glasses

Headphones don’t like my hair. That’s an unfortunate truth for someone who has spent half of his life being a little obsessed with headphones. Getting good sound quality out of most headphones requires a good seal, but years of testing headphones have shown most simply don’t try to account for more voluminous hairstyles like the fro I’ve been growing over the pandemic. People who wear glasses often face similar issues, as the glasses can interfere with the…

Apple might be demoing its sophisticated mixed reality glasses only to the board, but Qualcomm is ready to show the world its next-gen Smart Viewer AR glasses featuring the Snapdragon XR2 Platform. This is a reference design like the previous-generation model, so you can’t buy it in stores. Also, like the first-gen model, the new Smart Viewer is bulky and ugly. But Qualcomm is marching forward towards a future where AR glasses might be as unobtrusive as a pair of prescription goggles. And the company just…

Qualcomm is introducing a wireless version of its augmented reality Smart Viewer, a reference design that manufacturers could adapt into commercial headsets. The Wireless AR Smart Viewer updates Qualcomm’s earlier smart glasses design with a higher-powered chipset, plus a tethering system that uses Wi-Fi 6 / 6E and Bluetooth instead of a USB-C cable. That comes with the tradeoff of a potentially very short battery life — although Qualcomm says consumer-ready versions might be designed differently. The new Smart Viewer…

As you settle back on the 5:40 pm train waiting to get home, there's a single thought on your mind: beating Elden Ring's Malenia, Blade of Miquella boss. You've been keeping her move set in the back of your mind all day — details stewing amongst work emails and calls as you recall the telltale signs of her attacks and contemplate the timing needed for a perfect dodge. There's just one issue: By the time you get home, you'll only have about thirty minutes left to try and vorpal Malenia out of existence before life and…

Avatar 2 will be the riskiest film of the year for all sorts of reasons. There’s the issue of whether or not the public actually wants a 12-years-in-the-making sequel to a film that has retained no cultural cachet whatsoever. There’s the fact that, if it flops, James Cameron still has to release three more Avatar movies after this one. But most of all, Avatar 2 will have to convince us all to wear stupid 3D glasses again.A decade ago, 3D was supposed to be the future of cinema. Thanks to the first Avatar, which used the…

When the original Oculus Rift landed on Kickstarter, it managed to raise over $2.43 million. But now, there’s a new name in town — at least when it comes to futuristic gaming. The Viture One mixed reality (XR) glasses allow you to play games or watch movies from basically anywhere — and it just surpassed the Oculus Rift’s astonishing original fundraising effort on Kickstarter. Viture, a San Francisco-based startup, was founded by Google and Apple veterans, and it’s managed to raise over $2.4 million on…

There’s only one way to get ready for the potential cyberpunk future that awaits us, and it’s clearly with this Raspberry Pi project from robotics developer and microelectronics expert Kevin McAleer. With a fancy neopixel ring and Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller, these 3D-printed cyber glasses talk the talk and walk the walk with cyberpunk style.If the name Kevin McAleer sounds familiar, it should. We recently covered his Raspberry Pi robot bunny project, which hops and locomotes with the help of a few servos. We also…

At the end of its I/O presentation on Wednesday, Google pulled out a “one more thing”-type surprise. In a short video, Google showed off a pair of augmented reality glasses that have one purpose — displaying audible language translations right in front of your eyeballs. In the video, Google product manager Max Spear called the capability of this prototype “subtitles for the world,” and we see family members communicating for the first time. Now hold on just a second. Like many people, we’ve used Google Translate before…

When Viva and Yoshiko, one an English speaker and the other a Mandarin Chinese speaker, tried Google’s prototype smart glasses during a sneak peak at Google I/O 2022, I got shivers down my spine. The expressions on their faces, the sudden ability to meaningfully communicate with someone who before didn’t fully understand what was being said moved me a great deal. It’s an example of the type of technology that I truly love: One that can change lives. ‘Subtitles for the world’ You’d be forgiven if you’d missed this…

Google wrapped up its I/O presentation with one big surprise: a look at its latest AR glasses. The key feature Google showed off was the ability to see languages translated right in front of your eyes, which seems to me like a very practical application for AR glasses. While a big part of Silicon Valley is heavily invested in making AR glasses a reality thus far no has suggested a truly “killer” app for AR that would let you overlook the wide variety of privacy concerns inherent with the tech. Live translating the…