Latest news with #AWE2025
Tom's Guide
08-07-2025
- Tom's Guide
I tested the Viture Beast glasses — should you wait for these AR glasses launching in October?
The news is out. Viture's not only launching one pair of AR glasses, the company's dropping four. There's the entry-level Luma, the Luma Pro (launching today), the business-focused Luma Ultra and what we're talking about here — the Viture Beast. Yes, these are the ones I teased a few weeks back, and which I gave best of show to at AWE 2025. But now I can talk properly about my experience, share some more pictures of what I saw, and address one key spec change you may have noticed here compared to what I found in California. Now, with these launching in October for $549, one question is obvious: should you wait for these or just grab the Xreal one Pro and be done with it? Let's talk about it. So let's get the obvious out the way — this is the best screen I've seen on a pair of AR glasses you'll be able to buy. That 1200p picture with Viture tuning to a consistent sharpness across the whole display makes for impressive clarity with mesmerizing color. But I know what people are immediately thinking here: I said 60-degrees field of view a few weeks ago, so why is it now 58? Viture made this choice to ensure sharpness across the screen, even though the optical system can support 60. Will you notice the difference? In my experience, I doubt it. The differentials have to be 5 degrees or more to really notice the wideness change. But this explains what's going on here, as it's a lower number than I saw in person. And then, à la Xreal One Pro, you're getting built-in screen customization with 3DoF tracking (6DoF tracking via the front camera coming further down the line). The options available are far more vast, too — not just horizontal ultrawide, but also vertical, alongside multiple screen sizes and something called 'ambient mode.' Not 100% sure what this is, but excited to find out. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Also, a shoutout to using a USB-C port on the glasses themselves. Viture's use of a magnetic port is sleek and all, but proprietary sockets always bug me a little bit. So to get a traditional port means you're not locked to buying specific cables if you need a replacement. That's not to say there are a couple hitches to point out here. Viture's trademark benefit has been the hardware myopia adjustment dials, but with the Viture beast, these are non-existent. Asking Viture, we found out something interesting — having hardware-level 3DoF tracking is directly at odds with having myopia adjustment, as the mechanisms can mess up tracking accuracy and optical stability. So with the Beast, the company prioritized spatial breadth of the picture. If myopia tweaking is critical, then Luma is the way to go right now. And that's the tale of the tape. A big screen experience at a price that is $100 less than the Xreal One Pros with the Viture Beast at $549. It's exciting to see these two companies continue to push one another forward in innovation, as at the end of the day, we win when this happens. I'm definitely intrigued to test these properly on some long-haul trips and around my home — to see just how that wider field of view truly comes into play for the cinema experience on a plane, or the ultrawide monitor for productivity. If you do need myopia adjustment, you're out of luck here. But if you're looking for the best of the best in picture quality, then I'd say hold off for just a little longer.
Tom's Guide
23-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Exclusive: I tested Viture's next-gen AR glasses, and my eyes couldn't believe what they saw
Viture is close to revealing all about its next-gen AR glasses, and I got to go hands-on with them. I've been told to not talk about them until the announcement in July, but thanks to a little gift of gab, I can share a little more about my time with them. I've seen the Reddit hype when I gave these specs Best of show at AWE 2025, so I'll do my best to navigate what I can and can't say to answer some of your questions — demonstrating why if you're in the market for a new pair of specs, you should wait for just a few more weeks. Because honestly? These are some of the best AR glasses I've ever seen. Let's get into the main reason most of us buy AR specs — the picture quality. In this area, the likes of Viture and Xreal have been moving forward step-by-step in offering a bigger screen, a higher quality picture and a wider field of view. And with these upcoming specs, you'll see the biggest, brightest, sharpest, most vivid and widest screen yet. Using Sony's newest micro-OLED tech, I could definitely see an improvement in fidelity over other glasses. No confirmation on what the resolution is, but to my eyes, something is sharper here. Then of course you've got the Viture-style color calibration that ensures a real immersively accurate warmth to every picture with the smooth refresh rate, alongside a HDR-ish inky depth to the darker moments. As to fringing around the edges that you can see in some glasses that tout a wide field of view, there isn't any! Whatever size screen you simulate to completely fill out that display space, the corners and sides of it remain crystal clear in your near-peripheral vision. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Plus, shout-out to the new built-in functionalities (that I can't talk about yet, but get hyped for them), and the dynamic tint control across those lenses creating a near-perfect blindfold across the front. I saw this question a little bit on the subreddits too. This isn't the first time I was exposed to 60 degrees. I saw a prototype a while back, and oh my word the bird bath prisms to pull this off were insane. But with the new glass in these Viture specs, the company managed to nail it without adding any immediately noticeable size or weight to them on the face. They felt comfortable to wear, didn't create any strain on the nose or the tops of my ears, and were easy enough to adjust for getting the picture just right. I can envision these continuing to be nice to wear on long journeys without any fatigue on the face, while not getting many double takes on public transport. And that is as much as I can tell you right now before Viture's big announcement. There's no word on price of full launch yet, so you'll have to keep it locked for when the reveal happens, and I can share some more details (along with uncensored pictures) of what these specs look like! The Xreal One Pros are the best AR glasses you can buy right now, and if you do get them, you won't be disappointed. However, I have to admit the timing is awkward. Virtue's got a chance here, and provided the price is right, these look set to be something special!
Associated Press
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
AUGMENTED WORLD EXPO REVEALS 2025 AUGGIE AWARD WINNERS, BEST IN SHOW AND XR LEGENDS
AWE Celebrates Innovation and Legacy in an Unforgettable Milestone for the XR Industry LONG BEACH, Calif., June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Augmented World Expo USA 2025 is a wrap! The world's largest event for XR and spatial computing concluded today with the announcement of BEST IN SHOW winners: Best in Show – Snap Inc. Best in Show Playground – Anywhere Bungee VR Best in Show Gaming Hub – TRIP THE LIGHT by Dark Arts Software The winners for the Virtual World Society Nextant Prizes, presented by Tom Furness and Alvin Graylin, are: Rising Star Prize – Danny Pimentel Legacy Prize – Jaron Lanier The XR industry is also celebrating a new lineup of champions. The Auggie Awards have been the most recognized XR and spatial computing industry awards in the world since 2010. Now in their 16th year, the Auggies continue to showcase the best of the best. 20 of the world's most innovative and game-changing developers, brands and creators were recognized with Auggie Awards. See the full list below. In addition,10 pioneers of XR were celebrated by the 2025 XR Hall of Fame, recognizing their lasting contributions to the field. The full list of inductees can be viewed here. AWE USA 2025 was packed with exciting news from exhibitors including Snap, Qualcomm, Niantic Spatial, XREAL, Lenovo and more. See highlights of announcements from the show — here. The Auggie Award winners are….. Best Art or Film – Non-Player Character Musical by Brendan Bradley: The first live, interactive VR musical, debuting with 24 shows at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Video here. Best Campaign – OREO X PAC-MAN SUPERMARCADE by ARKx | Form & Fun |Saatchi & Saatchi Germany: AR shopping experience turning supermarket aisles into a Pac-Man maze, combining digital fun with physical retail via WebAR. Video here. Best Climate Change Solution – Burn Zone: Immersive Truths from California's Wildfires by Lucid Reality Labs: VR experience immersing viewers in the Los Angeles wildfires, fostering empathy and action through an exploration of environmental devastation and climate adaptation. Video here. Best Collaboration Tool – Campfire: A platform for sharing 3D models in life-size spatial environments, enabling real-time collaboration for faster feedback, fewer errors, and quicker product delivery. Video here. Best Consumer App – Pencil! by 4th Wall Breakers: AR-powered drawing app that blends real paper and pencils with mixed-reality lessons, making learning drawing skills fun and easy for all levels. Video here. Best Content Creator(s) – Dilmer Valecillos XR YouTube Channel by Learn XR LLC: Resource for XR developers, offering tutorials and deep dives into AR/VR tools, simplifying complex tech into practical content that empowers a global community and highlights the latest innovations. Video here. Best Creator & Authoring Tool – Niantic Studio: 8th Wall's web-based visual editor lets anyone build and deploy immersive AR/XR experiences with real-time editing, drag-and-drop tools, and advanced features—no coding or app needed. Video here. Best Developer Tool – Lens Studio by Snap Inc: Free AR authoring platform used by 375,000+ creators to design and deploy custom AR experiences across Snapchat, websites, apps, and Spectacles, featuring tools like Ray Tracing, Snap ML, and Lens Cloud. Video here. Best Education & Training Solution – XR Guru Healthcare Pathways Training by XR Guru: AI-powered VR training platform offering immersive, language-supported healthcare courses for CNA, LPN, and nursing licensure, featuring critical thinking exercises and patient simulations. Video here. Best Enterprise Solution – Cactus by Auki Labs - Spatial AI for Retail by Auki Labs: A spatial AI solution that optimizes shelf space, workforce management, and operations, providing real-time insights and integrating with robots and AI to revolutionize retail. Video here. Best Game or Toy – Spatial Ops by Resolution Games: A groundbreaking multiplayer shooter that turns real-world spaces into dynamic battlefields, blending physical and digital realities with customizable arenas and immersive game modes like Free-for-All and Capture the Flag. Video here. Best Headworn Device – XREAL One Series by XREAL: Pioneering cinematic AR glasses with next-gen 3DoF spatial computing, Bose sound, and an optional 6DoF camera, setting a new standard in AR with exceptional visual and audio performance. Video here. Best Healthcare & Wellness Solution – Fundamental Surgery by FundamentalVR: Multimodal spatial computing platform transforming vision care and surgical training with immersive simulations and real-time multi-user capabilities to train clinicians in sight-restoring procedures, improving global healthcare outcomes. Video here. Best Indie Creator(s) – Ferryman Collective: VR theatre company redefining live performance with award-winning productions like The Severance Theory and Gumball Dreams, earning accolades at festivals like Tribeca, SXSW, and Venice. Video here. Best Interaction Product – Omni One by Virtuix Inc: Immersive entertainment system combining a specialized treadmill, standalone VR headset, and game store access, with wireless SteamVR connection for an expanded gaming experience. Video here. Best Location-Based Entertainment – AR in Google Maps for Paris Olympics by Rock Paper Reality & Google: AR experience embedding 3D models of Paris landmarks into Google Maps, offering immersive, geospatial explorations via Google Lens and Street View, revolutionizing location-based AR. Video here. Best Societal Impact – Sign Language Translator by Frame Sixty, LLC: Real-time sign language translation app for Apple Vision Pro that instantly converts sign language into speech and text, enabling seamless communication between Deaf and hearing individuals. Video here. Best Use of AI – Medical AI Agent by Lucid Reality Labs: AI-driven training solution featuring a digital twin of Dr. Patrick Schoettker, offering real-time expert feedback and immersive XR simulations to enhance healthcare education and reduce errors. Video here. Best Web3 Implementation – The Posemesh by Auki Labs by Auki Labs: A decentralized machine perception network using Auki Network and Posemesh to enable privacy-preserving spatial computing, powering collaborative mapping for XR and robotics. Video here. Start Up to Watch – Verse Immersive by Enklu MEDIA CONTACT: [email protected] View original content: SOURCE AWE (Augmented World Expo)
Tom's Guide
12-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Best of AWE 2025: The top 7 XR gadgets that caught our eye
Augmented World Expo (AWE) is a show focused on the world of virtual reality headsets and smart glasses, and how those devices are changing the future. The 2025 edition was a leap forward from previous years with a massive presence from well-known tech companies like Qualcomm, Sony, and Meta. Smart glasses are getting better and better, and headsets like the Meta Quest 3 are receiving more ways to play and work. And we haven't even mentioned the various wearables that can connect with your phone or these devices. Much of the show is focused on the future of headsets and glasses, but there were a number of products that are coming soon or are available now. We were able to go hands-and face-on with several products. Here's our picks for the best of AWE 2025 that you need to know about. Yes, these are the AR glasses that Viture has been teasing for a while now. While I can't tell you much about my hands-on time until they are announced, the fact that I've immediately given them the "best of show" trophy is hopefully enough of a green flag of what you'll get here. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. And what you do get is the best screen I've ever seen with a massive 60-degree field of view — all with that same great color production that Viture is known for. On top of that, with such a huge field of view, the glasses don't look or feel significantly larger to pull it off, and there's zero fringing around the outer edges of the display. Put simply, if you've been waiting for the best external display for your eyes on long journeys, I recommend you wait for these. Snapchat had a massive presence at AWE 2025 with multiple demos of its current Snap Spectacles, including AI-enabled object recognition and linked glasses for multi-person experiences. The biggest news was that its rebranded Specs will launch in 2026. Developers have had access to the prototype versions of the new smart glasses since late 2024, with a ton of expected "Lenses" or apps already in development. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced that the new glasses would be lighter and a "much smaller form factor" than the current Spectacles and the dev kits that we've seen. AWE 2025 was filled with VR accessories that ranged from haptic gloves to giant mech-suit-esque apparati. Unfortunately, many were either prototypes, meant for businesses, or too big for most people to feasibly use in their homes (looking at you, MEK). bHaptics showed off its TactSuit, a series of wearable VR accessories that add haptic feedback to your VR gaming. And we got to try some, including a vest, gloves, and sleeves. The accessories work with the Meta Quest 3 headset and were a lot of fun, even during simple tech demos. They're a bit spendy, but if you're invested in VR gaming, they are worth the cost. Controlling AR content on glasses has been a bit of a minefield. Either you've got to use a secondary device like a wand (like the Xreal Beam Pro), or it's a whole hand-tracking situation that doesn't really work without more raw computation. That's where the KiWear Smart Ring comes in — accurately capturing pinch and hand movements to a degree that it all feels like spatial computing without the need for an Apple Vision Pro on your face. Whether it's pinching to select, swirling your finger around to change the volume, or turning your hand palm-up for additional interactions, it's all here with this ring. It could possibly bring on a new wave of controlling AR content. We all know that AI goes hand-in-hand with smart glasses to deliver an immeasurably better experience — take a look at the Ray-Ban Metas for example. But it can all be a bit impersonal. How do you make that AI more personalized to you? A lot of sensors, and that's what Emteq is doing. Simply put, this company has delivered a fitness and wellness tracker better than any smart watch or smart ring ever could be. With nine optical sensors, it's able to measure your facial muscles to a near-microscopic level. This has uses in being able to create an avatar for talking in video calls, but the real immediate benefit I saw is in healthcare. Not only can you use the cameras to take a picture of your food and use ChatGPT to give you a caloric breakdown of what you're about to eat, but you can also get a reading on whether you're chewing too fast, which may cause digestion problems. And then the subconscious muscle twitches in your face can give it a read on your emotional well-being too. This is true personalized AI, and a look at what smart glasses could be as real assistants. The Wizpr ring caught us by surprise as we wandered the AWE 2025 show floor. It's an AI-enabled smart ring that features a microphone you can use to speak with AI. We tested it, and you can just about whisper, as the name implies, into the ring to give it commands or prompts. On the loud show floor, we were able to ask questions like, "What's the weather like?" or "How far away is the nearest Starbucks?" and the interface appeared to hear and understand the prompts. It can also be used to control some smart home devices like lights or media in your AirPods. Snapdragon AR1+ is a turbo-boosted version of what you see in the Ray-Ban Metas, but it's so much more than that. You see, one of the common obstacles with AI in smart glasses is the time taken to receive a response from the cloud, or latency. But this is able to run a 1-billion parameter model entirely locally, which is great for both privacy and speed. On top of that, there are improvements to camera quality, display quality, and energy efficiency. This chip puts Qualcomm on a path towards smart glasses that cut the cord to any phone or additional computing puck, and sets them towards a future where your smart glasses could replace what you may be reading this on right now.
GSM Arena
11-06-2025
- GSM Arena
Samsung showcases a VR headset screen with 20,000 nits brightness along with other display tech
As Samsung is preparing to launch its first mixed-reality headset, dubbed Project Moohan, the Korean tech giant showcased a cutting-edge OLEDoS panel for such headsets, capable of reaching 20,000 nits of brightness. OLEDoS panels are the same as standard OLED screens, but instead of using a glass or plastic substrate for the backplane, they use silicon, which allows higher brightness, resolution and pixel density. It's mostly used on small screens, and Samsung paired it with a Micro Lens Array to enhance brightness and viewing angles further. However, we don't know if Samsung will use that 1.3-inch panel for its XR headset, but it might end up using its flagship OLEDoS panel with 5,000 ppi and 15,000 nits peak brightness, and 120Hz variable refresh rate. It was showcased last month. During the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2025 in the US, the company revealed several other cutting-edge displays - White OLEDoS panel, two QD-OLED gaming monitors, a Flexible Gaming OLED, a 12.4-inch rollable and foldable panel, a multi-foldable OLED and a micro-LED stretchable display. Source
