Google Showed Off Advanced AR Glasses That May Never Leave the Lab

All the usual suspects of big tech are engaged in a not-so-secret arms race to be the first to develop mass-market augmented reality glasses. We already know Google teamed up with Samsung to develop an Android-centric pair of glasses, but the company recently showed off another device to a small audience at the TED2025 conference, and already we can tell its the kind of XR—AKA “extended reality”—that may take help us escape the tyranny of overlarge VR headsets. Shahram Izadi, the VP and general manager of XR at Google strode out on TED’s stage wearing what initially appeared to be a typical—though overly-large—pair of glasses (think Meta’s huge and also unreleased Orion smart glasses). But they were Google’s XR glasses, and Izadi claimed they were displaying his speech notes to him as he talked. The glasses had a microphone, camera, and speakers to gather as much information. Google’s first XR device since Google Glass has an “in-lens display,” which Izadi held up to the camera for a ... Read full article.