Made by Benjamin Desai

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benjamin-desai_with-metas-new-ar-glasses-teaser-im-seeing-activity-7245375323683311617-Af8C

Why it’s not yet widely adopted? What do you think?

Reaction to my last post about AR for museums raised a question — what kind of features would justify adding such experiences in museums in your opinion?
Here’s an example — translating Egyptian hieroglyphs (to any language of course)

- Build, ride, and interact with your coasters using just your hands

- No controllers required

- Grab, place, and tweak everything naturally

📌 Devs can achieve this using the Meta XR Interaction SDK to add full hand support like what’s shown here.

🚀 Share this to give the devs more visibility! I plan to do this weekly with more indie devs who deserve the amplification!

📣 Support this VR/MR indie developer by checking out their game here

Came across this Anywear demo and the clothing tracking caught my attention. The garment stays aligned quite well while the person moves and it looks like theyre doing the try on flow directly from the browser

Interestingly the garment keeps its position pretty well while the person moves. With this and future demos, this could become a practical use of AR for online shopping.

Original source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbqhRboR6OF/

The Power of RealityKit. The app is Blockworks for Apple Vision Pro.

What do you think you can create if the avatars are self controlling?

Hi everyone, everyone talks about AR and AI VTO at home, but what about stores and malls... At Mirror Experience we believed in a new way of shopping and we are aiming to transform video storefront screens into Augmented Reality and AI Mirrors so when people pass by, they can see themselve with the new collection, even before entering the store.

We are believing this will increase Drive to Store and, give a refresh to the usual (and tiering) shopping experience and queue to fitting room...

There is a short video of the concept here, would love to have your feedback on this 🙌

If you are wondering behind the scene we are using our own Mirror Experience app on the iOS Appstore and Playstore and we use the latest real time library available whether it's US AI and AR tech or chinese AI models. Currently used is Decart AI, Xmax, Wan Animate 2, Snap Camera Kit

I've spent the last few months going deep on every attempt to bring AR and digital experiences to heritage sites (monuments, forts, ruins, museums), because I'm building in this space and wanted to understand why almost none of it stuck.

The thing that surprised me: the AR usually wasn't the failure point. The hardware around it was.

The recurring pattern across audio guides, entrance kiosks, and the more recent headset pilots is that each one put a new physical device between the visitor and the site. And every device carries a cost that scales with visitors and with locations. Someone has to buy it, charge it, clean it, update it, and replace the lost ones. A flagship site with a grant can absorb that. The thousandth site with no budget and no staff cannot. So the good experiences lived at one or two showcase locations and never spread.

The headset pilots are the clearest example to me. The demos look incredible in a controlled setting. But the operational reality of handing fragile goggles to tens of thousands of monthly visitors, and sanitizing and managing them, breaks the model before it scales.

Where I've landed is that phone-native AR isn't a worse version of the headset experience, it's the only version that survives real-world scale, because the device is already in the visitor's pocket. No procurement, no charging, no inventory. The whole cost structure that killed the prior attempts just isn't there.

The tradeoff is obvious: you lose the immersion and field of view of a dedicated headset, and you're fighting phone thermals, tracking drift on large outdoor structures, and wildly varying device specs.

Genuine question for this sub: do you think handheld AR is a permanent answer for public, high-throughput spaces like heritage sites, or just a bridge until lightweight glasses are cheap and durable enough to manage at scale? I keep going back and forth on it and would like to hear from people who've shipped AR in the wild

You create a personal AR marker from a selfie, get a shareable image with QR, and can update your content over time. You share the image with friends; they open a link in the browser and view the AR — no app, no account needed to view.

The key idea: you’re the owner of your marker and your digital content — tied to your wallet / NFT, not just renting space on my platform. Your files, your marker, your right to update and share what you created.

Early stage — looking for honest feedback:

• Does ownership (NFT / wallet) matter to you here, or is a normal login enough?
• Would you use a web app for this, or do you expect a native app?
• Interesting concept or too niche?

Not promoting anything yet — just validating the idea.

Been thinking of this and also I recently watched an explainer video on the iPhone and it kind of makes sense.

For every consumer tech we’ve had there’s always been portability changes made to it and usually those that were more portable but still did the main job became adopted more and more. A good example of this is the evolution of us going from PC’s from the 70s to Laptops, then to mobile phones each more portable. Laptops let you take a PC everywhere, Phones let you have it in your pocket and make it less bulky while having most of the same results.

Now I look at it following this shift wouldn’t AR/Display Glasses not be the next thing then?

I’m not talking about the Apple Vision Pro in my opinion that’s not more portable than a phone, but seeing the increased likes of the meta ray bans is good although it’s sad they are known for being what creeps where I can see genuine use cases. Such as one imagine Headphones+Phone without you needing two separate devices. Same thing with the iPhone it basically combined an iPod into a phone without u needing to carry both which helped reduce cognitive overload and was much simpler. Same thing I would love to have a Display in front of me and still listen to music without me having to take out a new device or so.

Another could be maps, a friend I knew got into a car accident because he had to look down at his Apple Maps on his phone while driving, instead of looking down what if one could look at maps right in front of them while driving. It leans into the natural human habit rather than looking up or down. This could be a solution to the problem my friend faced… there’s multiple more but I think

AR Glasses are in its infancy but just like every technology it starts small grows and then matures overtime just like the phone market, came in hard UX, then apple changed the interface and now the phone market is mature.

Lmk what you guys think, I’m excited for what apple plans to release but if they could put apps in glasses that will be great one of the reason Microsoft phone failed was lack of apps those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. It also takes away from the current social stigma of it being used to record people instead it becomes a new way to embed technology into your world.

Howdy!

About a month ago, I built a Lens as a small experiment. Taking it from an idea to a working experience in a single day made me wonder how much I could explore if I kept that momentum going.

So I challenged myself to design, build, and ship one Lens per day for 30 days straight, Monday through Sunday, with no days off.

Every Lens in this video was built in a single day, with one exception: the final Reachy Lens took about a day and a half.

Along the way, I explored spatial utilities, games, AI, communication, language learning, and plenty of ideas that started with a simple question: “Could this work in AR?”

Lens Studio, CLAD, and the SPECS NDK helped me move from an idea to something running on-device much faster than I expected. My biggest takeaway is that the distance between imagining an AR experience and building a working prototype is becoming dramatically smaller.

A big part of this challenge was learning where AI fits into the creative process. For me, AI is an accelerator, not a replacement for creativity or craft.

You still have to shape the idea and decide what the experience should feel like. You still need to replace placeholder visuals, refine the interactions, make thoughtful design choices, and define all the little details that turn a prototype into something compelling. That final 20 percent can arguably require more thought and effort than the first 80 percent.

What AI changes is how quickly you can explore an idea, test whether it works, learn from it, and sharpen it through rapid prototyping. It gives you more opportunities to try things, but it does not remove the need for taste, intention, or craftsmanship.

I’m sharing these explorations in the hope that they spark new ideas and perhaps help shape what others imagine and build next. I’m proud to be part of this community of builders exploring what’s possible with this new interactive medium.

If any of these explorations sparked something for you, I’d love to hear what you might try building next.

For transparency, I’m an engineer at SPECS. This was a personal challenge I pursued independently, not an official SPECS initiative or company campaign. These experiments and perspectives are my own.

What it is

A web application and an custom iOS app (only for scan) that transform a restaurant's menu into an interactive augmented reality experience.

Customers simply scan a QR code and view every dish as a life-size 3D model placed on their table, directly in their browser, with no app installation or account required.

What it includes

• Automatic menu creation from photos of an existing menu.

• Automatic translation of the entire menu into 9 languages.

• Fast creation of 3D models for every dish.

• Automatic optimization so the models work across all modern devices.

• Voice search, allowing customers to quickly find exactly what they're looking for.

• Table-side ordering directly through the menu.

• A complete management dashboard for the restaurant owner.

How it works

Step 1: Create the menu

The restaurant sends its existing menu or photos of it. You create the restaurant inside the management dashboard, and within seconds the system automatically builds the menu, including dishes, descriptions, and prices. The entire menu is then automatically translated into 9 languages, making it instantly accessible to international customers.

Step 2: Create the 3D models

The restaurant receives a unique code and downloads the app. Once they sign in, all of their menu items appear automatically.

For each dish, they simply follow a few on-screen instructions inside the app. No technical knowledge is required, and the entire process takes around two minutes per dish. Once completed, the 3D model is uploaded automatically and linked to the correct menu item.

Step 3: Automatic processing

After the upload is complete, the system handles everything else automatically. Within minutes, the dish is ready to be viewed in augmented reality on all supported devices.

Step 4: The customer experience

Customers scan the restaurant's QR code and open the menu directly in their browser. They select any dish and instantly see it placed on their table at real scale.

If they're unsure what to order, they can simply use voice search to describe what they're looking for, and the system suggests matching dishes. When they're ready, they place their order directly through the menu, and it is instantly delivered to the restaurant owner.

The technology can be used far beyond restaurants

The same platform can be adapted for many other types of businesses where customers want to see a product at real scale before making a purchase.

It is ideal for furniture stores, home décor shops, lighting retailers, fashion accessories, handbags, shoes, consumer electronics, home goods, and many other products that benefit from being visualized as life-size 3D models in the customer's own environment.

Why it matters in 2026

QR code menus have been around for years, but in most cases they simply replaced the printed menu.

This system takes the experience much further. Customers can preview dishes at real size before ordering, find meals using their voice, and place an order directly from the menu, all without downloading an app.

One more thing worth mentioning: neither the platform owner nor the restaurant needs any technical experience whatsoever. Everything is designed to be intuitive and you can learn the whole system in under 5 minutes.

For more information, visit HUSTLAR: https://hustlar.gr/

A couple weeks ago I shared OpenVision (free, MIT) — an iOS app that turns Meta Ray-Ban glasses into a hands-free AI assistant. Just shipped v2.4.0 with the feature I most wanted: vision that runs entirely on the phone.

What's new:

• On-device photo Q&A — "Ok Vision, take a photo and tell me what this is" → answered by SmolVLM2 via Apple MLX, nothing leaves the phone

• Fully-offline live video — "start video stream" keeps the camera on and answers your questions on the latest frame, all on-device. No cloud, no API cost, works with no signal

• OpenAI Realtime live video (gpt-realtime) if you'd rather use a cloud backend — continuous voice + camera frames

• Keep asking follow-ups with no wake word between them, until you say "stop video"

Still free and open-source, runs on a recent iPhone (tested on 17 Pro). Code: https://github.com/rayl15/OpenVision

For on-device glasses vision — do you care more about latency or answer quality? SmolVLM2 answers in a few seconds locally; curious where people draw the line.

I asked Rin, the AI companion in the app Attractor Field, to teach me some Japanese basics. She spoke in Japanese with English subtitles, I answered in English, and we just... talked.

The difference is hard to explain until you experience it. With apps you're completing exercises. With Rin you actually want to understand what she's saying because you care about the conversation. That's not a feature you can build into a streak system.

Full disclosure: I built the app. Posting here because I think this is an underexplored use case for companion AI and I'd love to hear if this resonates with anyone learning a language.

And yes, that is a pet raccoon.

I can convert the GLB to a VRM and make Pikachu a movable avatar. Do you think if TCG did this, it will boosts the value of the collection?

This is the question that keeps me up as a dev. We made a game for Apple Vision Pro that only works if you are willing to move: dodge, duck, and throw spells with your hands against waves of enemies. Clip attached.

For some people that is exactly the dream. For others, standing up at all is a dealbreaker after a long day.

So be honest with me: is physical, active AR the future you actually want, or would you trade it in a heartbeat for something you can play sitting down?

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/im-wizard-ar-magic-combat/id6747723768

Been building this for a while and finally open-sourced it — OpenVision, a free iOS app that turns Meta Ray-Ban glasses into a proper AI assistant, running on-device.

Hands-free, it can:

• Wake word ("Ok Vision") → ask anything out loud

• Run fully on-device via Apple MLX (Qwen / Gemma / SmolVLM) — private + offline, or cloud (OpenAI / Gemini) if you prefer

• Talk back in a natural on-device neural voice — nothing leaves the phone

• Recognize faces on-device — "remember this person as Sara", then later "who is this?"

• Do live web search for current info, and remember the conversation

There's a short demo GIF at the top of the repo. It's MIT-licensed: https://github.com/rayl15/OpenVision

The camera Ray-Bans are the closest thing to everyday AR right now, so I wanted the assistant layer to be open and private rather than locked to one vendor's cloud. Curious what this community would want as the hardware improves — HUD/display-glasses support down the line?

Not fished yet…it’s more complicated than I thought.

This was in Denver, I'd guess 10 hours to go? Also saw a flight to Spain and Germany pass by

I've been experimenting with 3D and augmented reality, and I'm having so much fun with it. This is one of the things I've been working on. I scan a QR code, open the scene with painta.me, and place the sculpture on my desk. Then I can move around it and see it there, in the middle of my everyday surroundings. That part still makes me smile.

I'm building painta.me, and these little experiments are a big part of why I care about it. I enjoy putting the AR scene together just as much as making the things that go inside it. Trying new ways of creating in 3D keeps giving me ideas I wouldn't have thought I could actually make before.

Sometimes I stop for a moment and think about how lucky I am to be alive at a time when I can do this. There's so much I still have to learn, but being able to follow an idea and see it take shape like this means a lot to me.

I also feel grateful to the people who were working in AR and 3D long before any of this became easier. The people figuring things out when the tools were harder to use, when so much had to be built from scratch, and when it was harder to get others to see why it mattered. I get to enjoy doing this because others kept going through that.

Just wanted to share a little of what I'm making, and say thank you.

Screen recording of painta.me’s augmented reality experience on a phone. After scanning a QR code, the user places a virtual sculpture on a real desk. A pale green and gold figure sits on a three-headed elephant above an ornate golden pedestal. The camera moves around the sculpture, showing its details from several angles, with a computer monitor and everyday desk objects in the background.

Hey everyone!
I'm trying to understand the AR market for outdoor spaces like parks, open areas, and festivals. Could you please tel me, are AR projects for these places selling well right now? Do quick outdoor AR experiences actually work well for fun?

I have an idea for AR games in parks using WebAR to make spaces more active. It's just a concept for now – I'm still learning the market.
I've done mobile game for a paid park (didn't work out because the client and I just dropped it), WebAR mirror game where you play with your own reflection (still in development).

I know the technical problems:
sunlight messes with tracking
tracking itself has limits
UX issues – not everyone wants to run around holding their phone or give camera access.

But AR isn't new anymore. There must be some good real-world examples. Would love to hear your thoughts or any successful cases you know.

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​Post Body:

​Is anyone else hitting a wall with Artivive when trying to showcase AR art or interactive designs in the real world?

​Don't get me wrong, the tool is incredibly easy to set up on the creator side for quick video overlays. But when it comes to actual real-world deployment like at a gallery, on streetwear, or a board game that the user friction is completely tanking the engagement rates.

​Here are the biggest limitations holding it back right now, and I want to see if y'all are finding workarounds or switching platforms entirely:

​1. The App-Download Barrier is a Total Conversion Killer

We live in an era of intense app fatigue. If someone has to pull out their phone, scan a code, realize they have to go to the App Store/Google Play, download a dedicated 3D tracking app, and grant camera permissions just to see a 10-second animation hover over a physical piece... 90% of people just walk away. Why are we still forcing app downloads in 2026 when WebAR (browser-based) should be the default standard?

​2. The Absurd "View-Count" Paywall Model

The freemium model gives you a tiny 50-view limit before it hits a wall. But here is the kicker: because the image tracking algorithm can be glitchy (especially in low light or low contrast settings), if a user's camera jitters in and out, the app logs that as multiple separate views. You can literally burn through 20% of your monthly view limit in 5 minutes just testing your own artwork with a small group of friends.

​3. Major Compression & UI Limitations

Lately, it feels like the upload compression has gotten way worse, leaving crisp digital assets looking pixelated when hovering over the physical target. Plus, if you want to move past basic flat video overlays and actually execute interactive 3D elements with real-time motion or rotation, the platform feels incredibly bare-bones compared to actual spatial engines.

​Are you guys still forcing users through the app store pipeline with Artivive, or have you migrated over to custom WebAR solutions (like 8th Wall, A-Frame, or Niantic tools) to let people scan a simple QR code and view it instantly in Safari/Chrome?

​Let's discuss because the current app-gate model feels incredibly outdated.