I am so unbelievably excited for consumer-grade, useful AR.
There was a lot of hype around VR, but for the last 10 years I've been following progress on AR glasses.
The thing about AR is that it has the ability to enhance everything in your daily life, versus VR which is meant to be a separate experience.
Both Meta and Samsung are due to put out consumer AR glasses later this year and I think this might be the first wave of useful, daily-wear glasses we'll see.
Is there anyone who works in the AR space that could comment more?
I've been building smart glasses for over 7 years. First 6 years were in academia because the tech wasn't ready yet, because they were too heavy and battery didn't last long enough.
But in the last year, all-day battery smart glasses have become lightweight enough to be worn all day (see Even Realities G1, Vuzix Z100, etc.).
I believe smart glasses are having their iPhone moment in 2025 + 2026.
We make the smart glasses OS that Kevin used in the video to make this smart glasses app: AugmentOS.org
I want one thing - tell me people's names. I have the unholy ability to say your name several times and have an hour long conversation, and still not remember it next time I see you. People take this so personally that I've started avoiding some social gatherings where I only lightly know people! I'd love to "know" the name of everyone I've met because I'd be so much more comfortable seeing and talking to them again!
Are you me? I have the same issue, when I see someone not in my immediate circle and out of context, say on the street, it takes me some time to recall their name from my jumbled memory.
If there’s context (eg I go to another department at work, or see my child’s friend with their parent) I can get their name easier. But that barrier for being out of context can be difficult to surmount.
I’m curious if you also find yourself having trouble to remembering other names when in conversation (eg what was that politician called, what’s that city name, it begins with an F…)
Usually it’s proper nouns that I have trouble recalling. It’s almost like I need an Anki to refresh my mental DRAM and keep things recallable.
I'd be neat to have information displayed while driving a car. A subset of information currently displayed on a dashboard would be an obvious first choice (speed for one).
You could also maybe perhaps tie in a car's knowledge of adjacent vehicles, which is something I've wanted for ages. Since some newer models have some level of awareness about the speed / distance to / relative location of cars around your car, you could eg overlay the speed/acceleration info onto adjacent cars, so you'd know if you'll need to pass or speed up. Seems at least possible since the glasses have awareness of your head's orientation, something missing from any existing windscreen-style HUD system.
One of our users documented projecting sheet music onto his smart glasses's display (with a HUD). He did a great job documenting the limitations of 2025's tech, but it gives a great look into what's going to be feasible next year.
> This allows the pianist to not have to turn pages, and more importantly, allows them to see the music and their hands at the same time, which is an unavoidable problem with traditional sheet music.
I could definitely see this being beneficial for beginners. When I lived in a dormitory during uni I often played familiar pieces from memory pretty late on a digital piano (with headphones) in extremely dim lighting so as not to disturb my roommate.
At some point I just stopped having to look down at the keyboard. I play a lot of stride piano as well and that probably conditioned me to just have a sort of musical proprioception for the instrument. And of course, there's numerous examples of unbelievable blind pianists - Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Art Tatum, etc.
I wanted to say, after a certain level looking at your fingers when playing an instrument becomes the equivalent of looking at your legs when riding the bicycle.
When I start to think too much about what my fingers are doing I will play worse. For if I want to practise a particular part where I get the fingering wrong, sure, but when you play it for real, looking is counterproductive.
Something like this could be great for beginners tho. But simular to automatic guitar tuners I am not sure if you should get into the habit of this technology being around.
Counter point: people get too hung up on staring at the sheet. The sheet is just a tool to help you remember what you intend to play. The goal should always be to not need it anymore, and while using the sheet, it's like using a crutch.
The "looking at your fingers" challenge then becomes that you start to play "by eye" instead of "by ear" (or "by feel") which I find is very hard to overcome. Especially when you are improvising.
How many people still look at the keyboard when typing? At some point, you just don't need to look at whatever it is your doing. Also, at some point, you memorize the music if it's something you are playing enough. What level of pianist is reading sheet music and looking at their hands at the same time.
> I just stopped having to look down at the keyboard
Maybe the next step is an app for people who don't read sheet music; it would light up the keys on the keyboard that you need to press, when you look at it...?
Same for guitar, highlight where to put your fingers on a fret for each chord.
For me, it's still easy to mess up for complex sections if I'm not peeking at the keyboard every so often. Its true that muscle memory takes over after you reach a level of familiarity but not quite to the extent of biking
I was surprised about using dilation. I would have expected music21 to support rendering to a certain resolution/dpi setting directly and avoid rescaling the images. But from the music21 documentation this is not obvious how to do it. Rendering music to a low dpi screen nicely (pixel perfect) could circumvent some of the hardware limitations in the mid term.
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There was a lot of hype around VR, but for the last 10 years I've been following progress on AR glasses.
The thing about AR is that it has the ability to enhance everything in your daily life, versus VR which is meant to be a separate experience.
Both Meta and Samsung are due to put out consumer AR glasses later this year and I think this might be the first wave of useful, daily-wear glasses we'll see.
Is there anyone who works in the AR space that could comment more?
I've been building smart glasses for over 7 years. First 6 years were in academia because the tech wasn't ready yet, because they were too heavy and battery didn't last long enough.
But in the last year, all-day battery smart glasses have become lightweight enough to be worn all day (see Even Realities G1, Vuzix Z100, etc.).
I believe smart glasses are having their iPhone moment in 2025 + 2026.
We make the smart glasses OS that Kevin used in the video to make this smart glasses app: AugmentOS.org
If there’s context (eg I go to another department at work, or see my child’s friend with their parent) I can get their name easier. But that barrier for being out of context can be difficult to surmount.
I’m curious if you also find yourself having trouble to remembering other names when in conversation (eg what was that politician called, what’s that city name, it begins with an F…)
Usually it’s proper nouns that I have trouble recalling. It’s almost like I need an Anki to refresh my mental DRAM and keep things recallable.
Facial recognition, with name, where I know you from, and last time I saw you.
Basically I want the same notes my dental hygenist or optometrist uses to make light conversation with me during a checkup.
You could also maybe perhaps tie in a car's knowledge of adjacent vehicles, which is something I've wanted for ages. Since some newer models have some level of awareness about the speed / distance to / relative location of cars around your car, you could eg overlay the speed/acceleration info onto adjacent cars, so you'd know if you'll need to pass or speed up. Seems at least possible since the glasses have awareness of your head's orientation, something missing from any existing windscreen-style HUD system.
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Navigation and speed in a car for example
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(So I guess you can have either a list of too many or a list of too few )
p.s. If anyone notices really cool work that would be even better if the creator did a Show HN, please let us know at hn@ycombinator.com.
Awesome job Kevin!
> This allows the pianist to not have to turn pages, and more importantly, allows them to see the music and their hands at the same time, which is an unavoidable problem with traditional sheet music.
I could definitely see this being beneficial for beginners. When I lived in a dormitory during uni I often played familiar pieces from memory pretty late on a digital piano (with headphones) in extremely dim lighting so as not to disturb my roommate.
At some point I just stopped having to look down at the keyboard. I play a lot of stride piano as well and that probably conditioned me to just have a sort of musical proprioception for the instrument. And of course, there's numerous examples of unbelievable blind pianists - Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Art Tatum, etc.
When I start to think too much about what my fingers are doing I will play worse. For if I want to practise a particular part where I get the fingering wrong, sure, but when you play it for real, looking is counterproductive.
Something like this could be great for beginners tho. But simular to automatic guitar tuners I am not sure if you should get into the habit of this technology being around.
The "looking at your fingers" challenge then becomes that you start to play "by eye" instead of "by ear" (or "by feel") which I find is very hard to overcome. Especially when you are improvising.
Though in a sense "by sheet" is just as bad.
Maybe the next step is an app for people who don't read sheet music; it would light up the keys on the keyboard that you need to press, when you look at it...?
Same for guitar, highlight where to put your fingers on a fret for each chord.
great video editing, OP. loved the playthru at the end with the text. you have real talent here, keep giong
got any more of these effects you'd put in that category?
I was surprised about using dilation. I would have expected music21 to support rendering to a certain resolution/dpi setting directly and avoid rescaling the images. But from the music21 documentation this is not obvious how to do it. Rendering music to a low dpi screen nicely (pixel perfect) could circumvent some of the hardware limitations in the mid term.