
Google has teamed up with Samsung to develop smart glasses and virtual-reality headsets.
Next year, Samsung will release the first device based on Android XR, a new version of Google’s Android smartphone operating system customised for headsets and glasses.
Android XR created in collaboration with Samsung, combines “years of investment in AI, AR and VR to bring helpful experiences to headsets and glasses,” says Google.
The software allows users to interact with everything from virtual reality apps to real-world objects via your voice, motion controls, and eye-tracking capabilities. A major selling point of this software will be the inclusion of Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence software.
The device — codenamed “Project Moohan” — comes less than a year after Apple launched its Vision Pro headset which hasn’t met the market reception that Apple would have hoped for.
Meanwhile Meta’s Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses have gone on to become a popular product. Produced in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, it combines cameras with a virtual audio assistant in a lightweight frame.
Recently, Facebook parent Meta revealed a prototype for a future product: fully holographic Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. Named Orion, it weighs less than 100 grams, has a wide field of view, and holographic displays that are sharp enough to pick up details and bright enough to see in different lighting conditions. The display doesn’t use passthrough — what the wearer sees is the real physical world with holograms overlaid onto it. These holograms might be a cinematic screen, a desktop window for working, a game, a little app window for replying to messages, or even a hologram version of the person you’re on a call with.
Project Moohan, the Samsung headset, is expected to offer similar high-fidelity displays and user experience as Apple’s Vision Pro, but will be launched at a “significantly” lower price point than Apple’s product, reported the Financial Times.
Google said it planned to make its new Android XR system available for makers of smart glasses as well as virtual- and augmented-reality headsets.
“Advancements in AI are making interacting with computers more natural and conversational,” Google said in a blog post on Thursday. “This inflection point enables new extended reality (XR) devices, like headsets and glasses, to understand your intent and the world around you, helping you get things done in entirely new ways.”
Google this week showed an updated version of its Project Astra prototype, a system for smartphones and smart glasses that allows users to ask questions about what its cameras are seeing. Its backed by a new version of its Gemini AI platform.