Raven Prism are the glasses that care the most about privacy

At AWE, I was able to get in touch with the team building the Raven Prism, which are upcoming smart glasses with a strong focus on privacy and openness. Let me tell you more about this very interesting project!

Raven Resonance

Raven Resonance is an American startup focused on building AR glasses (smartglasses) with a strong emphasis on privacy.

Its first product is Raven Prism, which the company doesn’t even call smartglasses but “the first ambient computer in the form of glasses”. The name “ambient computer” is surely a marketing term, but it is interesting because it makes you immediately understand the vision of these glasses. Instead of using a physical computer, you could use Raven’s glasses, which could also use contextual information from the world around you to let you do what you want.

The company’s team has a deep expertise in augmented reality, and in fact its founder, Tom Suarez, has more than 12 years of experience in the field. When I met him on the AWE show floor, he said that Raven is a project that’s years in the making.

Raven Prism

Raven Resonance’s first product is Raven Prism, which are display smartglasses that let you run dedicated applications. At first look, they are not much different from the many other smartglasses on the market, but actually there are a few key differences to talk about.

The first big difference is the operating system: while many smartglasses rely on a modified version of Android, Raven is running an operating system called RavenOS, which is a custom version of Linux. I haven’t asked the reason for this choice, but if I had to take a wild guess, I would say that two things may have driven this decision. The first is that Linux is an operating system for PC, and this is an ambient computer. The second is that Linux is a really free operating system, while Android, even if open, is still something maintained by a corporation like Google.

Another difference may be in the chipset: Raven runs on an undisclosed 64-bit ARM chip. I guess if it were the usual Snapdragon AR-1, they would have said that, so probably it is a different chip from the one used by most of the other smartglasses. And it is something that is able to run heavier AI computations. When speaking with the team, they told me that Raven Prism can run locally some models of the Gemma 3 family, which is not that bad at all.

What is super peculiar is the design of the battery. Raven Prism has two hot-swappable batteries at the end of the two legs of the frame of the glasses. You can easily detach every one of them, and since the other is still connected, the glasses would stay powered even if one of the batteries is out. So what if both batteries must be changed? Well, there is a third (!) small battery in the frame that lets you change both batteries on the fly without the glasses turning off. I have no idea about the battery duration, but for sure this hot-swappable design is very smart, especially if the glasses are sold as “computers”. Swapping the battery during the day, you could use these glasses potentially for all your working hours. This is one of my preferred features.

What excites me a bit less is the display. Raven, in its marketing material, states the (LCoS + Diffractive Waveguide) display is a color one with beautiful visuals. But first of all, the field of view is not exciting, just 30°. Raven marketing defines it as “providing the same field of view as a MacBook Air at arm’s length”, but for me, whatever words you may use to define it, it is still 30°, which is kinda small. Then it’s monocular, and I hate monocular displays. Again, Raven marketing defends its choice by stating that a monocular display “saves battery, cost, weight, and style while still unlocking high utility capabilities”, but still, every time I use glasses with monocular displays, my eyes cross. I could barely accept it to watch quick notifications like in Meta Ray-Ban Display, but I can’t imagine myself wearing a monocular display for doing “computing”. Anyway, this is a very subjective opinion.

You can interact with the glasses using eye tracking and voice commands. The team didn’t want to unveil to me the exact interaction method; this is something that will be explained in the upcoming months. Anyway, on the website they talk about having hands-free interactions, so you can be busy with your hands on some machinery and still have the glasses help you. I really hope there will be access to eye tracking data, because this could enable some interesting use cases for these glasses.

A strong focus on privacy

Raven Resonance has a strong commitment to privacy. The glasses don’t share your data with any external service. The undisclosed chipset is powerful enough to run most of the things you may need (including AI computations) locally. The company also uses some sort of encryption to protect your data. The CEO clearly states in a presentation video that he stands against “surveillance capitalism”. One hour of applause for him. Everyone loves to hear these statements, with the exception of Zuck and his human AI reviewers in Nigeria.

Since the theme of camera access is very hot now, Raven took a clear stance on it. They have the usual privacy LED that turns on when someone is recording. But they also have a magnetic cover for the camera: this means you can physically cover the camera to show everyone that you are not recording and so they can feel safe. It is an interesting idea for sure. I’m not so sure that the magnetic cover is the right approach, tho… it is so small that it is easy to lose, so maybe a sliding cover could be a better idea for the future. But I love the idea of physically covering the camera.

Development opportunities

Raven is an open system and is looking for developers interested in building content for it. There is already a Python SDK on GitHub, and developers can use it to build applications with the support of an emulator of the glasses.

Interestingly, an HDK is coming soon. When you remove one of the batteries, the battery connector gets exposed. The interesting thing about that connector is that it can also be used for attaching other accessories. With HDK, some creators or other companies may build accessories for the Raven Prism that enhance its functionalities. This is great for creating an open ecosystem. And it is also interesting for companies that want to adopt these glasses for their privacy features and need some custom add-on for them.

Price and release date

The price and release date of Raven Prism are still undisclosed. But the glasses should be launched before the end of the year.

Hands-on and impressions

I couldn’t try much of these glasses. I could hold them in my hand and see they were not heavy, but I couldn’t wear them, so I can’t comment on their comfort. I liked the glossy finishes on the frame, but I was not a big fan of the gold color of the batteries. What is interesting is that there was a full bag of batteries of all colors, so you can actually choose the ones that you want. This is a nice way to customize your glasses.

As for the display, they weren’t letting people try it either. But I insisted a bit, and with my Italian charm, I convinced one of the engineers to let me see the current display from one of the engineering samples. The lens was showing me a short YouTube video, so I can confirm that the displays work. I haven’t taken any pictures, and I can’t review it in detail because I’ve been told it was a very alpha version, so it’s too early to report on that. But I can show you here below an official through-the-lens taken by the company itself.

In general, I also found the team’s people to be nice and passionate. And they managed to get some attention: when I met other “famous” XR journalists on the AWE show floor and asked them for advice on what to see, many of them suggested that I have a look at Raven Resonance, saying that it was a very interesting project, about which, unfortunately, we don’t have enough information yet.

And I totally agree with them: I think the vision of this device is very interesting; I totally love the attention to privacy. This is great not only for consumers, but also for companies that surely don’t want to share their data with Meta or OpenAI. But before getting excited, I would love to know more about these glasses, especially what the chipset is and what the price is. And I would also like to try them for real, because headsets and glasses must be tried to judge them, and we can’t rely on what is on paper. So what I got to know about them was enough to make me intrigued; let’s see if they can truly convince me in the upcoming months…

(Header image by Raven Resonance)