Tech giants race to develop next-gen smart glasses

(Samsung Electronics)

As the race to develop smart glasses heats up, tech companies worldwide are pushing forward in what many view as the next step beyond smartphones. Following Meta’s unveiling of its Orion AR prototype in September 2024, interest in smart glasses has surged among tech giants, with new announcements on the horizon.

According to Bloomberg, China’s tech giant Baidu plans to unveil its own smart glasses at the Baidu World event on Tuesday. These glasses will feature an embedded camera for photo and video capture and include Baidu’s AI system, Ernie, enabling voice-activated AI interactions similar to Meta’s model. Xiaodu, Baidu’s hardware arm, led the project, integrating it with other Baidu products. The product could hit the market as early as the beginning of 2025.

Samsung, partnering with Google, is also expected to enter the competition. The companies are set to introduce their joint smart glasses, equipped with AI systems from both Samsung and Google, either in late 2024 or early 2025. In its third-quarter report in October 2024, Samsung emphasized its 2025 vision of expanding the Galaxy ecosystem with extended reality (XR) capabilities, aiming to enhance connectivity between devices.

Meanwhile, OpenAI recently recruited Caitlin Kalinowski, formerly of Meta, who previously spearheaded AR smart glasses development there. The recruitment, alongside OpenAI’s collaboration with ex-Apple chief designer Jony Ive, has fueled speculation that OpenAI’s own AI-embedded device could take the form of smart glasses.

Apple, which recently entered the mixed-reality market with its Vision Pro headset, now appears to be shifting its focus toward smart glasses as well. Bloomberg reports that Apple has internally referred to this endeavor as the “Atlas Project,” suggesting an emphasis on further refining augmented reality.

Meta’s success with Ray-Ban smart glasses has already driven expansion plans, including pop-up stores in Los Angeles and Phoenix. Unlike Meta’s Ray-Ban model, which incorporates a camera and speaker for AI interaction, its latest prototype, Orion, adds a display that allows users to view information directly on the lenses.