From models without cameras, which simply play music or the audio of phone calls, to those with the screen on the lenses or to bring virtual reality everywhere. Even while travelling.
He goes down the neighborhood and a man comes towards us who babbles indecipherable words out loud. Is he all crazy or does he want to tell us something? Should we interact or distance ourselves? If so far taking a look at the ears, whether or not they are dressed with the light stem of an earphone, would have helped to clarify the mystery, soon it will be more difficult to understand if someone is talking to themselvesstruggling with his demons, or busy on the phone.
It just arrived on the market a generation of technological glasses lined with small speakers and microphones. An accessory hidden in the frame that makes it possible to listen to music or converse without blocking your eardrums with headphones. What’s new is a subtraction: these models have given up the pair of cameras stuck on the front.
Take the cameras off the mount
The turning point does not come from an aggressive start-up but from Meta itself, the giant behind Facebook and Instagram, which while insisting on the sacred inviolability of other people’s privacy, on that flashing LED that should signal to those around us if we are taking an image or shooting a video from glasses equipped with electronic eyes, tries to seduce the distrustful. Eradicate the problem with a commercial alternative, lightening the structure by about ten grams and therefore increasing comfort on the face. In parallel, certifying the obvious: that the audio part is the function preferred by its buyers.
Because not many people are eager to stare at and share on social media everything that passes under their noses. Photos of a dish or a sunset captured with your cell phone, and filled with filters, are more than enough. After having invaded the wrists and attempted to conquer the fingers with smart rings (and with admittedly lukewarm results), wearable technology has begun to court the face.
A sales boom
The signs, moreover, are encouraging: the research company Counterpoint speaks of a boom in these gadgets, which only in the first half of 2026 recorded an increase in sales of 263 percent compared to the same period the year before. The entire sector is experiencing a moment of turmoil. Another feature that is very intriguing is the transparent screen that appears before our eyes without others noticing. It allows you to read notifications without having to take your mobile phone out of your pocket, to follow a route along the street receiving visual indications turn after turn, enjoying streets and squares and not keeping your head bowed over your mobile phone.
It was a privilege reserved for foreign markets, now Meta has decided to bring it to Italy too: Ray-Ban Displays have been available since mid-October. They cost 899 euros and not just the only alternative: Other manufacturers, from Even Realities to RayNeo (pictured above), which is backed by Chinese electronics giant Tcl, offer options for a few hundred euros less.
The return of virtual reality
But the most futuristic object is a return to the past, with the necessary corrections. It is a virtual reality viewer that is not a helmet, but a pair of glasses – the name, Vr Glasses, underlines this – weighing 100 grams, to which a small rectangular module is attached with a thread.
It doesn’t do anything too unusual: it allows you to watch films, concerts, sports matches and television series in 3D or play games while immersing yourself in the action, except that it is agile and light, it does not have to be connected to a computer. You can put it in a backpack or a bag and take it everywhere, use it on the train or bus to isolate yourself from the context, from whining children and from the annoying neighbor who blasts TikTok at full volume. In short, to enjoy your favorite content as if you were at the cinema or on the sidelines of a stadium. Entertainment applications aside, it is a traveling office: by connecting it to a computer, you have three giant screens at your disposal on which to manage presentations, spreadsheets, texts and web pages. And you don’t need a keyboard: a surface is enough to see a virtual one magically appear, with a small rectangle next to it that acts as a mouse.
Ingenious controls
The VR Glasses are controlled by waving your fingers in the air, they recognize what we are looking at and make every interaction with the digital space intuitive. If you have a vision defect and do not wear contact lenses, you can order two small graduated implants with your prescription.
It is an undoubted leap in quality compared to the practice of squeezing the frame onto the visor. A certain caution remains reasonable because this technology never really took off and even Apple, with its Vision Pro, thanks to a frightening price (around 3,200 euros), has not broken through. The VR Glasses, coming next springthey should cost two thousand euros less, as much as a high-end smartphone. They will try to fit into the thriving introspective trend of smart glasses which, without intruding into other people’s thingsthey help us do our business better.
