Google presents Android XR smart glasses featuring Gemini AI, visual memory, and multilingual capabilities

Google's smart glasses feature Gemini AI, visual memory, and language translation.

: Google introduced its new Android XR smart glasses with features like Gemini AI, visual memory, and dynamic multilingual capabilities during TED2025. Led by Shahram Izadi and Nishtha Bhatia, they showcased the glasses' ability to recall information, facilitate translations, and offer object recognition. These glasses incorporate a sophisticated camera, microphones, speakers, and a display in the lens while syncing with smartphones for enhanced app access. Expected by year-end, Samsung's competing Haean glasses offer comfort and advanced gesture controls, leveraging Qualcomm technology.

Google unveiled its Android XR smart glasses, marking a substantial leap in wearable technological innovation. As presented at TED2025 by Shahram Izadi and Nishtha Bhatia, these glasses integrate Gemini AI to bring powerful functionalities directly to users’ eyeline. Among the most notable is the real-time language translation ability; Bhatia's demonstration involved switching languages on-the-fly, interpreting English to Farsi, and further to Hindi without needing manual adjustments.

Moreover, these smart glasses offer advanced visual memory features, allowing users to recall visual data or identify misplaced items, such as a book title or hotel key card, via simple voice commands processed through Gemini AI. This innovation promises a significant enhancement in daily conveniences, merging AI's cognitive aspects with a wearable form factor.

The hardware design ensures the device remains lightweight and unobtrusive while maintaining a seamless look akin to regular eyewear, all while accommodating prescription lenses. By integrating a miniaturized camera, microphones, speakers, and an embedded color display, the glasses offer sophisticated functionalities without forfeiting aesthetics.

The Android XR platform, created in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm, fosters an open operating system that unites various extended reality (XR) devices. Offering immersive experiences through apps like YouTube, Google TV, and Google Maps in virtual spaces, the platform promises a bridge between current technologies and futuristic applications through multi-platform compatibility.

While Google’s innovation sets a benchmark, Samsung’s forthcoming Haean glasses are slated for launch later this year. These are rumored to adopt Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chip and feature capabilities such as video recording and voice calling, complementing Google’s advances in smart eyewear technology.

Sources: TechSpot, TED2025