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A look at AI glasses

I’ve been following smart glasses for a while now (and the more embryonic camera-augmented eyewear category a “bit” longer than that). As with smart watches and more recent smart rings, they’re intriguing to me because they take already-familiar, mature and high volume consumer products and make them…umm…smart. Plus, there’s the oft-touted potential for smart glasses to augment if not supplant the equally now-pervasive smartphone (for the record: I’m dubious at best on that latter replacement-potential premise).

With all due respect to Google, with Glass, introduced in 2013 and near-immediately thereafter spawning “glassholes” terminology:

and other technology trendsetters—Snap’s multiple generations of Spectacles, for example:

I’d suggest that the smart glasses category really didn’t “get legs” until Meta and partner Ray-Ban’s second-generation AI Glasses, released in October 2023. Stories, the first-generation product introduced in September 2020 by EssilorLuxottica (Ray-Ban’s parent company) and then-Facebook (rebranded as Meta Platforms a year later) had adopted the iconic Ray-Ban style:

but it was fundamentally a content capture and playback device (plus a fancy Bluetooth headset to a wirelessly tethered smartphone), containing an integrated still and video camera, stereo speakers, and a three-microphone (for ambient noise suppression purposes) array.

The second-gen AI Glasses first and foremost make advancements on these fundamental fronts:

• A still image capture resolution upgrade from 5 Mpixels to 12 Mpixels
• Video capture up-resolution from 720p to 1080p (plus added livestreaming support)
• 8x the integrated content storage capacity (from 4 GBytes to 32 GBytes)
• An enhanced integrated speaker array with two ports per transducer and virtual surround sound playback support, and
• A now-five-microphone array for enhanced ambient noise reduction, also capable of “immersive audio capture”

Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses

They’re also now moisture (albeit not dust) resistant, with an IPX4 rating, for example. But the key advancement, at least to this “tech-head”, is their revolutionary AI-powered “smarts” (therefore the product name), enabled by the combo of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, Meta’s deep learning models running both resident and in the “cloud”, and speedy bidirectional glasses/cloud connectivity. AI features include real-time language Live Translation plus AI View, which visually identifies and audibly provides additional information about objects around the wearer (next-gen glasses due later this year will supposedly also integrate diminutive displays).

The broad market seems to agree; in mid-February, EssilorLuxottica announced that it’d already sold 2 million pairs of Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses in their first year-plus and aspired to hit a 10 million-per-year run rate by the end of 2026. As I noted in my 2025 CES coverage:

Ray-Ban and Meta’s jointly developed second-generation smart glasses were one of the breakout consumer electronics hits of 2024, with good (initial experience, at least) reason. Their constantly evolving AI-driven capabilities are truly remarkable, on top of the first-generation’s foundational still and video image capture and audio playback support.

That said, within that same coverage, I also wrote:

I actually almost bought a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses during Amazon’s Black Friday…err…week-plus promotion to play around with for myself (and subsequently cover here at EDN, of course). But I decided to hold off for the inevitable barely-used (if at all) eBay-posting markdowns to come.

As it turns out, though, and as any of you who read my recent Mercari diatribe may have already noticed, I didn’t end up waiting very long. Turns out, at Meta Connect in September 2024, EssilorLuxottica had unveiled a limited edition (only 7,500 pairs worldwide) transparent version of the AI Glasses (versus the more recent translucent limited edition ones), priced at $429, and which sold out near-immediately. I didn’t snag a pair at the time—admittedly, I didn’t even know they existed at the time. But I ended up buying someone else’s barely used pair a few months ago, at a “bit” of a markup from the original MSRP (but to be clear, nowhere near the five-digit price tags I usually see them for-sale posted for on eBay, etc.). Some stock images to start:

(no, there will not be any pictures of them on my head. Trust me, it’s for the best for all of us.).

So, why’d I buy them? Part of the motivation, admittedly, combines my earlier noted belief that they’re the first truly impactful entrant in this embryonic product category, therefore destined to be a historical classic, with the added limited-edition cachet of this particular variant. Plus:

• Nobody’s going to confuse these with a normal pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses, such as might be the case with the ones below. I don’t want anyone belatedly noticing the camera and pseudo-camera in the corners of the frame and then go all paranoid on me, worried that I might have been surreptitiously snapping pictures or shooting video of them.

• They’ve got transition lenses, as the stock photos show. Candidly, it creeps me out when I see someone wearing conventional always-tinted sunglasses indoors. But I still want them to be sunglasses when I’m outdoors (versus also-available always-clear lens variants). And I’d like to use them both places.
• And, because they’re transparent—no, I’m not going to take mine apart—I can still do a semblance of a teardown on them for you today, in combo with a video I found of someone who did take theirs apart…for science…and viewer traffic revenue, of course.

(in-advance warning; some of the dissection sequences in this teardown video are quite brutal on the eyes and ears, IMHO at least!)

The AI glasses teardown

Follow along as I showcase my AI glasses, periodically referencing specific timestamps in the above video for added visual data point evidence. I’ll start out with some (already opened by the previous owner, obviously) outer box shots, as usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes. This particular AI Glasses variant comes in only one style—Wayfarer—and size option—M (50-22) —and they weigh 48.6 grams/1.71 ounces, with the charging case coming in at an incremental 133 grams/4.69 ounces:

Open sesame:

Before continuing, this shot shows one of the uniqueness aspects of these limited-edition glasses. Standard ones’ cases have a tan-color patina instead:

Onward:

I like black better. Don’t you? Totally worth the incremental price tag all by itself (I jest):

The front LED communicates the charge status of both the case and the glasses inside it:

The USB-C connector on the bottom:

is…drum roll…for charging purposes (surprising absolutely no one by saying that, I realize):

Open sesame, redux:

I’m sure that the cleaning cloth was more neatly packaged when the glasses were brand new; this is how it was presented to me upon my reception of gently-used it:

Look closely and you’ll be able to already see the “3301/7500” limited-edition custom mark on the inside of the right temple (or, if you prefer, “arm”…“temple” is apparently the official name) of mine (#3,301 of 7,500 total, if the verbiage is unclear).

It matches another custom mark on the inside of the case flap (with the “3301” hand-“drawn”, if not already obvious):

And here are a few shots of the charging “dock” built into the case. Per the earlier teardown video (starting at ~6:00), the case’s embedded battery has a capacity of 3,034 mAh (he says “milliamps” in the video, but I’d guessed that my alternative measurement-unit version was what he actually meant, and the markings at the center of the cell shown in the closeup at ~6:20 concur…although the markings on the left end of the cell seem to say 2,940 mAh?).

Now, for our patient, beginning with what the glasses look like immediately post-case removal:

The circular structure in the corner of the left endpiece (upper right corner from this head-on vantage point…I received research validation of my initial suspicion that glasses’ parts are traditionally location-referenced from the wearer’s perspective) is indeed the camera:

In the opposite (upper right from the wearer’s perspective) corner is what looks like another camera, although it’s not:

It’s instead (first and foremost, at least) the capture LED, brighter than the one on the Stories precursor, which alerts those around you when you’re shooting photos or video. For still images, it blinks (along with making a shutter-activation sound in the speakers, for wearer benefit):

while for video, it remains illuminated the entire time you’re recording. That said, it also has sensing capabilities, specifically to ensure others’ privacy. If you attempt to cover the capture LED with a piece of tape, etc., the camera won’t work. By the way, in the first image of this latest series, you may have also noticed other circuitry embedded in the rim on both sides of the right lens, but not around the left lens. Hold that thought for a revisit shortly.

Here’s what they look like from above, both with the temples still folded:

and fully unfolded:

and from below, with the temples now partially unfolded:

Next, let’s dive in for a closer view, beginning with the outsides of the temples. The left one, as the video shows in more detail beginning at ~1:40, contains one of the speakers (with upper and lower ports), two of the microphones (one pointed downward toward the wearer’s mouth, the other outward for ambient noise capture and subtraction purposes) and the main system PCB, comprising 32 GBytes of flash memory (along with, I suspect, an unknown amount of DRAM in a multi-die “sandwich”) and the aforementioned Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 SoC. The packaged memory and application processor are individually covered by Faraday cages (which the video narrator refers to as “cans”), and EMC shielding (plus thermal spreading, I suspect) material spans the entirety of the PCB. Here’s an overview of the outer left temple:

along with a closer look at the front half:

and the back half of it:

Within the right temple, conversely (see the video beginning at ~4:00), although you’ll again unsurprisingly find a matching speaker (and ports) and two-microphone set, the remainder of the “guts” is quite different. First off is the battery, in this case 154 mAh (again misspoken as mA, and mentioned at ~8:30). The narrator also believes that he’s found the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antenna structure in the right temple, leading to a reasonable assumption that the wireless transceiver chip is there, too. And there’s also a large capacitive touch sensor structure on the outside, used for glasses control via both taps of and pressed-finger movement along it.

Here’s an overview photo of the outer right temple:

Now, a close-up of the front half:

and the back half of it:

Remember those outward-facing mics I mentioned earlier? Haven’t seen them yet, have you? I finally found them while writing thanks to an illuminated loupe, even though I’d already known their general location within (or nearby) the Ray-Ban logos on both sides. Post your specific-location guesses in the comments, and I’ll put the answer there a few weeks post-publication!

Before examining both temples’ insides, let’s first cover their upper and lower regions. Back to the left temple; here’s an overview of the top edge first:

and a close-up of the upper speaker port.

Now, the underside of the left temple:

with another speaker port along with, ahead of it, the aperture for the down-facing microphone.

The right temple is similar, with one exception: a topside switch near the hinge. But you’ve seen it in action before; it’s the camera shutter button. Topside first:

and underside.

Now for the temples’ inner sides. Left first, beginning with an overview shot:

The front half:

A closeup of the power switch (Pro tip: Don’t forget, as I did, to turn the glasses on prior to attempting to pair them with your smartphone. Simply ensuring they’re in the case is insufficient!):

Now the back half:

Moving over to the right side now:

Front half:

There’s that limited-edition notation (numerically matching the other one, thankfully) again!

And the back half:

There’s one area of the glasses left to explore, with many more interesting bits encompassed to showcase than you might initially expect. Behold the backside of the front frame:

Not much of note in the left half, aside from that dark area running horizontally through the bridge and over the lens, which I’ll discuss in detail next:

The right half, on the other hand, is hardware-rich (as alluded to earlier in this writeup):

That embedded structure at far right is the wearer-viewable notification LED, with varying colors (and steady or blinking states) dependent on the glasses’ mode and what’s being communicated:

And the assemblage on the left side of the lens, running along the right portion of the nose piece? It has dual (at least) purposes. Those who remember the charging contacts inside the case may be unsurprised to learn that there’s a matching set here. And those with really good memories may also recall that I earlier mentioned a five-microphone array, although we’ve so far only seen four of ‘em. Where’s the fifth? It’s here, too:

Regarding the mysterious dark region spanning the entirety of the top of the front frame, notably including the bridge, you may have already caught that the camera shutter button is on the opposite side of the glasses from the actual camera. More generally, as already noted, there’s no shortage of bidirectional interaction between the power, communications, and touch electronics on the right and the processing electronics on the left, not to mention the bilateral audio input and output facilities. Turns out there’s a whole mess of wiring in the front frame, as a particularly brutal segment of the teardown video starting at ~4:35 reveals. Fair warning: the use of hand tools, bare hands, and (ultimately) a Dremel to chop the front frame into pieces isn’t for the squeamish. That said, I did learn a new term: insert injection molding. From Wikipedia:

Pre-moulded or machined components can be inserted into the cavity while the mould is open, allowing the material injected in the next cycle to form and solidify around them. This process is known as insert moulding and allows single parts to contain multiple materials.

One feature implementation remains a mystery, although I have a theory. There’s a Wear Detection sensor somewhere that detects whether you’ve put the glasses on your face. I’ve read lots of theories online as to how this function might be implemented, although nobody has seemingly yet definitively determined how it is implemented. One thing that I can say with certainty from my experimentation is that the sensor’s not anywhere on either/both temple(s), since I’ve experimented by covering them with paper “sleeves” (which they protectively come with from the factory) and Wear Detection still works.

My guess is that there’s actually no special sensor at all; that the glasses instead detect the slight current flow caused by skin conduction (also known as galvanic skin response and electrodermal activity, among other terminology) between the two charging contacts when pressed up against the wearer’s nose. Part of the rationale for my theory is that it incurs no additional bill-of-materials cost, assuming that the power management controller between the charging contacts and the battery is sufficiently intelligent to handle this additional discernment task. And part of it is that the function can be user-disabled if found to be unreliable, which inconsistent electrodermal activity certainly is, both person-to-person and moment-to-moment. Not to mention that if you’ve got a wide nose, it may never touch the bridge underside at all.

And with that, nearing 3,000 words and as-always mindful of Aalyia’s wrath (more accurately: her precious, not-unlimited time and energy), I’ll wrap up for today with one more photo, taken using my AI Glasses of the view looking west from my back deck toward the Rocky Mountains:

I’m not terribly fond of the 3024×4032 pixel portrait orientation (which can’t be helped unless I took pictures with my head at an awkward 90° to the usual vertical instead, I suppose). But otherwise, not bad, eh? More on-head AI Glasses usage observations to come in future posts. Until then, let me know what you think so far in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.

 Related Content

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• Teardown: Dissecting Snap’s third-gen AR glasses
• Videoing While You Ski: Liquid Image Makes It Easy
• Wearable trends: a personal perspective
• The 2025 CES: Safety, Longevity and Interoperability Remain a Mess

The post Ray-Ban Meta’s AI glasses: A transparency-enabled pseudo-teardown analysis appeared first on EDN.

Can't get most chips in DIP anymore... submitted by /u/Separate-Choice [link] [comments]

god damn those LGA packages submitted by /u/brotoro [link] [comments]

Renesas Electronics Corp of Tokyo, Japan says that, as a resuts of entering into a restructuring support agreement with Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA and its principal creditors for the financial restructuring of Wolfspeed, it hence expects to record a financial loss...

Міжсекторальний семінар «Штучний інтелект у дії: практичні рекомендації для публічного сектору та закладів освіти» KPI4U-1 пн, 06/23/2025 - 13:54

Wafer-scale technology is making waves again, this time promising to enable artificial intelligence (AI) models with trillions of parameters to run faster and more efficiently than traditional GPU-based systems. Engineers at The University of California, Riverside (UCR) claim to have developed a chip the size of a frisbee that can move massive amounts of data without overheating or consuming excessive electricity.

They call these massive chips wafer-scale accelerators, which Cerebras manufactured on dinner plate-sized silicon wafers. These wafer-scale processors can deliver far more computing power with much greater energy efficiency, traits that are essential as AI models continue to grow larger and more demanding.

The dinner plate-sized silicon wafers are in stark contrast to postage stamp-sized GPUs, which are now considered essential in AI designs because they can perform multiple computational tasks like processing images, language, and data streams in parallel.

However, as AI model complexity increases, even high-end GPUs are starting to hit performance and energy limits, says Mihri Ozkan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering and the lead author of the paper published in the journal Device.

Figure 1 Wafer-Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3), manufactured by Cerebras, avoids the delays and power losses associated with chip-to-chip communication. Source: The University of California, Riverside

“AI computing isn’t just about speed anymore,” Ozkan added. “It’s about designing systems that can move massive amounts of data without overheating or consuming excessive electricity.” He compared GPUs to busy highways, which are effective, but traffic jams waste energy. “Wafer-scale engines are more like monorails: direct, efficient, and less polluting.”

The Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3), developed by UCR engineers, contains 4 trillion transistors and 900,000 AI-specific cores on a single wafer. Moreover, as Cerebras reports, inference workloads on the WSE-3 system use one-sixth the power of equivalent GPU-based cloud setups.

Then there is Tesla’s Dojo D1, another wafer-scale accelerator, which contains 1.25 trillion transistors and nearly 9,000 cores per module. These wafer-scale chips are engineered to eliminate the performance bottlenecks that occur when data travels between multiple smaller chips.

Figure 2 Dojo D1 chip, released in 2021, aims to enhance full self-driving and autopilot systems. Source: Tesla

However, as UCR’s Ozkan acknowledges, heat remains a challenge. With thermal design power reaching 10,000 watts, wafer-scale chips require advanced cooling. Here, Cerebras uses a glycol-based loop built into the chip package, while Tesla employs a coolant system that distributes liquid evenly across the chip surface.

Related Content

• Wafer Scale Emerging
• Startup Spins Whole Wafer for AI
• Powering and Cooling a Wafer Scale Die
• Cerebras’ Third-Gen Wafer-Scale Chip Doubles Performance
• Cerebras Wafer-Scale Chip will Power Scottish Supercomputer

The post Wafer-scale chip claims to offer GPU alternative for AI models appeared first on EDN.

As part of its efforts to strengthen its capital structure, Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA — which makes silicon carbide (SiC) materials and power semiconductor devices — has entered into a restructuring support agreement (RSA) with key lenders, including (i) holders of more than 97% of its senior secured notes, (ii) Renesas Electronics Corp’s US subsidiary, and (iii) convertible debtholders holding more than 67% of the outstanding convertible notes. The transactions envisioned by the RSA are expected to reduce the firm’s overall debt by about 70% ($4.6bn) and to reduce annual total cash interest payments by about 60%..

Materials innovation company Diamond Technologies Inc (DTI) of Hudson, MA, USA (which is developing and commercializing diamond-based solutions for semiconductors, aerospace, defense, optics and industrial applications) has acquired the complete asset portfolio of AKHAN Semiconductor Inc of Gurnee, Lake County, IL, USA (which was founded in 2013 and specializes in the fabrication and application of synthetic, lab-grown, electronics-grade diamond materials)...

Aeluma Inc of Goleta, CA, USA — which develops compound semiconductor materials on large-diameter substrates — has announced a contract with the US Navy that could accelerate development of high-speed photodetectors for government and commercial applications...

Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd, in collaboration with Japan-based NTT Innovative Devices Corp, has established mass-production technology for high-power terahertz devices using its proprietary crystal film bonding (CFB) technology for heterogeneous material bonding to bond indium phosphide (InP)-based uni-traveling carrier photodiodes (UTC-PD) (a PiN junction photodiode that selectively uses electrons as active carriers) onto silicon carbide (SiC) with what are claimed to be excellent heat dissipation characteristics for improved bonding yields. UTC-PDs could operate faster and with much wider output linearity simply by excluding the hole transport contribution to the diode operation...

Chicago-based fabless firm Tagore Technology Inc — which was founded in 2011 and has design centers in Arlington Heights, IL, USA and Kolkata, India developing gallium nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology for RF and power management applications — has launched the TSL8028N, a compact, high-performance receiver front-end module tailored for demanding wireless infrastructure and radar applications operating in the 2–5GHz frequency range...

Electronics Standards and Certifications Leader Unveils New Vision and Mission for Supply Chain Harmonization and Advocacy, Releases Global Trade Flows Study

A new chapter begins for IPC as it officially becomes the Global Electronics Association, reflecting its role as the voice of the electronics industry. Guided by the vision of “Better electronics for a better world,” the Global Electronics Association (electronics.org) is dedicated to enhancing supply chain resilience and promoting accelerated growth through engagement with more than 3,000- member companies, thousands of partners, and dozens of governments across the globe.

“The Board’s support and approval of this transformation shows our collective recognition that the electronics industry has fundamentally changed. The Association has expanded well beyond its beginning in printed circuit boards – we’re enabling AI, autonomous vehicles, next-generation communications, and much more,” said Tom Edman, board chair of the Global Electronics Association and president and CEO of TTM Technologies. “As we chart our path forward with our new name, we will continue and elevate our efforts to build partnerships between governments and industries, foster new investment, drive innovation across the industry, and minimize disruptions in the electronics supply chain.”

As part of its new mission, the Association is increasing resources to strengthen advocacy, deepen industry insights, and enhance stakeholder communications — all aimed at advancing and elevating the electronics industry. To champion a resilient and growing supply chain, the Association represents the entire ecosystem of diverse subsectors that contribute to this complex industry.

“Electronics today are the backbone of all industries, which makes its supply chain crucial to economies, governments, and everyday life,” said Dr. John W. Mitchell, president and CEO of the Global Electronics Association. “Our new mission and vision position us to work more deeply with industry and our members globally to advocate for the importance of electronics in our continuously changing world.”

The Global Electronics Association will retain the IPC brand for the industry’s standards and certification programs, which are vital to ensure product reliability and consistency. The IPC Education Foundation is now known as the Electronics Foundation, continuing to focus on solving the talent challenges for the electronics industry.

Global Electronics Trade Flows 

The Global Electronics Association also released a trade flows study of the global electronics industry, which now represents more than $1 in every $5 of global merchandise trade. Key findings include:

• Electronics supply chains are more globally integrated than any other industry, surpassing even the automotive sector in cross-border complexity.
• Trade inputs like semiconductors and connectors now exceed trade in finished products such as smartphones and laptops, with global electronics trade totaling $4.5 trillion in 2023, including $2.5 trillion in components alone.
• Top exporters such as China, Vietnam, and India are among the fastest-growing importers of electronic inputs, underscoring the deep interdependence embedded in global electronics production.
• This mutual reliance challenges the viability of reshoring and decoupling strategies, as rising export powers depend on components from across the world.

Mitchell concluded: “Our trade flows analysis reinforces that resilience, not self-sufficiency, is the foundation of competitiveness in the electronics age. No single company or country can stand alone. The complexities of the electronics ecosystem require collaboration and partnership with others. The Global Electronics Association is here to help create a vital and thriving global electronics supply chain through industry, government, and stakeholder collaboration.”

Global Operations Supporting Entire Value Chain

The electronics value chain supported by the Global Electronics Association – from design to final product – encompasses original equipment manufacturers, semiconductors, printed circuit boards, assembly and manufacturing services, harnesses, materials, and equipment suppliers.

The post Global Electronics Association Debuts; New Name Elevates IPC’s 70-Year Legacy as Voice of $6 Trillion Electronics Industry appeared first on ELE Times.

Внаслідок чергової ворожої атаки пошкоджено будівлі кампусу КПІ ім. Ігоря Сікорського kpi пн, 06/23/2025 - 10:04

New old stock form my surplus lot. submitted by /u/Rhine_Labs [link] [comments]

I was modifying a cheap handheld oscilloscope to fit in my diy modular synth but the horizontal layout was a bit too wide for my liking so I did this to rotate the screen 90° ☠️ submitted by /u/TheSnadman [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Separate-Choice [link] [comments]

These were early version of mask roms from the late 70's if you remove the epoxy over the crystal they become Intel D2716 can erase them and program again. submitted by /u/Rhine_Labs [link] [comments]

Tons of IC's.. So Far 6.5 hours sorting and backing up programmable chips. I live Stream day 1 rather boring https://youtube.com/live/6U9ADQovUoY Day 2 Soon. I sorted out all the programmables near the end and will do another day of backups soon. Some devices were not supported on my Xeltek or i did not have the adapters. So i need to Bust out the BPM Microsytems 1710. submitted by /u/Rhine_Labs [link] [comments]

"Work in progress: rebuilding my Inovonics 222 clone using proper unsound construction techniques." submitted by /u/Linker3000 [link] [comments]

Фотовиставка, присвячена освітньому серіалу «Українські герої та героїні: від минулого до сьогодення» KPI4U-2 сб, 06/21/2025 - 23:19