With projectors, sensors, and style, these glasses hint at the future of augmented reality.
Smart glasses mean many things to many people, but the most promising use we find for the phrase is augmented reality (AR). Glasses that project information to your eyes while still letting you see the world around you are extremely useful, and the category has been steadily developing with smaller and more subtle glasses that show better and brighter pictures.
It might be awhile before we see frames that show you everything you want with a word or a glance, but until then, the smart glasses we saw at CES here demonstrate that the idea is closer than ever. It’s just a shame we can’t really show you what it looks like to see through these glasses. For now, here are the most intriguing smart specs I took for a spin on the show floor.1. XReal Air 2 Ultra
We found the XReal Air 2 to be “bright, sharp AR glasses,” and the Air 2 Ultra is primed to go even further. The Air 2 Ultra feature more movement sensors, including an outward-facing camera, which enables hand-tracking to control apps and the use of AR anchors (special printed patterns you can set in physical spaces to define where projected images are and even enable physical controls like switches and dials). Just as exciting, these AR glasses boast a field of view of 52 degrees, giving it one of the most sight-filling pictures we’ve seen so far in the category. It still needs to be tethered to a device like a phone, though, and to take advantage of the camera it’ll also need new apps to be written for it. XReal says some are on the way, and the glasses will enable developers to play with the technology. The Air 2 Ultra is available for preorder now for $699 and will ship by the end of March.
