I just went hands-on with the Halliday smart glasses with an invisible display — and I’m shocked

Halliday glasses — (Image credit: Future)

The smart glasses of tomorrow will have a built-in display, and we know that when we look at exciting prototypes like Meta’s Project Orion AR glasses. But the Halliday Smart Glasses are a real product that take a different approach to showing you information on the fly — using a near-eye display module that projects right into your natural field of vision.

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What makes the Halliday smart glasses different is its so-called DigiWindow technology. It essentially beams information to your field of vision without a lens. The result is what looks like 3.5-inch screen in the upper-right corner of your field of view.

The company claims that the Halliday glasses work well even when outdoors in bright sunlight. And while there’s a built-in interface on the fames themselves (double tapping, swiping etc), there’s also a separate trackpad ring that lets you navigate the interface.

Proactive AI — it's kind of like cheating at life

So what can you do with the Halliday smart glasses? I got a chance to try out a couple of demos, including real-time translation (Chinese to English). The words appeared in the mini display almost immediately after they were spoken.

But it’s the proactive AI aspect of the Halliday glasses that appears to be the true selling point. The glasses can analyze conversations you’re having and answer questions or offer insights — including factchecking the person speaking to you.

During a meeting, for example, the Halliday “can answer complex questions, summarize key discussion points and generate summarized meeting notes afterward,” according to the company press release.

What else can they do?

Halliday glasses display — (Image credit: Future)

The Halliday glasses connect to your phone over Bluetooth and offer a range of other helpful features, including audio memo captures and summaries, notifications with instant replies and a teleprompter mode. These specs can also do real-time navigation and even display lyrics while playing music.

The best part for me is that the glasses were incredibly light and didn’t feel like smart glasses. But I have to admit that the field of view was narrow and a bit finicky to find that sweet spot.

The Halliday smart glasses are indeed clever, but I would want to test out a final version before recommending them, especially since the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are much cheaper at $299 — albeit without a display Stay tuned for a full review.

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Mark Spoonauer is the global editor in chief of Tom's Guide and has covered technology for over 20 years. In addition to overseeing the direction of Tom's Guide, Mark specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at key industry events and appears regularly on TV to discuss the latest trends, including Cheddar, Fox Business and other outlets. Mark was previously editor in chief of Laptop Mag, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.