May’s XR news is obviously dominated by Google I/O announcements about AndroidXR and the integration of Gemini into most of the American company’s products. Below, you’ll find a summary article on the subject that you can review in light of our Laval Virtual 2025 summary. It seems clear that 2025 will be a pivotal year for XR, even if the level of investment remains low compared to the years before 2022.
Tech giants, for their part, appear to have chosen to be at the forefront of developments (with questions to be asked for Europe). In addition to Google, Apple will likely make announcements at WWDC in June. Rumors of a 2026 launch of glasses could be confirmed, such as the arrival of a new version of the Vision Pro. From this perspective, the battle for AI-enhanced glasses is particularly fierce, with Ray-Ban Meta continuing to enjoy success and Google announcing several partnerships with well-known eyewear brands such as the Kering group and iconic brands like Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. But it’s not just glasses that are featured in the company announcements. For example, we learned with some surprise that Meta is joining forces with Anduril to advance in the augmented reality market for soldiers. Vuzix seems to be looking to expand its OEM offerings, particularly by strengthening its R&D capabilities. In France, we invite you to discover ARY, which uses augmented reality to serve its retail customers.
On the hardware side, XREAL unveiled its next AndroidXR model, the Aura, which likely heralds a wave of glasses running on this OS in the coming months. If you want to learn more about the optical technologies powering these devices, an excellent article from KGOnTech offers a journey into the heart of the components. Another interesting announcement: Rivet Industries has just unveiled a pair of augmented reality glasses that seem similar to the Hololens and therefore offer a new substitution possibility. We still have little information at the moment, but we will come back to this announcement as soon as possible.
In our « uses » section of the watch, we offer new ideas for using augmented reality. Snap’s proposal to augment books with AR and generative AI raises questions about reader attention, while « Critical Distance » brings you up close to orcas in their natural environment. We also invite you to discover the uses of Hong Kong’s Prince of Wales Hospital, which intelligently combines several technologies, including augmented reality, to improve healthcare practices. A specific point for France: the Chubb group has chosen AMA technology to make its remote operations more efficient. Finally, we invite you to discover the payment function of the Chinese company Meizu, which is integrated into its StarV Air2 smart glasses! These may be the beginnings of a new use.
See you in a month!
Are you attending Viva Technology or NVIDIA GTC paris next week? Do you offer XR or AR? Contact me to schedule a meeting!Looking for the full list of curated links and detailed analysis?
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