r/AR_MR_XR

Hi everyone! I have been trying to build truly open source smart glasses (both hardware and software) based on ESP32 for almost a year now as a side project.

I did accomplish one version of PCB that functions similar to meta ray ban but the audio video quality is inferior (OV cameras cannot match Sony, and no bone conduction speaker with only one microphone). Image of the set attached.

I tried upgrading the product with an AR screen through a microled projected on the lens (similar to focals from North). This is where i am stuck. I am trying to build something inexpensive so waveguides and microprojectors are out of the question.

Needing suggestions and inputs from anyone experienced with options or has been developing smart glasses themselves. Would love to meet someone who can join me in building this if interested.

The total cost of this assembly is landing at 20$ for the PCB set, for bulk orders > 50 units from JLCPCB, and additional 20$ for other hardware components (screen, camera, speaker, battery and frame). So 40$ for audio-camera glasses, might land around 50$ for AR HUD.

I painfully learned through this project never to take ambitious development of industrial D2C products oneself. Better hand it to the chinese for refining, they get things done very quickly.

Hardware makers generally want thin waveguides around 0.5mm to keep smart glasses light and compact, but making the glass this thin actually reduces the maximum image resolution to 28ppd at typical bounce angles.

To reach 60ppd (the benchmark for sharp human vision) across lower bounce angles, a waveguide of at least 1mm is necessary, which doubles the thickness and adds unwanted weight and bulk to the frame. However, this resolution limit only affects narrow-linewidth laser light sources, whereas microLED displays are completely unaffected and can use ultra-thin waveguides without losing sharpness.

This difference comes down to how light from different projectors travels inside the glass. In waveguide-based smart glasses, each pixel of the virtual image enters the lens at a slightly different angle and bounces between the inner surfaces toward the eye. Because standard single-mode lasers emit pure light within a tiny color range under 0.1nm, the bouncing light waves overlap and cancel each other out at most angles. Only specific bounce angles survive the trip through a thin waveguide, meaning the glass blocks the angles in between and lowers the overall resolution across the FOV. In contrast, microLED emits a much wider color range above 10nm, which allows many overlapping bounce angles to survive and naturally fills in all the missing gaps.

The optical data shows that the exact resolution limit depends on how steeply the light bounces inside the waveguide. That 28ppd (2.13 arcmin) ceiling in a 0.5mm waveguide happens at a typical 40° bounce angle, where reaching the full 60ppd (1 arcmin) requires a 1.07mm lens. Increasing the glass thickness to 0.75mm still falls short of 60ppd for bounce angles under 50°, and any bounce angle below 42° requires glass thicker than 1mm. While manufacturers can force the missing laser angles through a thin waveguide by making the glass thickness slightly uneven by more than 100nm, doing so causes the bouncing light to spread out and blurs the image anyway.

Source: Angular resolution limit of augmented reality waveguides from guided mode theory

https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09527

Almost every time I walk into a room wearing smart glasses, someone comments on my "Meta glasses," even when I'm wearing something completely different.

It seems like people who are not deep in the smart glasses space tend to paint in broad strokes and lump everything in with Meta, for better or for worse.

Given I've bought and used over 20 smart glasses over the past 6 months, I thought it might be fun (and maybe useful for some) to put together my perspective on which ones I think are genuine alternatives to Meta Display. Or, if you take Meta out of the picture, which glasses make the most sense for different use cases.

I originally thought I would settle on just a couple of winners, but I ended up with five: MemoMind One, RayNeo iO, Even Realities G2, Mira Glasses and Rokid Glasses. Contrary to what I expected when I started this exercise, I actually think there is a rational and clear reason (IMO) to buy any of these five.

I shared my full thought process and the pros and cons for each in this video if that's useful:

https://youtu.be/l__tI1sz8Fs?si=htr2v08aIm5JBmmf

Fully my own opinions. No sponsorship, no affiliate links, etc.

The TL;DR version:

• MemoMind One: the most complete camera-free display package with good speakers.
• Even G2: probably the closest thing here to normal everyday glasses, combined with what I think is the most mature ecosystem for adding functionality.
• RayNeo iO: the lightest and most comfortable pair I've tested, while still doing most of what I want from display glasses and giving you free long-term memory.
• Mira Glasses: the most effective real-world AI assistant I've found, with the best memory recall/retrieval directly in the glasses, along with excellent translation and contextual AI.
• Rokid Glasses: the best all-around display option I've tested that isn't Meta Display, particularly if you don't want to give up the camera.

One important tradeoff: four of the five give up the camera entirely, and all five use monochrome green displays rather than Meta Display's full-color display.

Note that I also considered and mention INMO Go3, INMO Air3 and RayNeo X3 Pro but they did not make the 5 I landed on for different reasons.

Curious if this broadly resonates with folks? Also happy to answer questions on any of these.

What if video game characters can jump in/out of screens and interact with the real world?

I’ve been exploring this idea with Quest 3 by tracking my monitors and attaching a portal shader to each of them.

3D models from asset store and Kenney.

the marketing slogan on the poster promises smarter glasses

and adds the RGB hint at the end.

the event will take place on october 27.

Running two or three sessions a week, 45 to 75 minutes each. For years that was either a tablet on a mini stand off to the side or printed cue cards I would thumb through, and losing eye contact to the stand was starting to show in feedback.

Monochrome green display sits in the upper part of my view, dim enough that nobody across the table can tell I'm reading. Auto-advance follows my voice and turns pages as I talk. If I need to jump a line manually there's a swipe on the temple, or a ring I bought with the INMO GO3 bundle that has a page-turn button.

For standing in front of a group and keeping eye contact while hitting your talking points, this is a different experience than looking down at a tablet. What surprised me more was the batteries. One in the glasses, one in the charging case out of the box, physical swap takes a few seconds. I started doing it between sessions as insurance and I've basically stopped thinking about battery life.

A couple of things to be realistic about. Auto-advance works great in a quiet room and gets confused in a noisy one. If a trainee cuts in with a long question or there's crosstalk at the back, the voice tracking can sit still waiting for me to pick back up. The ring is more reliable in that scenario. Nothing deal-breaking, just something you learn to work with over the first week or two.

The other small thing is script import. On Android you can only load plain TXT files so I'm stripping formatting out of a Word doc before every upload. iOS takes PDF and DOCX. I'm on Android.

Overall this is a notable upgrade from the tablet-on-a-stand setup for the people-facing training case specifically. Curious how it holds up over the next couple months as the software gets updates.

Created by The Forge, the AR experience technically stayed confined to the phone screen, but the real-world immersion was heavily enhanced by the physical environment built around it. Outside the UCI cinema, Umbrella Corporation personnel in white hazmat suits patrolled areas cordoned off with biohazard tape and weathered Raccoon City shipping containers. Visitors were even treated to blood-red ice cream shaped like the iconic Resident Evil logo. Inside the theater, Webedia pushed the atmosphere further for the invited community, guiding them from a sterile, clinical hospital environment through a descent into chaos, ultimately ending up in the snow-covered world of the film.

I wanted to see if I can use a coin as a trigger image for AR. I worked on the NFT Quakey coin and put a cool little animation on it. I added some clickable buttons and this is how it came out. I use Quakey XR Web AR Builder for this build.

Confirmatory Assignment agreement signed between Sony and Meta in December 2025

According to a report by ZDNet Korea, Sony transferred 419 XR headset patents to Meta. This move follows a December 2025 agreement to scale back Sony's internal hardware operations.

The patent portfolio includes 180 filings in the United States. Of those, 43 were already reassigned between June and September 2026. The remaining 239 patents are registered across Japan, China, South Korea, and Europe.

ZDNet believes this shows that Sony is stepping away from making its own XR devices, and that Meta will use the patents to develop smart glasses. However, I cannot say for certain if these patents cover anything beyond VR and MR headsets. At least based on ZDNet Korea's excerpt of the patent list (see image in comments). Also, keep in mind that I recently invited Sony's Chief XR Strategist for a keynote presentation, and he was very enthusiastic about the future of AR glasses.

What do you want to know?!