Long billed as a manifestation of augmented reality (AR), the field of smart glasses has seen a wide range of products emerging on the market over the years. Notable products include the Ray-Ban Meta collection (a collaboration with Meta Platforms), Microsoft’s Hololens, and Vuzix’s entire product line. A survey at CES this year indicated the market of head-worn wearable computers is by no means a mature market. Our team found a few companies demonstrating their latest offerings. The principals of these companies believe their innovations differentiate from the current field with their own paths for solving specific use cases.

One of them was Israeli startup Sightful, which introduced its Spacetop G1 screen-less laptop last year that paired with AR glasses for viewing a 100-inch virtual screen. At this year’s CES, the company has relaunched Spacetop as a software-only product that ditches the display-less laptop.

Their spectacles lets user sees an entire laptop screen projected onto the lens and the screen’s contents can be placed anywhere on the plane of view. Thus, the computer desktop is no longer confined by the computer screen size and expanded into the AR space — specifically, up to a 50-degree field of view.

The outcome is akin to having multiple display monitors that extend the computer desktop seamlessly. Creative professionals, like film editors, who often have multiple windows opened on their computer desktops, may find Spacetop useful when they wish to work in locations without a multiple-monitor setup.

While their eyewear weighs and appears like normal glasses, a flexible cable similar to a typical power cable connects to the laptop via USB-C interface. There is no wireless version yet. Their software currently works only on Windows-based laptops, with a macOS version in the works for next year. Spacetop retails at $950 for a 1-year subscription that includes the glasses.

Another smart glass company is Even Realities that positions itself as a provider of aesthetically and ergonomically designed everyday eyewear that lightly augments the lens with mostly textual and simple graphical information. For example, displaying via a thin font, the lens can show text messages or notifications. Other use cases include simple navigation directions or teleprompting during a speech. The glasses connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to a phone installed with their app.

Delegates from Japan’s NTT QONOQ Devices, a collaboration between Sharp and telecom giant NTT, demonstrated their recently launched Mirza wireless XR glasses that connect to smartphones. A centrally ensconced camera and “mirror bars” on its lens for enhancing the AR projection distinctively adorn the Mirza.

Selling for about $1,700, the Mirza currently only works on phones designed for the Japanese market.