An Unholy Union of Smart Glasses and Wireless Earbuds Is Upon Us

It seems like everyone is trying to get you to buy a face computer these days. Meta has seemingly endless pairs; Google and Samsung are on the verge of getting in on the action; Apple might be interested. That’s not even counting the array of popular big brands like Rokid and Alibaba that are looking to replicate the success of Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses overseas. Despite all that high-profile attention, there’s one thing I didn’t have on my bingo card, and that’s smart glasses sweeping wireless earbuds into the trend. But, expected or not, here we are. The sudden interest in smart glasses is creating a whole new category: open-ear headphones/earbuds with a camera on them. Quite a few pairs have already popped up. Take the X1 from a company called Auriview, for example, which bills itself as an “AI bone conduction headset.” This gadget, which you wear on your head, resembles bone-conducting earphones that you’d use for running or other exercises. The difference is that a 4K camera is sandwiched on the side, enabling computer vision similar to that of popular AI glasses made by Meta, as well as the ability to record video and take pictures. According to Auriview, the X1 is a bit of a t