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Apple is reportedly accelerating the development of smart glasses, as the company is ostensibly making a shift toward AI-centric hardware.

According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is ramping up development of its forthcoming smart glasses, which are slated to head into production as early as December 2026, with public release expected sometime in 2027.

Apple’s smart glasses are being positioned to compete with Meta and EssilorLuxottica’s most recent smart glasses, the report maintains.

While this mostly echoes previous reports from last October, Apple appears to be accelerating development, having recently distributed a broader set of glasses prototypes within its hardware engineering division.

According to an all-hands meeting with employees earlier this month, CEO Tim Cook supposedly also hinted that Apple would be pushing hard into AI devices, noting that the company was working on new “categories of products” centered around AI.

“We’re extremely excited about that,” Cook said in the internal meeting, saying “[t]he world is changing fast.”

Citing people familiar with Apple’s plans, the smart glasses (allegedly codenamed ‘N50’) are said to include two cameras: a high-resolution camera for photos and video, and another dedicated to computer vision tasks. The high quality onboard cameras and overall build quality are expected to set it apart from competing products, the report maintains.

Similar to Meta’s audio-only smart glasses though, Apple’s N50 hardware isn’t expected to include a display of any kind, instead relying on cameras, speakers and microphones for things such as phone calls, AI queries, listening to music, and capturing images.

Apple allegedly floated the idea of partnering with eyewear brands—similar to Meta’s partnership with EssilorLuxottica or Google’s partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster—the company seems to have more recently decided on developing in-house designs, which are said to arrive in a variety of sizes and colors.

“Early prototypes of the glasses connect via a cable to a standalone battery pack and an iPhone, but newer versions have the components embedded in the frame,” Bloomberg reports. “The design uses high-end materials, including acrylic elements intended to give the glasses a premium feel. Apple is already discussing launching the device in additional styles over time.”

This comes as Apple is investing more heavily in AI in effort to better compete with Google and OpenAI, which comes part and parcel with a critical redesign of Siri. The report also maintains Apple is working on an AI-powered pendant and AirPods with expanded AI capabilities—all three of which will rely on visual input.

Notably, the report maintains that all three will rely on connection to iPhone. Apple did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.

The post Apple Reportedly Accelerates Smart Glasses Development Amid Wider Push for AI Hardware appeared first on Road to VR.

The setting and imagery of Ghost in the Shell is iconic by this point.

A futuristic, dystopian society where AI and cybernetic technology have transformed society into a militarized, oppressive surveillance state where the border between humanity and machine is blurred. The title, even, refers to the idea that a soul (‘the ghost’) could be uploaded and transferred into a mechanical shell, or flesh could be fused to transform the human. It’s an idea that has been used to comment on humanity’s relationship with technology, and, to mark thirty years since the first anime adaptation of the 1989 manga, a new art exhibition celebrating the franchise in its entirety has hit Tokyo.

But this isn’t any normal exhibition. It make sense that a franchise speculating about the future of technology would implement the cutting-edge aspects of this technology into even a showcase of the human artistry that went into its creation, but this Ghost in the Shell Exhibition has implemented AR technology using Xreal Air 2 Ultra to enhance the experience of exploring and understanding the artwork on display.

The series in every iteration follows members of Public Security Section 9, professionals separate to to the police that work at solving and preventing crime, typically with a cybercrime and counter-terrorist purpose. The crimes they encounter, and the personal stories that reverberate into the broader world, touch on corruption, surveillance, technological overreach and abuse and more. The Puppet Master, the antagonist of the original manga and first film, can hack and overtake cybernetic bodies, whereas the Laughing Man circumvents surveillance through hacked video feeds.

Conceptually, this is the first deep dive into the history of the entire franchise in a single exhibition, showcasing materials used in the production of not just early works but every series and film from the 1995 original all the way until the more recent Netflix-produced CG works, Arise, and an all-new preview for the all-new series from Science Saru premiering later this year. As such, original cels, storyboards, sketches and production materials from every series were on display, alongside newly-produced artworks from a range of creatives that explore questions on humanity, AI, technology and the human body posed by the franchise. An analogue look at a technological world, as original paper sketches are framed on walls and in glass panels.

In an opening room, you also had tall PCs with a digital interface to witness lines of dialogue, sketches, hear music, and more from across the franchise. In the main gallery featuring art from every series also sat a PC with digitized assets from every series to flick through at your leisure, a hard drive with a treasure trove of materials from the dense work of the series. Then you have the Xreal Air 2 Ultra AR device.

Their implementation at this exhibition is certainly unusual, one of the first examples in the world of AR glasses being used at an art exhibition in such a manner. While you could simplify their use as a more thematically-fitting audio guide like the listening devices available to rent at museums around the world, their use here was a bit more involved and interesting than such a simplistic summation. For a cost of 1500yen ($10) on top of your ticket, you will be given a pair of Xreal Air 2 Ultra glasses and a smartphone in a case to hold around your neck. After plugging the glasses into the phone, selecting your language between Japanese and English, and being instructed on how to use the device for the first time, you enter the exhibition.

Dotted around the floor of every room of the exhibition are special marks featuring Tachikoma, the cute blue robot from the series. Scanning these marks will trigger an AR scene superimposed over that room or area of the exhibition. The first marker, serving as an introduction to this enhanced walkthrough of the space, places Tachikoma inside the open-plan first room of the showcase in order to explain the franchise and the exhibition, featuring the machine voiced by its original voice actor, Sakiko Tamagawa.

These AR markings are primarily found in the next room, the main gallery space and centerpiece of the exhibition featuring original production sketches, cels and more each broken up by series or film. At the beginning of each entry in the franchise’s space within the showcase sits a large Tachikoma mark that you scan with the Xreal glasses, letting them know where you are in the space and triggering the enhancements related to that entry. Each begins with an introduction to that work by Tachikoma enhanced by video clips and audio from that movie or series, before light paths appear on the floor guiding you to specific sketches and cels on display on the show floor.

Scanning these will not only work as a story-driven runthrough of the story of that particular production, but provide production background and context to the work you’re seeing.

While functionally similar to an audio guide, the format using this technologically allows this guide to go further in expanding upon what visitors can understand about each piece on display. Highlighting specific works and provided overlayed video places these sketches within the context of the finished work for those less familiar with the animation production process, which can be eye-opening for anyone unaware of everything that goes into taking a work from page to screen.

Of course, it doesn’t do this for every sketch, but it’s easily possible to wander the floor and look at these assets at your own pace, then scan these enhanced works at any moment. Newly-produced artworks are placed alongside these original production materials that each lean into the themes of the series, leaving you with fresh perspectives to ponder as you bask in the world of Ghost in the Shell. One that particularly stood out to me was a human-sized doll in a box with a mirror for a face, reflecting the viewer as they stared at the piece. When humanity can be moved into a new shell to the point the flesh is unimportant, what is a body? What is human?

Considering the warnings the franchise has made about the convergence of technology and humanity in the wake of the potentially-ruining consequences of AI or technological overabundance, all while still recognizing the potential of these advancements, these artworks and even the use of XReal glasses felt fitting. Innocence, the second film by Mamoru Oshii, specifically dives into the AI question at some depth, which coincidentally is where this doll artwork was positioned in the event space.

Not all of these art pieces and technology-infused additions to the showcase felt fitting – moving from the warnings of Innocence regarding AI to the uncritical embrace of the technology via distorted Generative AI artwork was disappointing to witness in an exhibition celebrating human creativity. But most 0f these artworks and technological experiments enhanced the experience overall.

After viewing every series and film in order, the Xreal experience ends with an exclusive preview of Science Saru’s new series, alongside a brief original 30-second animation featuring Motoko evoking the imagery of the original film. Beyond the glasses implementation, the merchandise area featured collaborations with numerous artists and companies that also merged traditional methods with technological innovation. STYLY, an AR company, produced a fascinating traditional Japanese folding curtain that, when scanned with your phone’s camera, would render an animation of Motoko.

An embrace of technology to enhance the artistic display of 30 years of adaptations for this seminal manga series felt befitting of this unique exhibition, but the technological potential of this work goes far beyond Ghost in the Shell. The use of Xreal glasses here wasn’t perfect, but any issues spoke more to the currently limits of the technology than their implementation here. The field of view is still relatively limited with notable edges, and they’re difficult to use when also wearing glasses. They could occasionally desync, especially if you removed them from your face for any reason, and if this occurs the resync process is far from simple due to how locked-down these devices are for security reasons during this exhibition.

Still, I could imagine this technology finding great use in other showcases in future, even beyond ones where it’s thematically apt to use them like seen here. Classic museums have already embraced technology to provide context to artworks in the past: the Louvre used 3DS devices for a decade, and phone apps are commonplace. AR glasses give a visual enhancement not possible with a phone, however, making it an enhancing use-case for the technology which genuinely benefits the experience.

Regardless of if you do choose to rent the glasses, however, the Ghost in the Shell exhibition is more than worth your time if you care for the series. If you live in or visit Tokyo, the rare opportunity to see original sketches and cels from the franchise history is a real treat. The exhibition runs at Tokyo Node until April 5th.

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The Battlefield-like 32-player VR FPS Forefront will see a “major update” and price increase later this month.

Triangle Factory, the maker of the popular 32-player Battlefield-inspired VR FPS Forefront, has announced that the price of their game will increase at the end of February, alongside what the team calls “a major update.”

The updated price has not been revealed, but Forefront is currently available on Meta Quest, Steam, and Pico, at a cost of $22.99.

Since launching in Early Access, Forefront has been well-supported by its makers, receiving several updates to add new maps and weapons, address balancing issues, provide graphics updates, and more.

In mid-February, Triangle Factory announced that Forefront will be coming to PlayStation VR2 sometime this year.

I previously covered Forefront and found it to be an exciting and tense take on the Battlefield formula. The game’s combat is immersive, its VR gunplay is tactile and satisfying, and its dynamic environments are well-designed. While there were certainly a few small problems in that Early Access build, mostly due to weapon balance issues, on the whole, Forefront jumped ahead of every other multiplayer shooter I’ve played in VR. Its large-scale battlefields are hard to beat.

Forefront Hands-On: The Battlefield Multiplayer Experience In VR

Forefront in early access brings excitingly tense, large-scale multiplayer warfare reminiscent of Battlefield to VR.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

Forefront is out in Early Access on Quest, Steam, and Pico.

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The PlayStation VR2 port of VR soulslike action RPG Grimlord is “nearing completion”, according to the development team.

Metalcat Interactive’s community manager confirmed the action RPG’s pending release on Discord, but did not specify a date.

The team behind Grimlord confirmed several months ago that they were working on a PSVR2 port in its Discord. In response to a question about a release date, Metalcat community manager ‘KUPOkinz’ stated “yup that is set to release very soon actually, its in final stages… I would say less than a month.”

Another developer followed up, saying “Yes, despite the many difficulties, it is nearing completion. We had to upgrade the engine to version 5.6 because versions 5.3 and 5.5 had some bugs. Very few teams are making VR games with UE5. Sony and Epic could offer very limited assistance.”

Neither specified a release date, but less than a month from now puts the estimated date in early to mid March.

The dark fantasy soulslike action RPG originally started in Early Access on Steam in June of 2023. A Quest port followed on App Lab in January 2024 with the final 1.0 release for both platforms dropping in December 2024. It promises a ten-hour single-player campaign and also added an arena mode in its Sands of Glory update in May 2025. A multiplayer mode is also in development.

Grimlord is available now on Meta Quest and Steam for $29.99.

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