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I asked a simple question at Google’s Project Aura demo last week. What do you call these things? To my surprise, multiple people launched into a vigorous discussion on the taxonomy of glasses-shaped face computers.
It turns out “smart glasses” is out as a term. The term “AI glasses” is in. Kind of. Actually, it seems no one’s fully on the same page.
Let’s back up, and I’ll explain. At the beginning of the year, a Meta comms representative asked if I could refer to Ray-Ban Meta glasses as “AI glasses.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth have referred to the glasses as the perfect vehicle for AI. Framing these devices as AI glasses does two things: first, it tells consumers that these glasses are not like Google Glass; second, it positions artificial intelligence, not augmented reality, as a reason to buy them.
This is Project Aura. Xreal calls these AR glasses. Google calls them wired XR glasses. Image: Google, Xreal
I declined. As journalists, we’re not in the business of advancing marketing narratives, and no one else in the space seemed to be adopting this terminology. Cambridge Dictionary defines the term as “a pair of glasses that contain computer technology” so they can be used similarly to smartphones or convey information about what you’re looking at. That sure sounds like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses to me.
I was surprised during my Project Aura demo to learn that Google is also adopting the term AI glasses… but only for some products. While speaking with Juston Payne, Google’s director of product management for XR, he defined AI glasses as stylish, lightweight glasses that may or may not have a display, with AI integral to the user experience.
Project Aura, he said, doesn’t fall into that category. In fact, Google views it as more aligned with headsets — just in a glasses form factor. The term Google officially settled on in its press release was “wired XR” glasses, since Aura has a wired battery/trackpad puck.
There’s some logic to that. Project Aura is a collaboration with Xreal, which also positions its products into a middle ground between so-called AI glasses and headsets. After my Project Aura demo, I hopped on a call with Xreal CEO Chi Xu and asked what he categorizes Aura as.
Xu simply laughed and said, “We will call all our glasses and previous products AR glasses.”
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