(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)
Google's latest push into smart glasses includes "intelligent eyewear" products from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, but its I/O developer conference this week also included another look at Project Aura from XReal.
Samsung partnered with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to create glasses with exterior cameras, a microphone, and a speaker, enabling the wearer to talk to Google’s Gemini chatbot. The glasses are built on Google's Android XR platform, meant to unleash a range of wearables connected to the company's software ecosystem.
The result is a pair of "audio smart glasses" that can offer an on-the-go, voice-based AI assistant, but no display in front of your face. In a demo, the company showed the Samsung glasses wirelessly connecting to a user's phone, then harnessing Gemini to place an online coffee order and add an event to their calendar.
The glasses can also connect to a smartwatch and transmit a photo from the eyewear to the watch. Google emphasized that the glasses will pair with both Android and iOS devices.
(Credit: Google)The glasses can also speak and summarize your notifications and texts. “Additional features include real-time translations with audio that matches the speaker’s voice, as well as the ability to translate text on menus or signs in the user’s line of sight,” Samsung says. “Working seamlessly within the Galaxy ecosystem, the device helps users easily manage everyday tasks or effortlessly capture photos, all without taking their phone out.”
(Credit: Samsung)Google and Samsung didn't exactly break new ground, though. The product seems poised to compete with the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which also feature a built-in exterior camera, microphone, and speaker, but don't have a display in the lens.
We'll learn more later this year; Google says its audio glasses launch in the fall.
Project Aura
XReal, on the other hand, offered the first public look at Project Aura, a pair of lightweight glasses with a display in the lenses and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
The glasses weren't demoed on stage during the Google I/O keynote. XReal plans to roll out dev kits next year, and eligible developers can explore Android XR and spatial computing opportunities via the Catalyst Program from XReal and Google. PCMag checked out an early version of Project Aura in December, however, and came away impressed.
(Credit: XReal)XReal says Project Aura will unite "best-in-class" technologies. Its OLED display offers a “class-leading” 70-degree field of view, so a wearer can view Google Maps, YouTube videos, and 360-degree VR videos. On the downside, the glasses also include a long cable on one of the stems, meant to connect to a phone or a laptop.
Pricing wasn't announced, but Aura could be an alternative to Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses, which feature a full-color 600-by-600 display in one lens but only a 20-degree field of view.