ar industry

Anduril Shows a Glimpse of EagleEye’s Wide Field-of-view Night Vision Imaging

May 22, 2026 From roadtovr

Palmer Luckey, founder of defense startup Anduril, revealed more capabilities of its EagleEye XR glasses, this time showing off its wide field-of-view (FOV) night vision.

Anduril revealed EagleEye late last year, showing off an impressive (if not outright terrifying) set of augmented reality capabilities the company hopes to eventually serve up to U.S. soldiers. Luckey, who also founded Oculus in 2013, has now showed off a little more of the system’s night vision.

“The difference is night and day,” Luckey says in an X post. “The digital night vision of the EagleEye Family of Systems delivers an 84 degree field of view, stereo thermal fusion to expose hidden threats, and a 4K display for enhanced warfighter perception.”

Luckey also showed off a visual comparison between EagleEye (left) and PVS-31 (right), the latter of which is a conventional binocular-style night vision system currently used in elite combat roles, such as SOCOM, Rangers, SEALs, and MARSOC.

That said, the two systems are very different—about as far from each other as a smartphone is from and a digital Casio watch.

According to Anduril, EagleEye offloads some of front-heaviness of its low light and thermal sensors by integrating them into a sensor suite connected directly to the helmet, which is then relayed to the user’s display, which is housed in a pair of AR glasses with included ballistic and laser protection.

What’s more, the system also patches into a bevy of external data streams, including real-time info sourced from the company’s AI-driven Lattice network of surveillance and defense devices.

This comes amid Anduril’s compete for a U.S. Army contract against defense company rival Rivet. Called the Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC), the new contract is essentially is set to revamp the previous 10-year, $22 billion Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) project originally awarded to Microsoft in 2018, which the company hoped to fulfill by adapting its HoloLens 2 AR platform for combat roles.

In February 2025, it was revealed Anduril would be taking over the older IVAS contract, which was thought to give the company a head start on competing for SBMC.

Notably, Anduril partnered with Meta in May 2025 on combat-focused XR systems, which at the time the companies said would aim to deliver “the world’s best AR and VR systems for the U.S. military.”

Anduril says it’s also partnered with EssilorLuxottica’s Oakley Standard Issue, Qualcomm, and Gentex, which the company says “lowers cost, accelerates development, and ensures a path for continuous innovation.”

Samsung Reportedly Working on More Advanced Smart Glasses, Possibly Including a Display

April 23, 2026 From roadtovr

Samsung is reportedly working on a pair of smart glasses that could be more advanced than its forthcoming competitors to Ray-Ban Meta.

Android Authority maintains it’s found evidence of a third pair of smart glasses in the source code of Samsung’s upcoming One UI 9 firmware, revealing a new model number: ‘SM-O500’, code named ‘Haean’.

Notably, two model numbers are already known: ‘SM-O200P’ and ‘SM-O200J’, code named ‘Jinju’, which are likely to be associated with the Android XR-based smart glasses Samsung recently confirmed will release sometime this year.

Those are expected to be similar to Ray-Ban Meta, in that they’ll essentially be ‘audio-only’, including microphones, camera, speakers, but no form of display.

Prototype Android XR smartglasses | Image courtesy Google

As SM-O500 follows the same numbering and lettering scheme as those two known smart glasses models, it could indicate Samsung is already working on ecosystem support for the ostensible next-gen device.

Based off prior rumors, SamMobile further suggests it may even be a display-clad version coming in 2027, similar to Meta Ray-Ban Display ($800) released late last year in the US.

Granted, as Android Authority notes, its source code sweep of One UI 9 isn’t a smoking gun. APK teardowns of the sort can be useful in revealing future releases, but may also not make it to a public release.

What we do know thus far: Google, the creator of Android XR, announced last year it was partnering with Samsung as well as Gentle Monster and US-based eyewear brand Warby Parker to release the company’s first generation of Android XR-based smart glasses.

Google also hopes to release a model with built-in displays for visual output. The company showed off two prototypes last year, including both a monocular and stereoscopic model to demonstrate Android XR’s ability to adapt to multiple hardware configurations.

Still, there’s no release date in sight for any of the Android XR-running smart glasses. The inclusion of ecosystem tie-ins in One UI 9 (based on Android 17) could mean we’ll find out more soon, however. Android 17 is expected to release in June 2026, with One UI 9 expected a month later, which could hold more clues.

Snap Confirms Mass Layoffs Ahead of Next-gen ‘Specs’ AR Glasses Rollout

April 15, 2026 From roadtovr

Snap is laying off around 1,000 employees, the Snapchat parent confirmed today. Specs Inc., its recently formed AR glasses subsidiary, is reportedly not being affected, however, as the cuts are aimed at further insulating the traditional Snapchat business from its new AR subsidiary.

Spiegel announced the news in an internal memo, published by Business Insider, which is confirmed to affect 1,000 team members, including 16% of Snap’s full-time employees. Spiegel also confirmed Snap has now closed more than 300 open roles.

“Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth,” Spiegel says in the memo. “Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value. As a result of these changes, we expect to reduce our annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, helping to establish a clearer path to net-income profitability.”

Snap Spectacles (gen 5) | Image courtesy Snap Inc

While Spiegel hasn’t confirmed the fate of Specs Inc. specifically, according to a report by Alex Heath’s Sources the company’s AR glasses subsidiary is slated to actually add employees ahead of launch of its sixth-gen Specs AR glasses, which is expected sometime this fall.

The report further maintains Snap was unable to secure a proposed $1 billion to fund its Specs division, although the company is still hoping to raise capital once its AR glasses release.

The next-gen Specs AR glasses are slated to be revealed “in the next couple of months, loosely modeled on Apple’s Vision Pro rollout, followed by a consumer release in the fall,” Heath writes.

The comes weeks after Irenic Capital Management, which holds economic interest of about 2.5% in Snap, put pressure on the company to either spin off or shut down Specs Inc.

According to a Reuters last month, the activist investor also called on Snap to consider cutting costs through layoffs and to buy back more discounted stock, among other moves, which at the time of this writing seems to be the course the company has taken.

This follows recent news that Specs Inc. and chip maker Qualcomm have signed a multi-year partnership for Snap’s upcoming AR glasses, with Qualcomm pledging Snapdragon chips for future iterations—seemingly signaling confidence that Snap is betting on the success of Specs.

Read the full memo from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel below, courtesy Business Insider:

Dear Team,

Today we are announcing changes that will impact approximately 1,000 team members at Snap, including 16% of our full time employees, in addition to closing more than 300 open roles. This is an incredibly difficult decision, and I am deeply sorry to the colleagues who will be leaving us. You have made important contributions to Snap, and we are committed to supporting you through this transition.

Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth. Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value. As a result of these changes, we expect to reduce our annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, helping to establish a clearer path to net-income profitability.

While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers. We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives, including Snapchat+, enhanced ad platform performance, and efficiency improvements in our Snap Lite infrastructure.

If you are part of our North America team, please work from home today. In the US, impacted team members will receive an email notification within the next hour, including information about next steps. For non-US locations, you will receive additional details about next steps from leadership and HR.

To our departing colleagues: thank you. Your hard work has helped shape Snap, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions. For U.S.-based team members who are leaving, we will provide four months of severance, healthcare coverage, and equity vesting, along with career transition support.

Outside the U.S., we will follow local processes and seek to provide comparable support aligned with local norms.

To everyone continuing on this journey: change of this magnitude and at this speed is never easy and it will not be seamless. Thank you for your resilience, compassion, and commitment to one another, and to the community and partners we serve. Our responsibility is to move forward with clarity, empathy, and determination as we build a faster, stronger, and more durable Snap for the long term.

Evan

Meta’s Reported Plan to Add Facial Recognition to Smart Glasses Slammed by ACLU-led Coalition

April 15, 2026 From roadtovr

An ACLU-led coalition representing more than 70 civil liberties advocacy groups are pushing back against Meta’s reported plans to bring facial recognition to its smart glasses.

The New York Times initially reported in February that Meta is currently exploring who should be recognizable through its smart glasses, as the company ostensibly hopes to bring some form of facial recognition to Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses.

According to the NYT report, possible options include “recognizing people a user knows because they are connected on a Meta platform, and identifying people whom the user may not know but who have a public account on a Meta site like Instagram.”

Now, as reported by Wired, an ACLU-led coalition hopes to oppose those plans, which the group says could turn Meta’s smart glasses into ad hoc “surveillance glasses,” capable of endangering consumers and vulnerable communities, and broadly undermining civil rights and civil liberties.

Ray-Ban Meta ‘Scriber’ model | Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

The group, which also includes the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Fight for the Future, Access Now, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday urging the company to stop and publicly disavow its plans.

“People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors,” the letter reads.

Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses & Neural Band | Image courtesy Meta

“It isn’t hard to see how easily this technology could be abused by corporations, private individuals, and the government to target immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and other vulnerable groups,” an ACLU petition adds. “It also puts domestic violence and stalking survivors at risk and could even be used to go after protestors or people who criticize the government.”

Meta has bowed to public pressure before, albeit after years of costly litigation. As mentioned by Wired, in November 2021 the company ended Facebook’s photo-tagging system and said it would delete the facial recognition templates of more than a billion users, which at the time was called “a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products.”

Neither Meta, nor its hardware partner EssilorLuxottica responded to Wired’s request for comment.

This follows news in February that Meta’s smart glasses partner EssilorLuxottica sold over seven million smart glasses in 2025 alone; that year the companies not only shipped a hardware refresh of Ray-Ban Meta, but also Oakley Meta HSTN, Oakley Meta Vanguard, and the $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses—the company’s first smart glasses to include a heads-up display.

It’s not just Meta making smart glasses though. Meanwhile, a rash of competitors are currently preparing their own smart glasses for consumer release; Google, Samsung and Amazon have all announced their own devices, while Apple is also reportedly developing multiple pairs.

Snap & Qualcomm Announce Long-term Partnership, Affirm 2026 Launch for ‘Specs’ Consumer AR Glasses

April 10, 2026 From roadtovr

Snap’s new XR subsidiary Specs Inc and Qualcomm announced a multi-year partnership for Snap’s upcoming AR glasses, with Qualcomm pledging Snapdragon chips for future iterations. The companies also reaffirmed that Snap’s next-gen Specs are coming “later this year.”

Specs Inc, which was formed by Snap in January to handle its XR efforts, is working with Qualcomm in what the companies call a “long-term strategic roadmap” which aims to rapidly bring things like “on-device AI, cutting-edge graphics, and advanced multiuser digital experiences,” the companies said in a joint press statement.

“Snap Inc. and Qualcomm Technologies have a strong track record of powering advanced immersive technology. This agreement builds on more than five years of innovation and collaboration, as Snapdragon platforms have powered multiple previous generations of Snap’s Spectacles,” the companies said.

Snap’s sixth gen Specs are looking to appeal to consumers while also possibly also frontrunning its largest competitors, including Meta, Samsung, Google, and Apple.

While Snap hasn’t shown off its next-gen Specs yet, the company seems to be leaning heavily into the device’s built-in AI, something that “uses its understanding of you and your world to help get things done on your behalf while protecting and respecting your privacy,” Snap said earlier this year.

“The next era of computing will be defined by devices that understand what you see, hear and say as well as context, and respond instantly to the world around you,” said Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon. “Our work on future generations of Specs will enable power-efficient interactive AR devices that deliver agentic experiences that feel natural, intuitive and integrate seamlessly into daily life.”

Aiming for release sometime this year, the next iteration of Spec will technically be the company’s second pair of AR glasses, following its fifth-gen release in 2024.

Besides Snap noting the new AR device will be smaller and lighter, feature see-through AR optics, and be powered by some form of Snapdragon XR SoC, its specs are largely still a mystery.

Confused about the smart glasses and AR glasses? Check out our handy primer on the key differences here.

Meta Shows Confidence in EMG Input for Wearables by Funding Six External Studies

March 20, 2026 From roadtovr

Meta announced it’s tapped six external teams to receive a research grant in order to advance work on its surface electromyography (sEMG) based wristband controller.

Meta revealed in a blog post it’s launched a research funding initiative focused on improving how users learn and interact with sEMG systems, having chosen six universities out of 70 global submissions.

Each research group is set to receive $150,000 in funding, which includes teams at the University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University of California, Davis, Newcastle University, University of British Columbia, and Northwestern University.

Meta’s wrist-worn neural interface relies on sEMG, which detects electrical activity in the wrist and hand and translates it into digital commands. As Meta Ray-Ban Display’s main input device, the company hopes to answer a few questions with the studies, namely: how do people learn new sEMG-based controls, and how can onboarding be streamlined?

Wrist-worn XR Controller seen with Orion | Image courtesy Meta

The funded projects explore a range of challenges. Some focus on improving learning methods, such as comparing gamified training with step-by-step instruction, or developing systems that adapt to individual users over time.

Others aim to expand what sEMG can do, like enabling silent speech generation by translating muscle signals into synthesized voice, or increasing the ‘bandwidth’ of communication so users can issue more complex commands without disrupting natural hand movement.

A number of the proposed research topics include assistive applications, such as helping stroke survivors regain muscle control, or improving prosthetic limb operation through co-adaptive systems that learn alongside the user. You can see more about each study here.

This follows the release of Meta Ray-Ban Display last September, the company’s first pair of smart glasses with a built-in display. Priced at $800 and only available in the US for now, the smart glasses make use of the same input scheme first paired with Meta’s Orion AR prototype, which was revealed in late 2024.

This ostensibly shows Meta is pretty confident in the control scheme, viewing it as reliable enough for future (likely AR) devices. We’re looking forward to learning more as the research projects progress. Typically, we see papers either highlighted or released during SIGGRAPH, which is taking place in Los Angeles, California this year on July 19th – 23rd.

Meta Faces Lawsuit Claiming Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Sent Private Footage to Overseas Reviewers

March 10, 2026 From roadtovr

Meta is facing a class action lawsuit in the US over privacy concerns tied to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company is accused of sending private camera footage to a Kenya-based subcontractor for manual review to train its AI models.

Allegations stem from an investigative report from Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, which is said to have uncovered a subcontractor in Kenya tasked with reviewing and labeling images and videos uploaded from the glasses.

Sources within the subcontractor report seeing videos of everything, from sexual activity, handling of financial information, to a host of other private activities inside homes.

“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed. I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording,” a facility worker told Svenska Dagbladet.

Array of Meta smart glasses | Image courtesy Brad Lynch

These so-called ‘data annotators’ are said to manually process and tag images: “draw boxes around flower pots and traffic signs, follow contours, register pixels and name objects: cars, lamps, people. Every image must be described, labelled and quality assured,” the report maintains.

Following these revelations, a class-action lawsuit (via TechCrunch) was filed in a US federal court accusing Meta of misleading consumers about the product’s privacy protections.

“Meta chose to make privacy the centerpiece of its pervasive marketing campaign while concealing the facts that reveal those promises to be false,” the lawsuit states, further noting that Meta’s own “face anonymization” layer does not work to obscure the private nature of the transmitted videos.

Meta did not offer a comment to TechCrunch on the litigation itself, however, spokesperson Christopher Sgro provided the following statement:

“Ray-Ban Meta glasses help you use AI, hands-free, to answer questions about the world around you. Unless users choose to share media they’ve captured with Meta or others, that media stays on the user’s device. When people share content with Meta AI, we sometimes use contractors to review this data for the purpose of improving people’s experience, as many other companies do. We take steps to filter this data to protect people’s privacy and to help prevent identifying information from being reviewed.”

While many use Meta’s smart glasses as Ai-assisted sunglasses, its Ray-Ban smart glasses line can be specifically fit with a variety of prescription lens types, which allows users to wear them all-day as corrective glasses.

Snap’s Top AR Exec Quits Ahead of Specs Consumer Debut

February 20, 2026 From roadtovr

Scott Myers, Snap’s top executive in charge of Specs, has left the company ahead of the planned release of its consumer AR glasses.

The News

Myers reportedly left his six-year tenure at the company due to a dispute with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, tech outlet Sources claims, characterizing the dispute as a “blow-up” centered around the company’s strategy.

A Snap spokesperson confirmed Myers’ departure on Reddit, nothing that Specs are still on track for release this year:

“Scott Myers has decided to step down from his role at Snap. We thank him for his contributions and wish him the best in his next chapter. We can’t wait to bring Specs to the world later this year. We remain focused on disciplined execution and long term value creation for our developer partners, community and shareholders.”

Myers came to Snap in 2020 to oversee all aspects of Specs, including hardware, software, product and operations. He previously held senior positions at SpaceX, Apple, and Nokia, according to his LinkedIn profile.

This comes at a critical moment for Snap. In September 2025, Spiegel noted in an open letter that the company is heading into a make-or-break “crucible moment” in 2026, positioning Specs are an integral part of the company’s future.

“This moment isn’t just about survival. It’s about proving that a different way of building technology, one that deepens friendships and inspires creativity, can succeed in a world that often rewards the opposite,” Spiegel said.

The consumer version of Specs is set to be the company’s sixth generation glasses following the release of its fifth-gen hardware in 2024. As ‘true’ AR glasses (re: not smart glasses like Meta Ray-Ban Display), the device is ostensibly set to frontrun some of Snap’s largest competitors.

My Take

It’s uncertain why Myers left Snap; the company even disputed the “blow-up” narrative with TechCrunch, providing no other reasoning, which makes Myers’ departure an even greater mystery—especially on the eve of the company’s big consumer AR glasses launch.

Speculatively speaking, there is at least one recent sign that could point to trouble brewing in the background. Myer’s departure follows a recent move by the company to form a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to Specs.

Snap says the so-called ‘Specs Inc’ subsidiary will primarily allow for “new partnerships and capital flexibility,” including the potential for minority investment. More concretely, Specs Inc also insolates Snap from any potential failure.

Whether that betrays a lack of confidence is unclear, although the top executive who oversaw the release of the fourth and fifth-gen versions—notably the only two with displays and AR capabilities—doesn’t smack of confidence.

Snap Forms ‘Specs Inc’ to Insulate AR Business Ahead of AR Glasses Launch

January 29, 2026 From roadtovr

Snapchat maker Snap announced it’s formed a new business dedicated to its upcoming AR glasses.

The News

Called Specs Inc, the wholly-owned subsidiary within Snap is said to allow for “greater operational focus and alignment” ahead of the public launch of its latest AR glasses coming later this year.

In addition to operating its AR efforts directly under the new brand, Snap says Specs Inc will also allow for “new partnerships and capital flexibility,” including the potential for minority investment.

Snap Spectacles Gen 5 (2024) | Image courtesy Snap Inc

In September, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel noted in an open letter that the company is heading into a make-or-break “crucible moment” in 2026, characterizing Specs as an integral part of the company’s future.

While the company hasn’t shown of its next-gen Specs yet, the company touts the device’s built-in AI, something that “uses its understanding of you and your world to help get things done on your behalf while protecting and respecting your privacy.”

Snap further notes that it’s “building a computer that we hope you’ll use less, because it does more for you.”

My Take

Snap (or rather, Specs) is set to release its sixth-gen Spectacles this year, although this is the first pair of AR glasses the company is ostensibly hoping to pitch directly to the public, and not just developers and educational institutions.

Info is still thin surrounding Spec Inc’s launch plans for the devices, although forming a new legal entity for its AR business right beforehand could mean a few things.

For now, it doesn’t appear Snap is “spinning out” Spectacles proper; Snap hasn’t announced new leadership, leading me to believe that it’s more of a play to not only attract more targeted investment in the AR efforts, but also insulate the company from potential failure.

Snap Spectacles Gen 5 (2024) | Image courtesy Snap Inc, Niantic

It’s all fairly opaque at this point, although the move does allow investors to more clearly choose between supporting the company’s traditional ad business, or investing it the future of AR.

However you slice it though, AR hardware development is capital intensive, and Snap’s pockets aren’t as deep as its direct competitors, including Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

While Snap confirmed it spent $3 billion over the course of 11 years creating its AR platform, that’s notably less than what Meta typically spends in a single quarter on its XR Reality Labs division.

It’s also risky. The very real flipside is that Specs Inc could go bankrupt. Maybe it’s too early. Maybe it underdelivers in comparison to competitors. Maybe it’s too expensive out of the gate for consumers, and really only appeals to enterprise. Maybe it isn’t too expensive, but the world heads into its sixth once-in-a-generation economic meltdown.

Simply put, there are a lot of ‘maybes’ right now. And given the new legal separation, Snap still has the option to survive relatively unscathed if it goes belly up, and lives to find another existential pivot.

Distance Technologies Reveals Military AR Goggles for Battlefield Awareness

January 21, 2026 From roadtovr

Distance Technologies has unveiled the Field Operator HUD (FOH), an AI-enhanced AR system designed for military vehicles ranging from light utility platforms to main battle tanks.

FOH is said to combine Distance’s own optics with AI-assisted data processing, which the company says improves situational awareness, survivability, and visual workload management in land combat environments.

Having undergone field trials with UK and Finnish forces, FOH integrates command-and-control functions with its AR optics by fusing multiple sensor inputs—ostensibly similar to Anduril’s EagleEye project, revealed in October 2025.

Distance says FOH is designed to present only the most critical information by using AI-driven sensor fusion, automated detection, and by integrating everything from thermal and night vision to data sourced from a wide range of vehicle-mounted sensors—something the company hopes will translate into more effective decision-making both in and outside of military vehicles.

The precise specs of the company’s various FOH configurations are predictably under wraps though, which are said to include models for on-the-ground soldiers, pilots, and various types of ground vehicle operators.

On the company website however, Distance says FOH includes technology that “creates an independent lightfield for each eye, allowing us to control the perceived distance of the content on a per-pixel level. This makes it possible to match virtual elements 1-to-1 with reality for a completely natural XR experience.”

It’s also said to allow for visualizations that “appear on top of reality across the entire field of view, perfectly matching the observable world people see and experience around them.”

FOH is expected to be available for NATO and allied field trials by the end of Q1 2026, with broader deployment planned from 2027 through defense prime contractors.

Founded in 2024 the Helsinki, Finland-based company is involved in building what it calls “the first true glasses-free XR solution.” It was founded by a host of XR veterans, including a cadre of alums from fellow Finnish XR startup Varjo, including Urho Konttori, Jussi Mäkinen, Mikko Strandborg, Thomas M. Carlsson, and Petteri Timonen.