Smart glasses and wearable devices have been on the up in 2025, with many of the biggest industry trade shows, such as Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Mobile World Congress (MWC), displaying a number of promising and innovative launches, while at National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the talk was about how to create more and better content.
The promise of wearable AR/XR technology has been hinted at for a while, though it hadn’t shown much significant development until recent years. With the announcement of Apple Vision Pro in 2023 and its launch in 2024, the industry perked up a little – with many consumers and professionals considering the benefits and challenges of wearable technology in their workflows and daily lives. Since then, smart glasses have evolved, becoming more lightweight and capable – but there’s one slight problem. With the promise of more performance comes increased power requirements.
In many ways, smart glasses and wearable devices present the future that ‘Back to the Future’ predicted in the 1980’s. It’s fun, exciting and unique – offering a real and immediate opportunity to integrate next-level tech into basic everyday items. It’s one thing having AI in your phone, but it’s another to have AI, XR and integrated reality in your glasses.
With the launch of new models in 2025, such as the lightweight, discreet and compact Meta Ray Bans and the futuristic, augmented reality driven XREAL One and One Pro, smart glasses are becoming a sought-after concept in both personal and professional spaces. Their benefits cannot be understated, with wearable devices potentially setting the groundwork for ‘the new TV’, an innovation along the lines of the smartphone. Smart glasses are designed for adaptability, with opportunities for collaborative and personal everyday content viewing, task management and assistance all in one.
As is the case with any new technological advancement, there are a few challenges and considerations when it comes to smart glasses and wearable devices. With the technology being so new and fresh to the industry, there is a lot of experimenting still happening – with the drawback of some devices lasting only 30 minutes.
This short battery life is partially due to the processing power, which is significantly more demanding in wearable devices than in traditional hardware and software. Not only this, but the term ‘smart glasses’ actually covers a wide variety of models, including extended reality (XR) pass-through glasses, AI-only glasses with displays, and even glasses that have audio and digital assistants but no displays, all of which have their own requirements for an efficient and smooth experience when in use.
Among the newest technology to hit the stage at MWC was TCL’s RayNeo X3 Pro model, boasting top of the line pass-through technology, AI assistance and even bird-bath technology (a beam splitter and concave mirror used to direct an image at the wearer), in the new RayNeo Air 3s. However, processing power is still a widespread issue, with pass-through, mixed reality and AI-based displays struggling to maintain battery life for extended amounts of time. In fact, it has been speculated that even the best performing battery in these models will not last for an entire day. It seems that many companies are not finding the sweet spot in compression and efficiency that is needed to run smart glasses infrastructure, and although many models are in the early stages, this could potentially be a huge issue.
It’s safe to say that the technology required to run smart glasses and wearable devices is next generation, with the podium for play higher than ever before in the M&E space. This begs the question of how can we, as an industry, make the processing power in such a small device work – and what work needs to be done going forward to see the battery life on the latest models increase?
It’s simple: next-generation technology needs next-generation codecs. The processing power required by many of the newest models, notably the Meta RayBans, XREAL One/One Pro and the TCL RayNeo Air 3s, is extensive – and our traditional codec set-ups that many content providers have become accustomed to, just won’t cut it.
While there are several viable codecs to consider, one stands above the rest, Multiview HEVC (MV-HEVC). An extension to the HEVC/H.265 standard, MV-HEVC is not just designed for immersion, but also to facilitate the creation of more relevant content for these devices. AutoLive Encoding is a codec feature that hints at a bright future for smart glasses, designed for smooth video encoding at maximum quality without the demand of extensive processing power to keep it running.
The future is definitely bright for smart glasses. 2025 has seen more action in the industry than has been seen in the last few years, with many companies coming out of the woodwork with their take on the next big frontier in wearable devices.
The newest models in smart glasses present an exciting, future-driven and promising future for wearable AR/VR capabilities, personal and professional video conferencing and immersive content on-the-go. While the battery life and processing power remains the current biggest issue with these wearable devices, the integration of next-gen codecs and standards has the potential to transform their usability and create a solid foundation for quick and effective evolution in the space.
Interested in how MainConcept codecs can help transform your workflow, wearable or not? Get in touch!