Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality

Sensing provides a means of understanding the world and realizing information that the human senses cannot detect. From wearables to quantum, IDTechEx's portfolio of research covers a whole array of sensing technologies and the latest developments within the markets.

Wearable technology has the means to revolutionize health and wellbeing management, with the introduction of streamlined and miniaturized devices in recent years for diabetes management, assistive audio transcription, and general health stats access.

Wearables is a huge market across major sectors including healthcare and consumer electronics. The scope for versatility and flexibility, along with continuous, accurate data collection make wearable devices a technology unlike any other.

The ability to print electronics has revolutionized the miniaturization capabilities of technology. This article covers how streamlined, discreet, and flexible electronics are creating waves through the wearables and consumer device markets.

This week, the long-anticipated announcement of Google smart eyewear came. It revealed intelligent eyewear with frames designed by Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, announced to be launched sometime in the autumn of 2026.

Wearables can bridge the communication gap between the body and a computer. This article explores how devices can serve various purposes, from displaying real-time narration from actual speech, to generating readable, measurable signals translated directly from the body and understood within the medical space.

2026 is an exciting time for smart glasses, with several products expected to be launched from big tech players later this year, which will follow Meta's release of the Ray-Ban Display launched in September 2025. The optics required to give AI smart glasses augmented reality (AR) capabilities are called waveguides and are positioned within the eyepiece. There have been several key developments to waveguide technology which are enabling AR smart glasses which are lightweight, have longer battery life, and have a fashionable form factor. IDTechEx forecasts 35 million AR smart glasses to be sold annually by 2036.

IDTechEx analyst Thomas Bithell discusses the AR smart glass market and the optics used.

This article evaluates some of the strengths and weaknesses of reflective and diffractive waveguides used in augmented reality (AR) optics for smart glasses.