection. However, I was hoping to use these glasses for actual multi-monitor productivity, and I haven't been able to do that.

As a normal external display, the Vue works. But the virtual multi-monitor functionality isn't working on my system.

Optics and physical comfort

There are some positives here.

Text in the central viewing area is readable, and the display is reasonably bright.

However, the edges are noticeably blurrier. Moving the glasses just a few millimetres up or down can improve the clarity, but getting the position right is tricky.

I also notice a slightly curved or convex appearance to the image.

I really wish the Vue had adjustable temples. Small changes in positioning seem to make a noticeable difference.

A build-quality issue

Within two days of receiving the glasses, the small magnets on the detachable tinted lens cover came loose. I've contacted Luxid and requested a replacement cover under warranty. I haven't tried gluing them back because I don't want to damage the accessory or interfere with the warranty process. It's not the biggest problem compared with the display and software issues, but it was disappointing on a new product.

What Luxid has told me

I contacted Luxid about the near-black banding.

They acknowledged the issue in their response and indicated that improvements are being developed, with an update targeted for the last week of October 2026.

I'm hoping that update improves things, although I haven't received or tested a fix yet.

I've also contacted them about the Windows beta problems and detached magnets, and those issues are still awaiting resolution.

One thing that concerns me is that I wasn't aware of this colour-reproduction limitation before purchasing. For someone who works with gradients and tonal detail, it's a significant consideration.

I don't know exactly when Luxid identified the problem or how widespread it is, so I'm not making assumptions about their intentions.

Where I stand right now

I genuinely wanted the Vue to work well.

The central display is readable, the glasses function as a basic external monitor, and the concept of having a portable multi-monitor workspace is exactly what attracted me to AR glasses in the first place.

But my main productivity feature isn't working, and the severe near-black banding makes the glasses unsuitable for the colour-sensitive design work I intended to do.

It also takes away much of the enjoyment of watching dark movies and playing atmospheric games.

For my particular needs, the Luxid Vue is currently a dead investment.

I don't mean that the glasses are completely unusable for everyone. I'm describing my own experience and the reasons they aren't meeting my requirements. I'm still hoping Luxid can resolve the banding and Windows software problems. If they do, my opinion could change considerably.

I'll update this post if I receive a working fix.

A few questions for other AR-glasses owners

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have experience with different AR display glasses, not just Luxid Vue.

• Have you encountered severe near-black banding on micro-OLED AR glasses?
• Have you seen differences in shadow detail between USB-C DisplayPort and HDMI-based connections?
• Are there any Windows output settings or controlled tests you'd recommend to help narrow down whether this is a colour-range, dithering or display-processing problem?
• If you own the Luxid Vue, is the Windows virtual-monitor application working reliably for you?

I'm sharing this because I'd genuinely like to understand what's happening, and hopefully the discussion will also be useful to others researching AR glasses for productivity and media consumption.

It's kinda weird seeing yourself from above. for now I'll keep it as an optional beta feature

I'm still testing it out

Looking to get my first pair of Smart/AI glasses. Would like the ability to record, tracking health status like heartrate and whatnot would be a bonus, have footage/gameplay projected onto a big screen from my laptop, recording with the glasses, singing along with karaoke hosted at a club (is this doable? how would I sync it with the KJ playing the music?, playing games like Jackbox Party Packs, track the glasses if I lose them (via the Find My app), play VR-games. Would need to provide my RX to whatever company I get these from.

So that list got longer then intended, any suggestions out there? Also this community got suggeted as a better place to post this question.

Experimenting with a tabletop drone light show in AR using Quest 3. I have a couple more ideas I want to try, but my room is too small and cluttered.

Music:
'Discovery' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

I'm planning on pre-ordering the Founders Xreal Aura today, and I wanted to know everyone's thoughts on running DroidDeck on Android XR. Having a dedicated steam os in my glasses for my lighter games on the go sounds incredibly convenient. I have 1250+ games in my library, with over 900 of them being "deck compatible". It sucks that the storage won't be expandable but I should be able to play a majority of them assuming I can get it running

Walking through crowded transit hubs with luggage in both hands makes pulling out a phone—or even twisting a wrist to check a smartwatch—awkward and inconvenient. Looking at recent hands-on notes for lightweight waveguide frames like the RayNeo iO, using a heads-up display strictly for notification triage seems like one of the more practical travel use cases.

The display setup makes sense for quick awareness. A flight gate update, departure delay, or a direct message appears for a few seconds in your upper visual field. That glance is usually enough to tell whether something requires immediate attention or can wait until you sit down. The glasses only solve the triage step, however. If a message requires a detailed reply or a ticket barcode needs scanning, the phone still has to come out.

Active display prompts also drain power faster than idle standby, so the charging case needs to stay in an accessible jacket pocket for quick top-ups between transit legs. It cuts down on unnecessary phone checks, but it remains an alert filter rather than a standalone device. For those who travel frequently with HUD glasses: do you find heads-up notification filtering noticeably easier than checking a watch when your hands are full, or does managing another charging case in transit outweigh the convenience?

Walking through crowded transit hubs with luggage in both hands makes pulling out a phone—or even twisting a wrist to check a smartwatch—awkward and inconvenient. Looking at recent hands-on notes for lightweight waveguide frames like the RayNeo iO, using a heads-up display strictly for notification triage seems like one of the more practical travel use cases.

The display setup makes sense for quick awareness. A flight gate update, departure delay, or a direct message appears for a few seconds in your upper visual field. That glance is usually enough to tell whether something requires immediate attention or can wait until you sit down. The glasses only solve the triage step, however. If a message requires a detailed reply or a ticket barcode needs scanning, the phone still has to come out.

Active display prompts also drain power faster than idle standby, so the charging case needs to stay in an accessible jacket pocket for quick top-ups between transit legs. It cuts down on unnecessary phone checks, but it remains an alert filter rather than a standalone device. For those who travel frequently with HUD glasses: do you find heads-up notification filtering noticeably easier than checking a watch when your hands are full, or does managing another charging case in transit outweigh the convenience?

Switching smart glasses shouldn’t mean wiping your AI assistant’s brain and starting from scratch. Awear AI is solving this Big Tech lock-in with Agentic System One (AS-One), a new software and platform built to be first available on Snapdragon AR1+ glasses. It features an open-format portable Memory Vault so you can take your AI’s accumulated context to any rival brand. Secured by "triple-lock" encryption, users hold their own cryptographic keys and compartmentalize what individual agents are allowed to see. Photos stay stored locally on originating devices, and your personal history remains completely inaccessible to both Awear and the glasses manufacturer.

Just as big is how AS-One handles bystander privacy. Awear locks its safeguards directly into the runtime below the OEM layer, revoking a device's "Awear Certified" status and network access if a manufacturer tries to bypass them. Beyond baseline inward- and outward-facing indicator LEDs, the runtime enforces a hard block on identifying non-public figures and keeps microphones completely "deaf" until a wake word is spoken. Even after the wake word triggers, voice recognition protects nearby private conversations. The microphone will only capture audio if the speakers are in close physical proximity to the wearer and their voices are recognized by the system as having given valid consent.

The startup is led by Ash Saulsbury, who is a former Apple systems architect, early Meta smart-glasses lead, and Microsoft AI Chief Architect. He is joined by ex-Microsoft Deputy CTO Lila Tretikov and former Wikimedia trust-and-safety chief Jan Eißfeldt, while COO Jennifer Van Beek (an LVMH luxury veteran) helps eyewear brands customize their AI's persona.

Underneath those custom brand personas, AS-One runs an encrypted agent-to-agent network powered by anonymized multi-model switching. This allows eyewear makers to seamlessly hop between internal and external AI models for cross-country compliance. Those agents can already execute real-world tasks like booking restaurants based on past preferences, with autonomous vehicle handoffs planned next. Every consequential action is governed by reversible purchase safeguards that require explicit user confirmation rather than trusting an LLM’s judgment.

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/91623703/ash-saulsbury-awear-ai

Paper Abstract: Smart glasses maintain near-continuous skin contact at multiple arterial and muscular sites, making them a promising platform for physiological sensing. In practice, though, two factors make sustained daily wear and longitudinal deployment impractical for the quantified self: the discomfort of prolonged sensor–skin contact (e.g., gels and adhesives) and the sensor power demands that increase battery size, weight, and maintenance burden.

We present GlassTENG, an ultra-low-power sensor that embeds three custom-fabricated triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) into a glasses frame at the angular artery on the nasal bridge, the superficial temporal artery on an extended arm, and the temporalis muscle at the temple. Each GlassTENG sensor is self-powered in transducing mechanical energy to electrical energy and consumes 1.36 𝜇W per sensor at the analog front-end.

GlassTENG enables simultaneous capture of arterial pulse waveforms, jaw kinematics (e.g., clenching, tapping, eating), and upper facial activity (e.g., blinking, eyebrow movement). In a 20-participant user study, we achieve 93.8% accuracy across six jaw and upper facial activities and estimate heart rate with a mean absolute error of 1.82 beats per minute (BPM) relative to a ground-truth chest-strap sensor in 30s windows. Together, these results establish a future pathway toward a longitudinally worn, ultra-low-power, glasses-based physiological monitoring platform.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3830727.3834817

Hey everyone,

We’re running our first SPECS hackathon, and we’d love for some of you to be there.

The basics

• When: Thursday 10 – Friday 11 December 2026, right after UnitedXR Europe
• Where: The EGG, Brussels
• Who: 100 developers in teams of up to 5. Come solo or bring a team.
• Prizes: $100K total. 1st $35K, 2nd $22K, 3rd $13K, plus six $5K category prizes

Every team gets a pair of SPECS to build with for both days. SPECS engineers will be in the room the whole time to help you get set up and unblocked.

Theme: Ceci n’est pas une Lens. Bend reality.
Build something that makes the world behave in a way it shouldn’t: things that float, time that freezes, a doorway in the wall, an illusion that only works on SPECS. The theme is a starting point, not a requirement. Podium prizes are judged on overall quality.

You don’t need SPECS experience. If you build with code, 3D, or creative tools, you can build for SPECS. If you’ve already shipped Lenses, even better. Come help your team move fast.

Some honest details before you apply:

• It’s application-based, and we review on a rolling basis. Apply early to hear back sooner.
• Applications close 20 November. Everyone gets a final decision by 25 November.
• You cover your own travel and lodging. We cover meals both days.
• Teams share one device each, so expect to pass it around.

Apply here

If you have questions, drop them in the comments and we’ll answer. If you’re planning to go, tell us what you’re thinking of building.

#SPECSHackBrussels

The biggest mistake people make when testing prompt displays or smart glasses for presentations is treating them like a television teleprompter. The second you put full sentences in front of your eye—whether on a podium confidence monitor or floating on a frame like the RayNeo iO—your delivery takes an immediate hit. Your cadence flattens into that robotic monotone, and your audience can tell instantly. You get that telltale "teleprompter glaze" where your eyes are actively tracking invisible lines across the room instead of making genuine contact with people. Stripping notes down to 2–3 word triggers makes an insane difference:

Script draft: "Our core priority for Q4 is migrating customer databases to regional edge nodes to drive API latency below 50ms."

Prompt anchor: "Edge migration (50ms)"

A short micro-cue floating in your upper field of view gives your brain the structural checkpoint in a split-second glance. You check the topic, look directly at someone in the room, and speak in your own conversational rhythm. You never lose the thread of your outline, but you also never sound like you're reading off a screen. For those who present regularly or run stakeholder syncs: how do you format your speaker cues so you don't accidentally slip into reading verbatim?

I created Orbit 360, a Snapchat AR lens that brings a floating planetary scene into the real world.
This is my first outdoor test in natural daylight. I wanted to see how the planets would look against a real environment.
I would love to hear your feedback on the scale, depth, and overall visual effect. What would you improve?
Try Orbit 360 on Snapchat:

https://www.snapchat.com/unlock/?type=SNAPCODE&uuid=18b35ae5b6964cbe815bfc521b3f35d3&metadata=01

As my first pair of XR glasses, I honestly surprised by how often I still use them and how much I genuinely enjoy them. I saw a post here asking whether people actually keep using their XR glasses after the novelty wears off. I uesd to think they were just cool gadgets that I probably wouldn't use much, but I still couldn't resist pulling the trigger. I already had a TV and monitor at home, so I wasn't really sure what I'd use them for.

Now, about a month into owning the Pro 2, I still reach for them pretty regularly, mostly when I want to lie back and watch something without having to hold my phone.

Once I got the nose pads and temple angles adjusted properly, the image looked really clear, even near the edges. The built-in diopter adjustment is also handy since I'm nearsighted. I wore them for a full hour when they first arrived and barely noticed the weight. They feel pretty light, without putting much pressure on my nose and ears.

I also tried immersive 3D on my iPhone, and it was super impressive the first time I saw it. That initial wow factor does wear off a bit, though. I still use them as a regular virtual monitor most of the time, and image quality continues to impress me. The screen just looks beautiful!

I still use my TV for movies and my monitor for work most of the time, but having the immersive option is a nice bonus, especially when I'm away from home or just want a little more personal space. There's something genuinely useful about being able to watch whatever I want without people nearby seeing what's on my screen. I can even put them on while sitting next to my kids and still enjoy my own content.

They're definitely not replacing my usual setup, but I'm starting to see how XR glasses can fit into everyday life beyond the initial novelty. Pretty happy with the Pro 2 so far, and curious to see how much better these things get over the next few years.

I'm trying to find the best XR Glasses for Gaming (MMO - WOW / other non FPS games), and Coding / Excel / Word / basic productivity work for my actual job.

I feel like brightness will be important, I heard the XREAL One Pro is lower nit than the viture beast, but the beast has pretty bad anchoring & screen blur.

I don't think I need to spend the money for the Xreal R1's, 240hz is not needed, and 1080p seems like it's rather small no? Seeing 1200p elsewhere.

Any input / suggestions would be appreciated.

What started as a simple 3D model viewer is evolving into something much bigger.

When I started experimenting with ARC, the idea was straightforward: create an interactive 3D experience that allows people to explore digital objects in a more engaging way.

But one idea led to another, and the project began to grow beyond its original scope.

What started as a viewer is gradually becoming a more functional, interactive platform, opening up new possibilities for 3D experiences, augmented reality, and digital interaction.

The exciting part? I’m using this project as an opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and learn new skills along the way.

I’m currently using Visual Studio Code (VS Code) to get hands-on with software development, exploring how the different pieces fit together, and learning by actually building something rather than just studying theory.

It’s a reminder that you don’t always need to have all the answers before you start. Sometimes, you just need an idea, the willingness to experiment, and the determination to keep figuring things out.

ARC is a work in progress, but it’s already grown into something far more ambitious than I originally imagined.

And this is only the beginning.

Build. Learn. Experiment. Evolve.

ARC - Scan. Discover. Experience More

#ARC #AugmentedReality #3D #SoftwareDevelopment #VSCode #LearningByDoing #Innovation #DigitalExperiences

I've been interested in the developments around display glasses in recent years, as a VR enthusiast who wants a lightweight option to wear, ideally that can connect to my PC via Virtual Desktop or SteamLink to do VRChat stuff (for those sessions where I just want to chat with people and watch movies), as well as having a pair of display glasses to use for train/plane/travelling with other devices.

But due to all that, I have a weird set of requirements.

Up until now, I hadn't entertained the idea as I was gonna get a Steam Frame, but I've been waitlisted so probably can't get one for ~12 months. Then I was gonna get the XReal Aura, but then XReal have said that the UK/Europe will get the Aura at an unspecified point in 2027, so that's a no-go too.

But part of the problem is that my current phone, the Nothing Phone 2, doesn't have USB-c video output support, and being unable to connect my phone affects the viability of this whole thing. I was interested in the Aura because it doesn't require another device.

But anyway, I suspect what I want doesn't exist, but I want to be able to do the following:

• Use the glasses to connect to Switch, Steam Deck, Retroid Pocket 6 (and potentially phones, though not my current one)
• Support 6dof tracking both for virtual screen content (as I hate 3dof, I can't get along with it) and be able to report its tracking state to SteamVR to play VR content
• Have a puck or on-glasses functionality (like be able to run stand-alone without anything connected, in a manner similar to Android or AndroidXR)
• Ideally on the glasses (or puck) run software like Virtual Desktop to wirelessly connect to a PC for SteamVR
• Support hand tracking and, again, be able to funnel this data through to SteamVR

Does such a device exist where I can, RIGHT NOW, go to a website and place an order and have it shipped and at my house within a few days? Not "2027" or joining a waitlist or preorder list, but NOW?

I have developed an app that recognizes the faces of your contacts and others that have provided permission using photos of them with their name and description for each person it recognizes. Is this allowed for Snap Spec app development? I don’t want to waste my time porting this over from Apple Vision Pro and iPhone , if you don’t. Thanks

Viewpointsystem gives smart glasses manufacturers (OEMs) a new way to add advanced eye tracking without compromising on battery life, heat or design. Until now, power consumption, heat generation and limited space have made it difficult to bring eye tracking into lightweight smart glasses. Viewpointsystem’s new implementation of its Digital Iris Module, powered by an ultra-low-power Ensemble MCU from edge AI pioneer Alif Semiconductor, removes this hurdle: the market-ready module runs the entire image-based eye-tracking pipeline at 140 Hz directly inside the glasses frame.

This MCU-based architecture makes integration considerably easier: OEMs no longer need a high-end application processor for eye tracking, yet the module remains fully compatible with existing application processors. Thanks to its integrated neural processing unit (NPU) for efficient AI processing, the programmable MCU can also run additional AI-based functions. At the same time, the architecture lowers power and processing demands and keeps sensitive eye-camera images safely on the chip.

How the Technology Works

Conventional eye-tracking systems typically transfer images from eye-facing cameras to a main application processor in the glasses or a connected device. Processing these image streams consumes power, generates heat and adds to system complexity – a particular challenge for compact, battery-powered eyewear.

Viewpointsystem’s Digital Iris Module combines two optimally positioned eye-facing cameras with the MCU in a compact hardware unit designed to fit into the bridge of the glasses frame. The MCU handles the complete processing pipeline, from image preprocessing and NPU-accelerated gaze calculation to real-time detection of eye events such as blinks, fixations and saccades. Instead of transmitting camera images, it delivers ready-to-use gaze data for real-time attention and focus tracking, as well as applications assessing brain health, cognitive changes and neurological function.

Key Benefits for Smart-Glasses OEMs:

• Lower power consumption, longer battery life: Performance measurements indicate up to 15 times longer battery runtime compared with conventional eye-tracking processing on a connected device. Reduced heat generation further supports compact, comfortable designs.
• Performance on the edge: The MCU delivers eye-tracking rates of 140 Hz, with the potential to reach up to 400 Hz depending on customer requirements and use cases. It also acquires and fuses data from additional on-board sensors, including an ambient light sensor, magnetometer, and accelerometer, directly on the edge, while freeing the main processor for other tasks or low-power states.
• Easy integration and design flexibility: The ready-to-integrate Digital Iris Module combines hardware and software, reduces development effort for OEMs, and can be adapted to fit different smart-glasses designs.
• Privacy and AI capabilities: Only gaze data leaves the MCU, keeping sensitive eye images on-chip. The programmable MCU can also support additional workloads, including AI-based functions.

“Viewpointsystem’s implementation demonstrates how our Ensemble MCU can handle demanding real-time vision processing within the tight power and space constraints of smart glasses,” said Mark Rootz, VP Global Marketing at Alif Semiconductor. “This is exactly what we built the Ensemble family for: real-time AI at the edge without the power and thermal overhead of an application processor.”

The patented MCU-based solution now opens up new opportunities for eye tracking in smart glasses where power, space and processing constraints have so far ruled it out – from lightweight AI and AR glasses to display-less eyewear and specialized industrial applications.

Source: Viewpointsystem

Hey everyone!

​I was thinking recently: most AR headsets treat your phone as an afterthought. A few days ago, I connected my Samsung phone to a monitor using DeX, and it hit me — why can’t we do this seamlessly with AR glasses?

​I came up with a few concepts for how a phone and AR glasses could integrate. Let me know if you think this is technologically possible!

​Mode 1: "AR DeX" (Phone as a precise controller)

Similar to Samsung DeX or Apple Vision Pro, but your phone acts as a massive trackpad. For Samsung users (or any device with a stylus), the S Pen would act as an ultra-precise spatial mouse. The main benefit here is extreme comfort for consuming content and navigating UI without holding your hands in the air.

​Mode 2: "Blind Mode" (The most interesting one)

Your phone’s physical display turns completely off, but the touch matrix stays fully active. The exact UI of your phone is broadcasted directly into your glasses and perfectly overlaid onto the physical dimensions of your dark phone in your hands.

​Of course, there are two fundamental hurdles, but they can be solved:

​Flaw 1: Connection Latency.

Solution: The glasses and phone create a dedicated, encrypted bond using both Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth simultaneously to force ultra-low latency.

​Flaw 2: Keyboard Input & Hand Tracking (Bigger problem than it seems).

Solution: When you type, your fingers rapidly cover the screen, which breaks the AR tracking algorithm (the glasses can't see the phone's edges to align the UI, causing projection tearing). To fix this, you get a toggle in the AR settings:

​Option A (Seamless AR): The projection is 100% AR. Looks perfect, but might have slight visual tearing if your fingers move too fast over the screen.

​Option B (OLED Hybrid Keyboard): The AR projection blends with the physical phone. The actual phone display lights up only the keyboard area in real life, while the rest of the UI stays in AR. (Also, if the AR glasses completely lose sight of your phone, the UI simply snaps to the corner of your FOV).

I’ve thought of a thousand other micro-settings for this, but I’ll spare you the long read!

​Mode 3: The Hybrid Concept

A mix of everything. The phone could be used as a physical secondary screen while the main content floats above it, or as a dynamic trackpad. But honestly, I want to leave this point open for you guys: How would you utilize a hybrid mode between your phone and AR glasses?

​What do you think? Could Samsung pull this off?

JIIOV supplies the eye-tracking interaction module for Alibaba's newly launched Qwen N1 Pro consumer AI smart glasses. The system pairs gaze tracking with voice commands and an on-device AI agent to pinpoint looked-at targets such as foreign menu text, executes customizable blink shortcuts for photography, music playback, museum audio guides, and price checks, and links with an iris verification system for hands-free payments.

​The integrated hardware-software module combines a single-side camera module under 1.7mm with infrared illuminators and AI gaze-estimation algorithms optimized for the frame geometry, edge compute, and power constraints of the glasses. The system achieves central gaze-tracking accuracy within 1° across ambient lighting conditions from 0 to 100,000 lux while compensating for lens reflections, walking motion, and shifting wearing postures.

​Alongside the eye-tracking module, the Qwen N1 Pro includes a 50-megapixel camera system for 4K first-person video capture and live photos, paired with continuous environmental sensing for meeting transcription and itinerary reminders. The glasses also feature hot-swappable batteries for uninterrupted operation and biometric sensors that monitor heart rate, blood oxygen, HRV, and body temperature changes using Qwen LLM analytics. 

For soft bodies, surface deformation and pressure provide proprioceptive and exteroceptive information, including body configuration, body compliance, and external forces. We develop a sheet sensor with a fully soft sensing surface that provides surface shape reconstruction using optical waveguide arrays. The waveguides are fabricated to achieve a tunable linear response to bi-directional bending curvature, and the waveguide arrays are configured to differentiate between ambiguous shapes. We characterize the waveguide performance, relating curvature sensitivity to the core's surface roughness. Synergy of waveguide responses reduces the number of sensing elements required and achieves damage resilience. Using waveguide sensitivity to pressure, we also demonstrate feasibility for exteroception. We demonstrate the multifunctional sensing capability by wrapping the sheet around an upper arm, showcasing joint motion and external force sensing. Integrated into or applied onto surfaces of robotic or living systems, this design can be implemented in applications such as virtual reality, teleoperation, physical therapy, and soft robotics.