• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

VRSUN

Hot Virtual Reality News

HOTTEST VR NEWS OF THE DAY

  • Home

XR Industry News

CREAL Secures $8.9M Funding to Miniaturize Light Field Display for AR Glasses

July 11, 2025 From roadtovr

Switzerland-based light field display startup CREAL announced its closed a $8.9 million equity funding round, which the company says will accelerate the miniaturization of its light field module for AR glasses.

The equity funding round was led by ZEISS, the Germany-based optical systems and optoelectronics company, with participation from new and existing investors, including members of the UBS private investor network.

This brings the company’s overall funding to $32 million, with previous investors including Swisscom Ventures, Verve Ventures, and DAA Capital Partners.

In a press statement, Creal says funds will accelerate its mission to deliver “natural, comfortable, and healthy visual digital experiences by advancing its proprietary light field display.”

Image courtesy CREAL

Integrated into AR glasses, light field displays can recreate the way light naturally enters our eyes, enabling more realistic depth perception and reducing eye strain by allowing proper focus cues at different distances. You can learn more about light fields in our explainer below:

Light fields are significant to AR and VR because they’re a genuine representation of how light exists in the real world, and how we perceive it. Unfortunately they’re difficult to capture or generate, and arguably even harder to display.

Every AR and VR headset on the market today uses some tricks to try to make our eyes interpret what we’re seeing as if it’s actually there in front of us. Most headsets are using basic stereoscopy and that’s about it—the 3D effect gives a sense of depth to what’s otherwise a scene projected onto a flat plane at a fixed focal length.

Such headsets support vergence (the movement of both eyes to fuse two images into one image with depth), but not accommodation (the dynamic focus of each individual eye). That means that while your eyes are constantly changing their vergence, the accommodation is stuck in one place. Normally these two eye functions work unconsciously in sync, hence the so-called ‘vergence-accommodation conflict’ when they don’t.

Some headsets include ‘varifocal’ approaches, dynamically shifting the focal length based on where you’re looking (with eye-tracking), such as Magic Leap One as well as older Meta prototype VR headsets—supporting a larger number of focal lengths. Even so, these varifocal approaches still have some inherent issues that arise because they aren’t actually displaying light fields.

“As AI reshapes how we work and create, AR is poised to become the killer interface to this new era,” says Tomas Sluka, CEO and co-founder of Creal. “But if we’re going to wear AR glasses all day, they must imperatively be healthy, comfortable, and natural to use. That’s why we’re focused on delivering AR glasses that uniquely project digital imagery with real-world depth — fully supporting the natural focusing mechanism of the human eye. This is one of the key foundations for immersive spatial computing.”

Creal says the fresh funding round will help the Écublens, Switzerland-based company continue R&D on its AR light field module, which the company aims to integrate into lightweight, fashionable AR glasses—first for enterprise, and later for consumers.

This also includes ongoing support of a licensing agreement with Zeiss, kicked off in late 2024, to bring its light field-based vision care platform to Zeiss, which it will be used in Zeiss’ next-gen diagnostic and treatment devices.

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.

Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.

Filed Under: AR Development, AR Investment, News, XR Industry News

Meta Reportedly Invests $3.5 Billion in EssilorLuxottica, Further Strengthening Smart Glasses Partnership

July 10, 2025 From roadtovr

It was rumored last year that Meta was seeking a minority stake in French-Italian eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica, not only the largest eyewear manufacturer in the world, but also Meta’s partner behind its growing line of smart glasses. Now, a new report suggests the deal has gone through.

Citing people familiar with the matter, a Bloomberg report maintains Meta has acquired just under 3% of EssilorLuxottica, which is suspected to be worth €3 billion (~$3.5 million).

Meta is reportedly considering additional investment in the eyewear maker over time, which could bring its overall stake to around 5%, the people said, who asked to not be named due to ongoing deliberations.

In June 2024, a Wall Street Journal report maintained Meta was considering a stake of about 5% in the eyewear group, although at the time talks were reportedly still in early phases.

Then, three months later, Meta announced it was expanding its smart glasses partnership with EssilorLuxottica into 2030. At the time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described its long-term roadmap as giving the companies “the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform, and make it fashionable in the process.”

Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

This comes as the companies prepare to release their latest smart glasses collaboration: Oakley Meta HSTN. Meta and EssilorLuxottica are releasing a limited edition version of device on July 11th, priced at $499, with multiple lens and frame colorways slated to go on sale later this summer.

Oakley Meta HSTN comes with a modest feature bump over the companies’ second-gen Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which launched in 2023. In addition to serving up music, photo and video capture, and AI chats, Oakley Meta HSNT also promises better battery life and higher resolution video capture over the current Ray-Ban Meta generation, offering up to “3K video” from the device’s ultra-wide 12MP camera and a typical battery life of eight hours between recharges via the supplied charging case.

Meanwhile, other tech giants are preparing their own entries into the segment. Google revealed back in May that it was partnering with eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to bring its first Android XR smart glasses to market. Recent industry reports allege Google is also looking to invest $100 million in the South Korea-based Gentle Monster.

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi recently released its Xiaomi AI Glasses, which match many of Oakley Meta HSNT’s biggest features, but also add a few of their own—notably an increased continuous recording cap of 45 minutes and even the option to select electrochromic lenses for variable lens-shading. For now, Xiaomi AI Glasses are only available in China.

Both Samsung and Apple are reportedly looking to launch their own smart glasses at some point in the future too. Separate reports maintain Samsung could release a device this year, and Apple as soon as 2026.

Filed Under: AR Development, AR Investment, News, XR Industry News

Smart Contact Maker Raises $250M Investment at a Whopping $1.35B Valuation

July 9, 2025 From roadtovr

Smart contact lens startup XPANCEO announced it’s secured $250 million in Series A funding, putting its valuation at $1.35 billion and minting it as XR’s most recent unicorn.

The funding round was led by Opportunity Venture (Asia), which led the company’s $40 million Seed round in 2023, bringing its overall funding to $290 million, according to Crunchbase data.

XPANCEO, a UAE-based company, says the new funding will “accelerate the company’s mission to launch the world’s first all-in-one smart contact lens,” which is targeted to arrive by 2026.

While the company’s smart contacts are still in prototyping phase, XPANCEO says they will integrate XR, real-time health monitoring, night vision, and zoom features.

Display System with Sub-0.5 mm Projector | Image courtesy XPANCEO

“Becoming a unicorn is a powerful signal that we’re on the right path,” said Roman Axelrod, founder and Managing Partner at XPANCEO. “In just 24 months, we’ve developed 15 working prototypes, each unlocking a new layer of possibility. Our vision remains the same: to merge all your devices into a single, invisible interface – your eyes.”

Since its 2023 seed round, XPANCEO says its fleet of prototypes include a lens for AR vision, a smart lens with intraocular pressure (IOP) sensing for glaucoma monitoring, a biochemical lens capable of measuring health parameters such as glucose directly from tear fluid, and a lens capable of real-time wireless charging and data reading.

Other prototypes feature nanoparticle-enhanced lenses for night vision and color correction, as well as lenses designed for 3D imaging, the company says.

Smart Сontact Lens with Wireless Powering Companion | Image courtesy XPANCEO

Headed by serial entrepreneur Roman Axelrod and physicist Dr. Valentyn S. Volkov, XPANCEO has grown rapidly since its 2021 founding, expanding from 50 to 100 scientists, engineers, and business leaders. Meanwhile, its lab has expanded to support the increasing scope of its research, the company says.

Over the years, XPANCEO has collaborated with a number of institutions, including the University of Manchester, the National University of Singapore, Donostia International Physics Center, and the University of Dubai.

High-Sensitivity Compact IOP Sensor | Image courtesy XPANCEO

XPANCEO’s new unicorn status puts it alongside some of the most ambitious XR projects to date: AR headset company Magic Leap first broke the $1 billion valuation mark in 2014 with a $542 million Series B investment led by Google, putting it at a max of $6.4 billion valuation in 2018 following its landmark investment by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Earlier this year, immersive web content company Infinite Reality announced it raised $3 billion from a private investor to build its “vision for the next generation of the internet,” bringing the company’s valuation to $12.25 billion.

Filed Under: AR Development, ar industry, AR Investment, News, XR Industry News

Xiaomi Unveils China’s Answer to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses with a Few Killer Features

June 26, 2025 From roadtovr

Today at Xiaomi’s ‘Human x Car x Home’ event, the Chinese tech giant revealed its answer to Meta and EssilorLuxottica’s series of smart glasses: Xiaomi AI Glasses.

Reports from late last year alleged Xiaomi was partnering with China-based ODM Goertek to produce a new generation of AI-assisted smart glasses, which was rumored to “fully benchmark” against Ray-Ban Meta—notably not officially available in China.

Now, Xiaomi has unveiled its first Xiaomi AI Glasses, which include onboard Hyper XiaoAi voice assistant, 12MP camera with electronic image stabilization (EIS), five mics, two speakers—all of it driven by a low-power BES2700 Bluetooth audio chip and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1. So far, that’s pretty toe-to-toe with Ray-Ban Meta and the recently unveiled Oakley Meta HSTN glasses.

Image courtesy Xiaomi

And like Meta’s smart glasses, Xiaomi AI Glasses don’t include displays of any kind, instead relying on voice and touch input to interact with Hyper XiaoAI. It also boasts foreign language text translation in addition to photo and video capture, which can be toggled either with a voice prompt or tap of the frames.

Xiaomi rates the glasses’ 263mAh silicon-carbon battery at 8.6 hours of use, which the company says can include things like 15 one-minute video recordings, 50 photo shots, 90 minutes of Bluetooth calls, or 20 minutes of XiaoAi voice conversations. Those are just mixed use estimates though, as Xiaomi says it can last up to 21 hours in standby mode, 7 hours of music listening, and 45 minutes of continuous video capture.

One of the most interesting native features though is the ability to simply look at an Alipay QR code, which are ubiquitous across the country, and pay for goods and services with a vocal prompt. Xiaomi says the feature is expected to arrive as an OTA update in September 2025.

The device is set to launch today in China, although global availability is still in question at this time. Xiaomi says the glasses were “optimized for Asian face shapes,” which may rule out a broader global launch for this particular version.

Image courtesy Xiaomi

While there’s only a singular frame shape to choose from, it will be offered in three colors—black, and semi-transparent tortoiseshell brown and parrot green—in addition to three lens options, which aim to beat Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta in cool factor.

The base model with clear lenses is priced at ¥1,999 RMB (~$280 USD), while customers can also choose electrochromic shaded lenses at ¥2,699 RMB (~$380 USD) and colored electrochromic shaded lenses at ¥2,999 RMB (~$420 USD).

Xiaomi’s electrochromic lenses allow for gradual shading depending on the user’s comfort, letting you change the intensity of shading by touching the right frame. Notably, the company says its base model can optionally include prescription lenses through its online and offline partners.

Image courtesy Xiaomi

This makes Xiaomi AI Glasses the company’s first mass-produced smart glasses with cameras marketed under the Xiaomi brand.

Many of Xiaomi’s earlier glasses—such as the Mijia Smart Audio Glasses 2—were only sold in China and lacked camera sensors entirely, save the limited release device Mijia Glasses Camera from 2022, which featured a 50 MP primary and 8 MP periscope camera, and micro-OLED heads-up display.

Here are the specs we’ve gathered so far from Xiaomi’s presentation. We’ll be filling in more as information comes in:

Camera 12MP
Lens ƒ/2.2 large aperture | 105° angle lens
Photo & Video capture 4,032 x 3,024 photos | 2K/30FPS video recording | EIS video stabilization
Video length 45 minute continuous recording cap
Weight 40 g
Charging USB Type-C
Charging time 45 minutes
Battery 263mAh silicon-carbon battery
Battery life 8.6 hours of mixed use
Audio two frame-mounted speakers
Mics 4 mics + 1 bone conduction mic
Design Foldable design

–

According to Chinese language outlet Vrtuoluo, the device has already seen strong initial interest on e-commerce platform JD.com, totaling over 25,000 reservations made as of 9:30 AM CST (local time here).

Filed Under: AR Development, News, XR Industry News

Google Reportedly to Invest $100M in Smart Glasses Partner Gentle Monster

June 24, 2025 From roadtovr

Ahead of Google’s planned rollout of Android XR-equipped smart glasses, the company is reportedly making a $100 million investment in hardware partner Gentle Monster, the South Korean fashion eyewear brand.

According to a Korean Economic Daily report, Google is slated to sign a deal worth around 145.0 billion Korean won (~$100 million) in Gentle Monster.

Citing investment banking sources, the report maintains talks are now at final stages, wherein Google will obtain a 4% stake in the South Korean eyewear brand.

Google announced in May that it was partnering with both Gentle Monster and US-based eyewear brand Warby Parker to release the company’s first generation of Android XR-based smart glasses.

Android XR smart glasses seen at Google I/O | Image courtesy Google

Expected to release sometime in 2026, the smart glasses are said to prominently feature Google’s Gemini AI, with some even including on-board displays for visual output.

Meanwhile, its competitors are maneuvering to capture what could be the next big push in wearable computing.

Meta revealed last week that it’s deepening its ties with Ray-Ban Meta partner EssilorLuxottica with the upcoming release of Oakley Meta HSTN—the company’s next smart glasses following the release of Ray-Ban Meta in 2023.

Previous reports additionally suggest that both Samsung and Apple are looking to launch their own smart glasses at some point in the future; reports allege Samsung could release a device this year, and Apple as soon as 2026.

Filed Under: AR Investment, Investment, News, XR Industry News

Meta Reveals Oakley Smart Glasses, Promising Better Video Capture & Longer Battery Life at $400

June 20, 2025 From roadtovr

Meta today revealed its next smart glasses built in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica— Oakley Meta Glasses.

As a part of the extended collaboration, Meta and EssilorLuxottica today unveiled Oakley Meta HSTN (pronounced HOW-stuhn), the companies’ next smart glasses following the release of Ray-Ban Meta in 2023.

Pre-orders are slated to arrive on July 11th for its debut version, priced at $499: the Limited Edition Oakley Meta HSTN, which features gold accents and 24K PRIZM polarized lenses.

Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

Meanwhile, the rest of the collection will be available “later this summer,” Meta says, which start at $399, and will include the following six frame and lens color combos:

  • Oakley Meta HSTN Desert with PRIZM Ruby Lenses
  • Oakley Meta HSTN Black with PRIZM Polar Black Lenses
  • Oakley Meta HSTN Shiny Brown with PRIZM Polar Deep-Water Lenses
  • Oakley Meta HSTN Black with Transitions Amethyst Lenses
  • Oakley Meta HSTN Clear with Transitions Grey Lenses
Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

It’s not just a style change though, as the next-gen promises better battery life and higher resolution video capture over Ray-Ban Meta.

In comparison to Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the new Oakley Meta HSTN are said offer up to “3K video” from the device’s ultra-wide 12MP camera. Ray-Ban’s current second-gen glasses are capped at 1,376 × 1,824 pixels at 30 fps from its 12MP sensor, with both glasses offering up to three minutes of video capture.

What’s more, Oakley Meta HSTN is said to allow for up to eight hours of “typical use” and up to 19 hours on standby mode, effectively representing a doubling of battery life over Ray-Ban Meta.

Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

And like Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta HSTN come with a charging case, which also bumps battery life from Ray-Ban Meta’s estimated 32 hours to 48 hours of extended battery life on Oakley Meta HSTN.

It also pack in five mics for doing things like taking calls and talking to Meta AI, as well as off-ear speakers for listening to music while on the go.

Notably, Oakley Meta glasses are said to be water-resistant up to an IPX4 rating—meaning its can take splashes, rain, and sweat, but not submersion or extended exposure to water or other liquids.

The companies say Oakley Meta HSTN will be available across a number of regions, including the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The device is also expected to arrive in Mexico, India, and the United Arab Emirates later this year.

In the meantime, you can sign up for pre-order updates either through Meta or Oakley for more information.

Filed Under: AR Development, ar industry, News, XR Industry News

Japan’s TDK Acquires Smart Glasses Maker SoftEye to Advance Wearable AI Tech

June 20, 2025 From roadtovr

TDK, the Japan-based electronic component and software company, announced it’s acquired SoftEye, the US-based smart glasses hardware and software maker.

TDK calls the acquisition of SoftEye a “key milestone in the development of TDK’s contribution to the entire AI ecosystem and reinforces the business portfolio to establish a leadership position in this critical market.”

While financial terms have not been made public, a Reuters report claims the deal is worth “less than $100 million,” according to a source familiar with the matter.

SoftEye, a San Diego-based company, manufactures custom chips, cameras and algorithms for use in AI-linked smart glasses, something TDK calls “a critical element in delivering a complete AR/VR display system and will also create a new Human Machine Interface (HMI) for interacting with AI through eye movement.”

“We are building technologies for AI glasses connecting the user with generative AI, which fits directly in line with TDK strategy for smart glasses which can connect people with AI for a more intuitive and compelling user experience,” says SoftEye CEO Te-Won Lee. “SoftEye’s novel, low power eye intent system unlocks a new type of Human Machine Interface that allows the user to communicate with AI simply through their eye movements. Together, we believe we can deliver even more advanced integrated solutions – spanning systems, software and machine learning and custom chips.”

Widely known for its major position in the cassette tape and CD-R disc industry in the ’90s and early 2000s, TDK has since focused on electronic components, including everything from sensors, transformers, capacitors, and application specific IC (ASIC).

In recent years, the company has also heavily invested in AI infrastructure—from neuromorphic “spin memristors” to reduce power consumption for AI applications, to ultra‑fast spin photo detectors to increase data speeds for AR/VR applications and data centers.

TDK’s SoftEye acquisition follows increased market interest in smart glasses, with industry veteran Vuzix recently securing a $5 million investment from Quanta Computer, the Taiwan-based ODM and major Apple assembler.

Meanwhile, familiar names in the consumer-focused XR segment are preparing what could shape up to be strong competitors to the field’s leader, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

Google announced last month it’s working with eyewear firms Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to release a line of fashionable smart glasses running the company’s forthcoming Android XR operating system—expected to release sometime after 2025.

Rumors additionally suggest that both Samsung and Apple are aiming to release their own smart glasses at some point, with reports claiming Samsung could release a device this year, and Apple as soon as 2026.

Meanwhile, Meta recently confirmed it’s expanding its partnership with Ray-Ban Meta-maker EssilorLuxottica to create Oakley-branded smart glasses, expected to launch today, June 20th.

Filed Under: AR Investment, Investment, News, VR Investment, XR Industry News

Vuzix Secures $5M Investment as Veteran Smart Glasses Maker Sets Sights on Consumers

June 17, 2025 From roadtovr

Vuzix, the veteran smart glasses maker, announced it’s secured a $5 million investment from Quanta Computer, the Taiwan-based ODM and major Apple assembler.

The latest investment was the second tranche following an initial $10 million investment made by Quanta in September 2024, which included the purchase of Vuzix common stock at $1.30 per share. At the time, Vuzix anticipated a total of $20 million from Quanta.

Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix, notes the funding will be used to enhance Vuzix’s waveguide manufacturing capabilities, something he says will help Vuzix deliver “the world’s most affordable, lightweight, and performance-driven AI smart glasses for mass-market adoption.”

Additionally, Travers says the investment “marks another important milestone in strengthening our partnership with Quanta and expanding the capabilities of our cutting-edge waveguide production facility.”

Vuzix Z100 Smart Glasses | Image courtesy Vuzix

Founded in 1997, Vuzix has largely serviced enterprise with its evolving slate of smart glasses, which have typically targeted a number of industrial roles, including healthcare, manufacturing, and warehousing.

The company also produces its own waveguides for both in-house use and licensing. In the past, Vuzix has worked to integrate its waveguide tech with Garmin, Avegant, an unnamed US Fortune 50 tech company, and an unnamed U.S. defense supplier.

While the company has made a few early consumer devices in the 2010s, including V920 video eyewear and STAR 1200 AR headset, in November 2024, Vuzix introduced the Z100 smart glasses, its first pair of sleek, AI‑assisted smart glasses, priced at $500.

Its Z100 smart glasses include a 640 × 480 monochrome green microLED waveguide, and were designed to pair with smartphones to display notifications, fitness metrics, maps, targeting everyday consumers and enterprise customers alike.

Notably, the investment also coincides with greater market interest in smart glasses on the whole. Google announced last month it’s partnering with eyewear companies Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to release a line of fashionable smart glasses running Android XR.

Meta also recently confirmed it’s expanding its partnership with Ray-Ban Meta-maker EssilorLuxottica to create Oakley-branded smart glasses, expected to launch on June 20th, 2025.

Meanwhile, rumors suggest that both Samsung and Apple are aiming to release their own smart glasses in the near future, with reports maintaining that Samsung could release a device this year, and Apple as soon as next year.

Filed Under: AR Development, ar industry, AR Investment, News, XR Industry News

What We Know So Far About Anduril’s ‘Eagle Eye’ Military XR Headset and Founder’s Reunion With Meta

June 16, 2025 From roadtovr

Palmer Luckey’s military tech company Anduril recently announced a partnership with Meta to build “the world’s best AR and VR systems for the US military.” In two recent public conversations, Luckey offered up some details on the XR helmet his company is building for the military and how this unlikely partnership arose years after his VR company Oculus was acquired by Meta, followed by his unceremonious firing.

Following the announcement, Luckey spoke to host Ashlee Vance on an episode of the Core Memory podcast, and on stage with author and creative technologist Stephanie Riggs during a conversation at the AWE USA 2025 conference. From these conversations, we’ve detailed the most interesting information about Anduril’s upcoming military XR headset.

Eagle Eye

Luckey said that Anduril’s upcoming military XR device is codenamed ‘Eagle Eye’. The goal is to build a complete helmet replacement (with built-in XR capabilities) for soldiers, rather than merely an add-on device that would be worn or attached to standard-issue helmets.

“Eagle Eye is not just a head mounted display. It’s a fully-integrated ballistic shell, with hearing protection, vision protection, head protection, on-board compute, on-board networking, radios… and also vision augmentation systems… sensor systems that enhance your perception,” Luckey said on Core Memory. “And what we’re doing is working with Meta to take the building blocks that they’ve invested enormous amounts of money and expertise in, and we’re able to use those building blocks in Eagle Eye without having to recreate them from scratch ourselves.”

More specifically, he explained at AWE that, “Eagle Eye is not one head mounted display. It’s actually a platform for building vision augmentation systems. We’re building different versions because you have different people who have different roles. The guy who is a front-line infantryman being shot at has a different job than the guy who’s a logistician, or aircraft maintainer, or somebody who works in a warehouse. The field-of-view they need, the level of ballistic rating they need—it’s very very different. So Eagle Eye is actually a platform for hosting multiple vision augmentation systems.”

While not many technical specifics have been shared thus far, Luckey mentioned the headset uses multiple microdisplays per-eye. That tells us the headset could be a passthrough AR headset rather than transparent. That might seem surprising, (considering the need for battlefield awareness) but he repeatedly emphasises the goal of the helmet offering greater perception for soldiers through augmentation, rather than less.

Luckey admitted that the multi-microdisplay layout results in a visible seam in the peripheral image (which reminds me of an old ultrawide field-of-view headset prototype from Panasonic).

He said the seam wouldn’t be acceptable for the consumer market, but because the headset is being built as a tool to keep people alive, the tradeoff is worth it.

“One of the things we’re doing with eagle eye is using multiple microdisplays per-eye, with a tiled seam. And so you end up with this small little kind of distorted seam that’s living out in your peripheral view. And you can see it really easily. It’s there. It doesn’t bother you. It doesn’t make you sick. But it’s definitely there,” he told host Ashlee Vance. “Apple [for example] can’t make something like that [because it wouldn’t be acceptable to the consumer market]. They can’t make a thing where there’s a seamless magical experience, except for this weird distorted bubble seam down both sides of your vision in your periphery. But for a tool [like Eagle Eye] you can do that… it’s not actually a problem.”

As for cost, at AWE Luckey suggested that the headset could cost in excess of $10,000.

“[The US military] would rather have something that is significantly more performant even if it’s somewhat more expensive. Now I’m not saying we should charge the government some obscene price, but if they can choose between a $1,000 sensor that lets them see things that are twice as far, or a $100 sensor that has half the range, every time they’re going to make the choice for the $1,000 sensor, because the cost of losing that soldier or failing the mission is so much higher than the cost of that headset,” he said. “So what’s fun for me—from a tech perspective—is we’re able to build a headset that costs tens of thousands of dollars to make. We can load it with image sensors that are nicer than even Apple would put in something like the Vision Pro. We can afford to put extremely high-end displays in it that are far beyond what the consumer market would reasonably bear today.”

Without a consumer cost restriction, Luckey said Eagle Eye will have some specs that are significantly beyond anything that’s available on the consumer market today.

“Eagle Eye is gonna be the best AR and VR device that’s ever been made; it’s not even close. We’re running at an extraordinarily high framerate and extraordinarily high resolution. I’d tell you the specs but unfortunately the customer doesn’t want me to at this point,” Luckey told Stephanie Riggs at AWE. “But I will tell you it’s several times higher resolution in capability than even Apple Vision Pro. There’s nothing in the consumer market that’s going to be able to meet it where it is, because I have a different set of requirements. I’m not making an entertainment device you buy at Best Buy, I’m building a tool that keeps you alive. And that’s something the Army is willing to pay for.”

He also emphasized not just the helmet’s XR tech but also the integration of artificial intelligence, likening the end goal being “in the vein of Cortana,” the artificially intelligent sidekick of Master Chief (the hero from the Halo franchise).

“[…talking about Iron Man’s sci-fi armor suit] it wasn’t just the suit right? It was also the augmented vision paired with [some] kind of AI guardian angel in the form of Jarvis; that is what we were building. Eagle Eye has an onboard AI guardian angel, maybe less in the style of Jarvis and more in the vein of Cortana from Halo, but this idea of having this ever-present companion who can operate systems, who can communicate with others, that you can offload tasks onto, that is looking out for you with more eyes than you could ever look out for yourself, right there in your helmet—that is such a powerful thing to make real.”

One of the key capabilities of the headset involves threat detection, Luckey said at AWE.

“Eagle Eye has a 360° threat awareness system… that is able to detect drone threats, vehicular threats, threats on foot, and automatically categorize ‘what is a threat and what is not’ and then present that to you.”

Further, he spoke of the AI as a way to make all of the helmet’s capabilities easy to use without overwhelming the wearer.

“You shouldn’t be toggling between 10 different sensor menus. You should just see seamless view that’s built by kind of an AI interpolator that looks out into the world and says ‘ok well I know he probably wants to see all of the hot human signatures, I know he probably wants to see all the drones…’ you can build technology that is transparent to the user,” said Luckey. “[…] maybe I’m not the guy to argue that the tech is easy to use because I’m a hardcore technohead from birth and I can operate wacky stuff. But you can put it on a normal person… they can look out into the world and do things and see things with zero training that they never would have been able to do otherwise. I’m not concerned about information overload because I’m [confident in our ability to build the right tool for the job].”

Regarding manufacturing, Luckey said the Eagle Eye XR helmet will be built in the US or with US allies, with “no Chinese parts,” as a matter of operational security. He expects the first prototypes of Eagle Eye this year, and says the company already has working prototypes.

“We’re gonna be delivering the first prototypes to the army this year. That’s the intent anyway, if all goes according to plan in the way that I hope,” he told Vance. “But we’ve been working on the technology that underpins Eagle Eye for years. And we’ve been making a really serious hardware effort for over a year at this point. And so actually there’s an Eagle Eye sitting on my desk back at my office right now.”

Reunion with Meta and Zuckerberg

But how did Luckey go from having his VR startup (Oculus) acquired by Meta, then getting fired from Meta for political backlash, starting a military technology company (Anduril), raising it to a valuation of billions, and then end up partnering once again with the company that had booted him out?

Well, by Luckey’s telling, it started last year when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered a quote to an article about Luckey that was surprisingly conciliatory. That openness from Zuckerberg (and outright apology from Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth) opened the door to a renewed relationship.

“We ended up reconnecting [after the article], talking about some of the problems that are going on with America, some of the inefficiencies that exist for terrible reasons… how there are people who are dying needlessly because of barriers between our technology industry and our national security community,” Luckey said on the Core Memory podcast. “We ended up deciding that this was something that we needed to work on together. Meta’s been doing a lot more on the national security front; they’ve been working a lot more work with the government.”

Luckey says he’s moved on from any anger he harbored for his firing by Meta, saying that it’s a different company than it was those nine years ago—not just culturally, but also many of the people advocating for his ousting are no longer working at Meta.

Luckey sees the partnership as a win for Anduril (as it doesn’t need to rebuild key XR technology), while saving the American taxpayer from paying for tech that already exists in the private sector.

“[…] there’s a lot of things in Meta that I invented, my team invented, before they acquired [Oculus]. There’s other things that I invented, that the team invented, while I was at Facebook (now Meta). And there was a bunch of technology that was invented after I was fired,” he explained to Vance. “And this partnership is about taking that entire base of technology and IP—around hardware, software, in AI, VR, AR space—and applying it to solving our military’s most pressing challenges. It’s taking a lot of the people who have been working on these technologies for consumer applications and adapting their work to solve national security problems at a very low cost to the taxpayer.”

Luckey says the partnership will allow Anduril to build “the world’s best” XR tech for the US government and allies.

On the other hand, he said that the details of the partnership with the likes of Meta and Qualcomm mean that future innovations will hopefully trickle back to the consumer side.

“The way I see this is: the tech that we’re building—working with partners like Qualcomm and Meta—they’re going to be able to bring back into their consumer devices. And that’s the way our licensing agreement works,” he told Riggs. “The tech that we co-develop together… I’m the guy who is going to be deploying it to the military; they’re going to be the people taking it back into the consumer realm.”

It’ll be some time yet until we know more about what Eagle Eye actually looks like and how it works, but there may well be some overlap with Microsoft’s prototype IVAS system, as that’s the helmet that Eagle Eye is being built to replace.

Filed Under: News, XR Industry News

Meta Teases Oakley Partnership for Sportier Smart Glasses, Reportedly Releasing This Year

June 16, 2025 From roadtovr

Meta officially confirmed the expansion of its EssilorLuxottica partnership to include a pair of Oakley smart glasses—possibly arriving soon.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Meta was looking to expand its line of smart glasses beyond Ray-Ban Meta, which would include two possible new devices: a sportier Oakley-branded model, and a high-end model with built-in display—the latter has yet to be announced.

Now, Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth confirmed that ‘Oakley Meta’ smart glasses are coming in an X post, showing a graphic of both brands merging and linking to a new @oakleymeta profile.

🤘🏼 @oakleymeta pic.twitter.com/lRL6oimgMR

— Boz (@boztank) June 16, 2025

Details remain scarce, however Gurman’s January report maintained the Oakley smart glasses would be designed for athletes and could launch sometime this year.

Meta’s EssilorLuxottica partnership has been growing steadily since the release of the first-gen Facebook Ray-Ban Stories in 2021, prompting the company to offer a second-gen version in 2023, Ray-Ban Meta, which which introduced updated styles, improved audio and cameras, and on-board AI features.

In late 2024, Meta announced it was expanding its smart glasses partnership with EssilorLuxottica into 2030. At the time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described its long-term roadmap as giving the companies “the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform, and make it fashionable in the process.”

In addition to Ray-Ban and Oakley, the French-Italian luxury eyewear company owns other major brands, including Persol, Oliver Peoples, and Vogue Eyewear, along with eyewear retailers LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, and Sunglass Hut.

Filed Under: News, XR Industry News

Next Page »

  • Home