More and more compact, lightweight, and affordable models of smart glasses are hitting the market, such as the Ray-Ban Meta, which costs around €500.

If SonarVision were compatible, you could keep your smartphone in your pocket and get information based on the direction your head is facing. That would be awesome!

Unfortunately, this integration is currently difficult for us to achieve for technical reasons: for the Visual Positioning System to be responsive and reliable, it needs not only images from a camera but also data from accelerometers and gyroscopes, correlated with those images (as in a smartphone).

Not to mention that the VPS systems we currently use (provided by Apple and Google) aren’t designed to receive images from external sources. Trying to send them images from an external source would essentially be a workaround and would result in significant accuracy issues.

Under the hood, SonarVision is an augmented reality app, and the devices mentioned above aren’t designed for augmented reality—they’re designed for AI. But we know that a new generation of lightweight glasses, specifically designed for augmented reality, is on the way! These devices run their software directly in the glasses, without a smartphone and with zero latency—just like augmented reality gaming headsets.

The first device of this type was the Apple Vision Pro, on which SonarVision can theoretically already run natively, without a smartphone (let us know if you have one)! On the other hand, it’s huge, not at all discreet, and costs around €4,000.

The prices of these devices will drop, and their performance and design will improve, but all signs point to this being the direction the industry is heading:

• Meta is already selling the Meta Ray-Ban Displays (€899), which still require a smartphone but feature an accelerometer and gyroscope!

• Meta will also release a new pair of glasses priced at €1,300 in the spring of 2027, which will compete with the Apple Vision Pro: no phone needed!

• How long before Apple releases its own Apple Vision Air?

What’s a shame is that a significant portion of these models’ price will be tied to the displays—just like with a smartphone, really… My opinion, however, is that they’ll one day be able to completely replace the smartphone for all daily tasks, including using SonarVision!

Conclusion

In short, the best solution right now is to run the SonarVision app on a compatible device (an iPhone) and, if possible, get the Feeldom carrying case or an RTK (What is RTK?).