Is anybody making smart glasses that are just a display? For me, the rest of the feature set verges on being anti-features. I'd much rather a very rudimentary display that my phone or another device could send relatively low bandwidth data to over bluetooth or some other protocol and build from there.
Having a camera or a mic on the glasses themselves seems like something I'd mostly want to avoid for privacy, and having a speaker just seems like gilding the lily when we already have a variety of headphones to choose from.
numpad0 · 26m ago
Note that Solos smart glass from one of other comments might be on eBay for $49 each, but they used to be $499 new. Even Realities G1 is $599. Vufine was way cheaper at $199, but it was wired only and it came with no software whatsoever.
Smart glasses inevitably cost in those ranges because the exotic displays used on them are costly to make and/or operate. Inkjet OLED on silicon or reflexive monochrome LCD with RGB sequential front lighting combined with a prism system or things of that nature.
IOW, those excessive feature sets isn't drawn from product concepts or user stories, they're drawn backwards from cumulative parts and engineering costs to justify MSRP. Same reasons as why almost all EVs are marketed as premium products, they can't make them cheaply so they're adding extra glitters in paint to justify price tags.
If anyone could make displays smaller than a pinky fingernail at $5 that can be driven with an Arduino... then there would be lots of smart glasses that are just Bluetooth picture frames.
You can send low-resolution images to them via Bluetooth. I just figured out how to read button presses. There are speakers and a mic, but I haven't figured out how to use them yet (they don't show up as regular audio devices on Linux).
You'd need to write custom stuff to generate the images, but with a little imagemagick scripting I've had some pretty usable results.
Not quite "smart glasses", but if you want "glasses that are just a display", the Lenovo Legion Glasses are pretty good and they look like normal aviators at first glance.
I have a pair and I've been experimenting a bit.
For iOS you can mirror display or use Stage Manager. For Android, at least with Samsung, DEX is pretty decent.
For audio, they're decent too, I like the convenience and comfort. The audio has good fidelity, but depth is mediocre (better than phone speakers though).
FWIW I say DEX is decent, having much of the same gripes as I do with Stage Manager. Dual screen, resizing windows, and full screen support is still a mixed bag on all mobile devices. It can be very frustrating at times. Application support on iOS and Android is about the same, which is disappointing. Supposedly iOS 26 fixes some of this, but I haven't tried the beta.
unaut · 49m ago
Yeah, same here—just give me a clean display and Bluetooth. No cameras, mics, or speakers needed!
arbayi · 3h ago
https://store.vufine.com/ I think vufine might be what you are looking for, I don't know much about them as well, also found it here on Hacker News.
alchemist1e9 · 15m ago
It’s wired and very finicky. Basically a 10 year old solution to this problem. I have on in my collection. It’s cool but not really useful or in same tier as the other products being mentioned.’
HeatrayEnjoyer · 3h ago
Glasses with a camera should be legislated away with specific narrow exceptions for e.g. safety in certain industrial tasks.
skhameneh · 2h ago
Reframe this to accommodate for the prevalence and general expectations of where cameras exist.
Many people walk around with a mobile device out, essentially carrying a device with (increasingly) close to a 360 camera view. Cameras are ubiquitous and targeting one niche device is a waste of time and effort.
esseph · 2h ago
Sounds like a lobbyist pitch from Big Camera Glasses
g-b-r · 2m ago
Store requiring an account, and apps actually running on their servers.
This is definitely not the smart glasses operating system to converge on.
If there's anything worthwhile in it I'd advise interested people in forking it, and turning it into an actually open open-source operating system.
cco · 2h ago
Here's the deal, you don't need any of this.
I have Rayban Metas and the hardware is great...but the software borders on being unhelpful. If they merely served a dumb camera and bluetooth headset to my phone they'd be an unbelievably good product.
Meta won't do this because they want to capture _everything_ going on, but I don't want to chat with Meta's AI, it is very bad, I want to chat with Gemini or ChatGPT and I can do so with their glasses but I must initiate that on my phone (Meta won't give you wakewords for OpenAI/Google of course).
So my suggestion here would be don't? There is no need for an app store or anything like that, just the thinest software layer you need to make the sunglass hardware work as a dumb bluetooth headset and remote camera for the user's phone.
jasonsb · 1h ago
I was about to make the exact same comment. But then I remembered that there are billions of people who buy products advertised on Facebook and TikTok because it's "cool" and "fun". So what do I know about the future of smart glasses OS? Probably nothing.
bighead1 · 2h ago
This comment reminds me of a simple `esp32` project I saw recently that lets you send your LLM requests via SMS. It basically offloads everything. Particularly useful when you don't have a decent data connection, but can still send SMS.
Not really, despite the repo being named MentraOS, this repo seems to include only some mobile apps (that either run on a phone or on the glasses), some server code, and some SDKs.
Mentra glasses are likely running on a fork of AOSP, which is not in this repo.
SparkyMcUnicorn · 38m ago
AOSP (or even a minimal fork) is way too heavy to be running on the glasses. It looks like the firmware is quite minimal and the "OS" is the app.
Good to see someone jump on these early with FOSS. Seems pretty early days for the this OS and the tech though. No device has full support yet. I'm still not convinced smart glasses are going to have any staying power either.
dcreater · 37m ago
I would save your excitement. It's likely the same old playbook that every PE backed startup uses
michaelmior · 1h ago
> Devs get to write 1 app that runs on any pair of smart glases.
Except it seems they only run on Mentra glasses. Not Meta Ray-Bans, Echo Frames, or any of the many other existing smart glasses platforms.
alex1115alex · 1h ago
Hey, thanks for commenting, but this isn't true. You can check out our glasses compatibility list here:
We're also looking to support the Brilliant Labs Halo glasses once they release later this year.
Regarding Ray-Bans: We'd love to support those, but the Ray-Bans are extremely locked down. Nobody has found a jailbreak yet. We're always open to support more glasses provided they're all-day wearable and have an SDK.
arbayi · 5h ago
I just found out about them and it seems super good. I wonder why Meta doesn't support such a thing called "Meta Glasses Application Store"
randomname4325 · 1h ago
because developers would immediately make ick apps that violate privacy or do black mirror type things that would kill any momentum
SuperShibe · 1h ago
Meta is already doing that and they want all the cake for themselves
exe34 · 4h ago
I'm more than happy to develop my own apps, but it doesn't appear that they support any one product with all the features yet.
this doesn't include AR right? it can't overlay stuff on what i'm seeing? if not, then it's pretty useless
barroomhero · 2h ago
I'm with you. Augmented Reality is what I'm looking for. I've been dreaming about it for decades.
zoklet-enjoyer · 3h ago
Live translation is something I've been dreaming about since Google Glass. I just want translation, subtitles, turn by turn directions, and ad blocking.
ineedasername · 2h ago
Even Realities G1 glasses, which support Mentra, will do the first 2. The 3rd is partial, not quite turn by turn, but you can see a map around you with them on
joshuat · 3h ago
The idea of ad blocking with smart glasses kind of freaks me out. I'll take additive but I don't want subtractive reality where parts of the world are being hidden from me.
rippeltippel · 3h ago
> and ad blocking
The possibility of shooting ads directly into the retina is probably the main driving force behind smart glasses.
dmbche · 3h ago
And ultimate attention analysis
croes · 4h ago
So without their cloud service no apps.
Wouldn‘t call that an OS.
dcreater · 16m ago
Ridiculous.
Based on everything ive been able to infer and the comments on this thread, perhaps safe yo classify this under the FauxSS rather than FOSS
alex1115alex · 29m ago
MentraOS is a cloud OS (there doesn't exist a good way to build this on the edge, we've tried). Users don't need our cloud service, however, as it can be self-hosted:
This is not the place for
* Prioritize work-life balance
bobajeff · 1h ago
I love how direct Chinese language/culture is. (At least from my perspective.)
dcreater · 18m ago
They're not Chinese
sneak · 1h ago
> We're a squad of hardcore builders between San Francisco and Shenzhen working 996 to build the next personal computer. We're upgrading human intelligence with high bandwidth interfaces. We're transhumanist hackers. And we're not just here for a job. We're here for a mission.
Being upfront about 996 (and jira hatred further down the page) is wild. I sort of love it.
YVoyiatzis · 2h ago
If smart glasses can’t self-adjust vision or flag cataracts, they’re missing the point. This is not being discussed.
Having a camera or a mic on the glasses themselves seems like something I'd mostly want to avoid for privacy, and having a speaker just seems like gilding the lily when we already have a variety of headphones to choose from.
Smart glasses inevitably cost in those ranges because the exotic displays used on them are costly to make and/or operate. Inkjet OLED on silicon or reflexive monochrome LCD with RGB sequential front lighting combined with a prism system or things of that nature.
IOW, those excessive feature sets isn't drawn from product concepts or user stories, they're drawn backwards from cumulative parts and engineering costs to justify MSRP. Same reasons as why almost all EVs are marketed as premium products, they can't make them cheaply so they're adding extra glitters in paint to justify price tags.
If anyone could make displays smaller than a pinky fingernail at $5 that can be driven with an Arduino... then there would be lots of smart glasses that are just Bluetooth picture frames.
You can send low-resolution images to them via Bluetooth. I just figured out how to read button presses. There are speakers and a mic, but I haven't figured out how to use them yet (they don't show up as regular audio devices on Linux).
You'd need to write custom stuff to generate the images, but with a little imagemagick scripting I've had some pretty usable results.
https://global.rokid.com/
Both of these companies make exactly that. I have Rokid Max, can't comment on the quality for the Xreal
https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/blob/main/glass...
https://www.evenrealities.com/g1
https://www.vuzix.com/products/z100-smart-glasses
I have a pair and I've been experimenting a bit.
For iOS you can mirror display or use Stage Manager. For Android, at least with Samsung, DEX is pretty decent.
For audio, they're decent too, I like the convenience and comfort. The audio has good fidelity, but depth is mediocre (better than phone speakers though).
FWIW I say DEX is decent, having much of the same gripes as I do with Stage Manager. Dual screen, resizing windows, and full screen support is still a mixed bag on all mobile devices. It can be very frustrating at times. Application support on iOS and Android is about the same, which is disappointing. Supposedly iOS 26 fixes some of this, but I haven't tried the beta.
Many people walk around with a mobile device out, essentially carrying a device with (increasingly) close to a 360 camera view. Cameras are ubiquitous and targeting one niche device is a waste of time and effort.
This is definitely not the smart glasses operating system to converge on.
If there's anything worthwhile in it I'd advise interested people in forking it, and turning it into an actually open open-source operating system.
I have Rayban Metas and the hardware is great...but the software borders on being unhelpful. If they merely served a dumb camera and bluetooth headset to my phone they'd be an unbelievably good product.
Meta won't do this because they want to capture _everything_ going on, but I don't want to chat with Meta's AI, it is very bad, I want to chat with Gemini or ChatGPT and I can do so with their glasses but I must initiate that on my phone (Meta won't give you wakewords for OpenAI/Google of course).
So my suggestion here would be don't? There is no need for an app store or anything like that, just the thinest software layer you need to make the sunglass hardware work as a dumb bluetooth headset and remote camera for the user's phone.
edit: found it https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1n7r3vl/a_textbot_...
https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS
https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/tree/main/mcu_c...
https://docs.mentra.glass/contributing
Except it seems they only run on Mentra glasses. Not Meta Ray-Bans, Echo Frames, or any of the many other existing smart glasses platforms.
https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/blob/main/glass...
We're also looking to support the Brilliant Labs Halo glasses once they release later this year.
Regarding Ray-Bans: We'd love to support those, but the Ray-Bans are extremely locked down. Nobody has found a jailbreak yet. We're always open to support more glasses provided they're all-day wearable and have an SDK.
Show HN: Sheet Music in Smart Glasses - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43906442 - May 2025 (25 comments)
The possibility of shooting ads directly into the retina is probably the main driving force behind smart glasses.
Wouldn‘t call that an OS.
Based on everything ive been able to infer and the comments on this thread, perhaps safe yo classify this under the FauxSS rather than FOSS
https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/tree/main/cloud
https://cloud-docs.mentra.glass/
Being upfront about 996 (and jira hatred further down the page) is wild. I sort of love it.