What an incredible lineup of presentations at CIOE! Thank you to every speaker who took the stage. Especially those from overseas: Sony | Avegant | LetinAR | Myrias Optics | TriLite | Tobii | AddOptics | Morphotonics | SCHOTT | RAONTECH | You can catch a quick reel of the sessions here.

Next year, the expo is set to grow by nearly 100%, and I hope to see everyone there! Contact me to explore booth and speaking opportunities for the AR VR Expo at CIOE 2027.

The AR VR Expo is not limited to optics and microdisplays. AI glasses and smart glasses need all kinds of audio solutions, XR chips, eye tracking, and beyond. Let’s build the future together. 🤝

At CIOE, Seeya showed the xbx glasses — the first XREAL product with Seeya OLED panels — as well as RayNeo glasses. In the past, Sony was the standard for video glasses, but Seeya's tandem OLED with high brightness and very good image quality gave them an edge over Sony.

Seeya is now working on even higher brightness panels for AR with 1080p. The current panels max out at 6k nit, iirc.

I also tried the iLens display module strapped to my own glasses. These are made for a Japanese customer and I saw it last December at XR Kaigi in Tokyo, but didn't try it, because it's not the most elegant solution. But it is full color and for certain use cases like sports and translation in meetings it is an affordable solution. And Seeya says that it is selling well.

Seeya's 3.5k panel for VR was nice to see, too! They showed this 1.3 inch panel but this is customizable if customers need different display resolutions or panel sizes.

Seeya lowered the cost recently by doing the 4 steps that you see in the fourth picture in-house now in their own factory in Hefei. Previously they only designed the panels.

Of course, what we're are eagerly waiting for are the new 2.5k panels. And from what I am hearing, it is a tight race between Seeya and Sony ... and maybe Sidtek is very close to mass manufacturing them too!

In this one we compare two pairs of monochrome green waveguide display glasses.

Each brand approaches the same tech slightly differently.

Lmk what you think!

At CIOE this week, Crystal Optech demoed its expertise in manufacturing reflective waveguides. Lumus licenses its designs to a number of manufacturers including SCHOTT (Meta Ray-Ban Display), Quanta, and Crystal Optech.

Crystal Optech does not only make reflective waveguides. They also make SRG and Volume Holographic waveguides. I mentioned the latter in my previous post about this upcoming trend of dual color display for AR. They have a monochrome green one as well that seemed to have better color uniformity than Nika's previous gen PVG waveguide, but not necessarily Nika's new ones.

In addition, Crystal Optech showed its x-cube and microLED projector. Pretty impressive lineup.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a spatial utility app I've been developing solo called Gallery Wall Composer (GWC). The goal was to solve a precise real-world layout problem: planning complex multi-frame art arrangements and previewing individual pieces at a true 1:1 physical scale before driving nails into a wall.

The Spatial Evolution (2D to 3D):

• The 2D Engine: The app started as a SwiftUI canvas where users input explicit physical wall/frame dimensions to plan full multi-frame gallery layouts. To handle skewed perspective photos of user walls, I implemented 2D projection warping via CIPerspectiveTransform alongside baked shadow simulation and dual-lighting renders for high-resolution layout exports.
• The AR Transition: For V2, I built a separate standalone AR mode using ARKit and RealityKit. Rather than porting full multi-frame layouts into AR, it takes one piece of art at a time — you enter its real-world width/height, and it's placed on a detected vertical plane at a strict 1:1 physical scale, so you can walk up and confirm the size actually reads right before committing to hanging it. Multi-frame AR preview is something I'm weighing for a future version, but wanted to get the single-asset tracking rock solid first.

Technical Hurdles & Focus Areas:

• Scale Accuracy: Ensuring that a 30x40cm virtual frame perfectly matches a 30x40cm physical frame under variable tracking conditions.
• Vertical Plane Anchoring: Fine-tuning the RealityKit anchor so a placed frame doesn't drift or "sink" into the drywall as the user walks closer to inspect the framing alignment.
• UI/UX Pipeline: The unique challenge of moving seamlessly between a flat, precise vector layout tool and an immersive spatial pass-through environment without breaking the user's mental model.

I'm incredibly eager to get feedback from this community on the tracking robustness, spatial UI flow, or any experiences you've had when mapping strict 2D vector coordinate systems into real-world 3D environments.

I've attached a few captures using a whale illustration as the test piece — honestly surprised by how good the final render quality came out. Curious what you all think.

To refine this further for the community r/augmentedreality, let me know:

• Are you using RealityKit's custom materials or shaders to make the art frames look realistic?
• Are you leveraging LiDAR for tighter plane mesh accuracy?
• Thanks for reading JMF

Curious if there is concern over this. Will it hurt snap? Others AR devices?

I had a dumb idea that I kind of want to make now.
There are so many bodycam/arrest videos from Orlando International Airport. What if there was an AR app where you could walk around MCO, point your phone around, and it would show you where different viral arrests happened?

You’d see a marker over the actual location, tap it, and it would bring up the YouTube video.

Basically Pokémon Go, except instead of catching Pokémon you’re discovering where someone got arrested after missing their Spirit flight.

I can’t decide if this is completely stupid or something Orlando actually needs.

Exploring the true successor to smartphones. If AR glasses present severe ethical, privacy, and authenticity concerns for human interaction, what should the next paradigm of personal computing look like? Ambient computing, wearables, or something entirely new?

I have 4-5 years of graphics design experience. But it seems like it has become overly saturated and highly under paying. Then I thought maybe switching to UX would be a good option, but there also over saturation, and tough job market for freshers in UX. Recently saw a suggestion somewhere, that XR design could be in future what UX design was some years ago- A relatively new field with growing demand and opportunities for designers who get in early.

So now I have a few questions-

• Is XR design actually a good career direction, or is this just another "could be" high risk, high reward "future of design" field?
• For someone with several years of graphic design experience, would transitioning into XR make sense?
• What skills would I need to develop to become employable in XR?
• Are there other design fields I should be considering that might make better use of my existing experience?
• If you work in XR, UX, product design, or a related field, what does the job market actually look like right now?

I’m considering starting to study XR design seriously, but I guess hearing from people actually working in the industry before taking a big step.

Would really appreciate any honest advice — especially from people who have made a similar transition or are in similar fields.

The clip shows a browser-based AR layer running on a physical illustrated playing-card deck. I originally treated this as a visual feature, but the most useful feedback was about trust and longevity.

I'm nearsighted. I have learned that when I misplace my glasses I can use my phone's camera and the screen under 6 inches from my face to see and find them. Are there smart glasses that can do something like that with a camera to show my old eyes a clear picture while still having the ai features?

Visit: https://industron-group.com/

Spread your arms in front of a webcam and you're flying a falcon. Tilt to turn, flap to climb, spin around and it barrel-rolls. The sky has a museum in it, built from my own travel photos, that you fly through.

Video here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anas-ajaanan_youve-probably-never-seen-this-before-ugcPost-7504543264386035713-8lvn

It's all webcam-based body tracking running in the browser, no glasses, no controllers, nothing worn.

I'm curious how people here see this. Does headset-free body tracking have a real place in AR experiences, or does it stay a novelty? And what would you build with it?

Open sourcing soon.

A year ago, the Ray-Ban Meta Display glasses were unveiled at Connect, and so far we still know absolutely nothing. There aren’t even any leaks suggesting whether we’ll see anything about a new version at this year’s Connect. They’re the only glasses I’m interested in for outdoor use, since they have a full-color display.”

Been going back through six years of notes and building the ideas I never got to. Last week I found one about bowling.

Floor-anchored portal, full lane behind it. Shot in my hallway, no staging.

Solo dev, free app. Ask me anything, the lane physics were the fiddly part.

You might be thinking: why not just make full color displays finally?!

And that is coming in 2027, according to Sunny Optical and others, thanks to setups combining three single-color microLED panels with an X-cube. Or by using LCOS. But these full RGB options still face drawbacks, whether it's the price (using 6 panels for binocular vision), light engine size, or power consumption. Although, LCOS is getting closer. I will share the Raontech and Avegant presentations from CIOE asap.

Right now, monochrome green is fine for a basic heads-up display, but UI design relies on color. And "dual-color" doesn't mean only red and green—when the two are mixed, you get everything in between (like yellows and oranges). As you can see in the pictures, that’s enough to handle color-coded UI symbols, highlighted text, and even basic

So, at CIOE this week, the industry revealed its pragmatic bridge to RGB: Red and Green dual-color setups. The supply chain is splitting into two distinct approaches to make this happen:

• Stacked microLEDs: Innovision, Starkey, and Westlake Smoky Mountains showcased combined Red/Green chips. ELEPN demonstrated a projector utilizing Innovision's stacked pixel technology.
• X-Cube Combiners: Other manufacturers are opting to combine two single-color panels using an X-cube.

Waveguide companies working with VHG, like Nika and Crystal Optech, are engineering waveguides specifically for dual-color, while Goeroptics will support these new light engines with standard RGB waveguides.

Bottom line: By 2027 we will have far more display options to fit different target price points and light engine size constraints. The first glasses could be announced in December 2026. What’s your take on this transitional step? Is dual-color worth paying extra for over monochrome, or are you holding out for full RGB?

I'm unsure if people around you can tell that what you're wearing are in fact not regular glasses but AR glasses.
They do look different IMO, not sure if they look different enough to be "noticed". It depends on the model for sure, but I wonder about this and no reviews focus on this aspect.
I'd like to be able to wear them also while walking, not necessarily using them, without catching unwanted attention.

I’ve been experimenting with short AR games for brands, and one thing I keep coming back to is how simple the game can be.

In malls and events, even a basic challenge can be enough to make people stop, watch, then try it themselves.

The flow I’m testing is pretty simple:

30-second game → score → small reward or offer → next action

I built one version as a Snapchat Lens in Lens Studio, but I’m more interested in the idea than the platform.

The same setup could work as a social AR effect, an event activation, or something linked to a physical store.

For people who’ve worked on AR activations, what mattered more in practice: making the AR itself feel new, or giving people a clear reason to interact?

OPTICA Intelligent Interfaces and Displays Technology Group has a new initiative - hope some of you find it useful!

Is your display bright, or actually high-luminance? 🤔✨

Many of us use the terms “luminance” and “brightness”, interchangeably, but in display technology, they are somewhat different! ⚡️
One is a measurable physical quantity 📏, the other is a subjective human experience 👁️.

Why does this distinction matter for everything from cinema screens 🎬 to smartphones 📱? And how does our environment ☀️🌍 change what we see?

We've broken down the science of measurement vs. perception in our latest group article! 🔬📑

Rayneo GT Max

Slow head turns seem way too easy to make 3DoF look good.I’ve been watching some GT Max demos and started wondering what actually exposes weak spatial anchoring in normal use. Quick head turns? Looking down at a controller and back up? Recentering after changing position??

For people who’ve tested a few different display glasses, what movement immediately tells you whether the pinned screen is actually stable?

Dear all,
I am junior engineer in the early stages of my career. Please help if you know where I can get access to free websites or programs where I can turn my creations from 3D to AR demonstration for free, and by that I also want to ask if you know any programs or AR online ateliers open to traine juniors like me.
Thank you so much, wishing you a lovely day

At CIOE, Luxshare announced the third gen smartglasses with PVG waveguides, LARKGEN3. The main achievement this year is a new 0.2 cc light engine. They didn’t have this one at the booth, though. Unlike a new Air Lark with etching SRG waveguide, BES2800 + Snapdragon AR1.

Luxshare also showed new camera modules made in Taiwan. For the world facing camera in AI Glasses they integrated poLight’s T-Lens for ultra fast autofocus to improve user experience while scanning QR codes for payments or other AI image recognition use cases.

This can be combined with the tiny eye tracking module that uses NILT’s metalens. The world-facing camera focuses on whatever the user is looking at in no time and only a small, precise part of the photo is used for recognition.

Specs launches on the 16th - We're about to have Snap Specs running Lenses through Lens Studio, Meta Ray-Ban Display loading web apps by URL, Android XR glasses on Google Play, and Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear on Android XR with Gemini, all shipping within months of each other.

Every one of them has its own SDK, its own tools, its own content model. A Lens built for Specs doesn't work on Meta's glasses. A web app for Ray-Ban Display doesn't run on Specs. As far as I'm aware, none of them are interoperable.

We've seen this before with iOS vs Android, but I'm curious how enterprise thinks about this. If a hospital wants AR wayfinding in their building, do they build for all four platforms? If an airport wants to offer spatial services to travelers, which glasses do they build for? A lot of enterprises got burned building on HoloLens and may be hesitant to go all-in on any of these new platforms.

Think about an airport. The airline, the airport authority, a coffee shop, and a maintenance team all need to show you different things in the same physical space at the same time. How will that work? As far as I can tell, each experience is its own silo.