HOW IT WORKS
Smart glasses from Apple & beyond
Ongoing developments may change how we see the world forever
Wear Meta’s Orion and you’ll be able to use multitasking windows and view big-screen entertainment.
YOU WILL LEARN How tech companies are looking to make smart glasses mainstream
Key fact
The aim is to deliver true augmented reality (AR) where digital content seamlessly blends with the real world. Digital items would be anchored in place, and appear as sharp and bright as real objects and would be controllable by gaze, voice and gestures.
Apple’s entry in the spatial computing market has been a success – from a technical perspective, at least. While take-up has been on the low side (with around 500,000 units sold so far – fewer than Apple’s projections), Vision Pro has nonetheless given us a glimpse of the future, and one that many more consumers might soon tap into soon.
For some time, Apple has been rumoured to be working on augmented reality (AR) smart glasses which, to the untrained eye, will look much like an ordinary pair of specs. If current estimates hold, we could be wearing them as soon as 2027, by which time the smart specs (possibly called Apple Glass) would be rivalling similar products in what’s shaping up to be a new tech battleground.