Query: Find all AR glasses and smart glasses on the market (as of 2025-2026) that have: 1. Video passthrough OR optical see-through display 2. A developer SDK that allows custom rendering to the display (not locked to first-party apps) 3. Camera access for computer vision / object detection 4. Ability to draw custom overlays, bounding boxes, or AR graphics on detected objects in real-time
I need glasses where I can: capture camera frames, run object detection (on device or via companion app), and render bounding boxes or highlights overlaid on what the user sees.
Include for each device:
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Microsoft HoloLens 2 (Microsoft) – An opaque see-through waveguide MR headset. Runs Windows Holographic OS (ARM64) with Unity/MRTK and native C++/C# support. Third-party devs can render custom holograms (open platform) (www.techrepublic.com) (learn.microsoft.com). It has a 2K×1080 per-eye display (3:2 aspect, ~52° diagonal FOV) with 8 MP RGB camera (1080p30 video) (learn.microsoft.com) (www.uploadvr.com). HoloLens 2 costs ≈ $3,500 (hardware only) (www.techrepublic.com). Limitations: modest FOV (~43°×29°) (www.uploadvr.com) and battery (~2–3 hr active).
Magic Leap 2 (Magic Leap) – An optical waveguide AR headset for enterprise. Uses LuminOS with full support for Unity, Unreal and the Lumin SDK. Developers can place 3D content in view with body tracking, hand/eye control. The display is dual 1,440×1,920 micro-OLED (9:11 aspect) with ~70° diagonal FOV (developer-docs.magicleap.cloud) (80.lv). The device includes a 12.6 MP color camera (captures 4K30 or 1080p60 video) (80.lv) and multiple tracking cameras (for SLAM/hand-tracking). Priced from $3,299 (Base) to $4,999 (Enterprise) (80.lv), Magic Leap 2 is light (~215 g head unit) but costly. It supports on-device AI inference, but battery life is only ~3.5 hr (80.lv).
Google Glass Enterprise 2 (Google) – A lightweight monocular overlay display worn like glasses. Runs Android (AOSP 8.1) and supports custom Android apps via ADB (no public app store). The see-through display is a prism projecting 640×360 color pixels into the user’s right eye (vrx.vr-expert.com). It has an 8 MP autofocus camera (1080p30 video) (vrx.vr-expert.com). Glass EE2 costs around €1,049 (≈$1,100) (vrx.vr-expert.com). It’s extremely light (51 g) and open to developers, but only one eye sees the HUD and there are few native apps.
Vuzix Blade 2 (Vuzix) – An Android 11 smart glass with an optical waveguide combiner. Uses a custom “Vuzix OS” (Android-based) with a developer SDK (heads-up display API, Unity/Unreal plug-ins available). The Blade 2 makes a small transparent HUD in front of one eye. It has a fixed-focus WVGA or 480×480 color display (≈20–25° diagonal FOV) and an 8 MP autofocus camera (720p30 or 1080p24 video) (support.vuzix.com). Priced at ~$1,000. Developers can draw 2D/3D overlays in the “view” area, but the FOV is tiny and the display is visible only to the right eye.
Vuzix M4000 (and M400) Smart Glasses (Vuzix) – High-end enterprise AR glasses with a see-through waveguide and full Android 11 (Snapdragon XR1). Both models use the same SDK. The display is a WVGA (854×480) micro-OLED yielding ~28° diagonal FOV (www.vuzix.com). They support landscape or right-eye use. The M4000 has a better sealed design (IP67) and costs ~$2,499 (www.vuzix.com) (M400 ~$1,799 (venturebeat.com)). The camera is 12.8 MP with 4K30 video and LED illuminate (www.vuzix.com). Developers can render 3D content via Unity/Android APIs. These have robust battery life and industrial features, but the display FOV is still limited and roughly equivalent to a 9″ screen at 5 m (www.vuzix.com).
Epson Moverio BT-45C (Epson) – A binocular optical-see-through headset (tethered) aimed at enterprise. Uses a 5 W Snapdragon 660 or similar. Displays dual 0.45″ Si-OLED panels at 1920×1080 each (www.epson.ie) (~34° diagonal FOV). Overlays appear transparently in front of the user’s eyes. The BT-45C has a front 8 MP camera (autofocus) for video capture (www.epson.ie). A developer SDK (on Android or Windows) is available (tech.moverio.epson.com). Priced ~€1,350 (~$1,500). Limitations: bulky tether (needs PC/phone via USB-C), moderate brightness, and a relatively heavy headset (~550 g (www.epson.ie)).
Apple Vision Pro (Apple) – A mixed-reality headset (video pass-through) using micro-OLED displays (23 million total pixels (www.apple.com)). It has dual 3.5K displays (one for each eye) and full stereo passthrough. Powered by visionOS (ARM, M2/M3 chip) with Xcode/SwiftUI, RealityKit/ARKit, plus Unity (via Apple’s VR plugin). Developers have full control to draw 3D content anchored in space. It offers “windows” and “volumes” for overlays. Vision Pro has two color cameras + six tracking cameras+LiDAR (www.apple.com) for depth sensing; spatial video/photo (6.5 MP stereo camera) (www.apple.com). Price is $3,499 (base 256 GB) with ~2–3 hr battery (www.apple.com). It provides very high fidelity AR but cannot be used hands-free (controllers optional), and is tied to Apple’s ecosystem.
Meta Quest 3 (Meta) – A standalone VR headset with full-color passthrough MR. It runs Android/Unity (Meta XR SDK) and supports OpenXR/ Unity/Unreal. The Quest 3 has dual micro-OLED panels (~2064×2208 per eye) at 90 Hz, and stereo RGB cameras (18 PPD color passthrough (medium.com)) plus depth sensors. Meta’s Passthrough API (in Quest SDK v74 Experimental) now gives apps access to raw camera images (www.roadtovr.com). Developers can overlay 3D content using the OVRPassthroughLayer or UNITY layers. Quest 3 costs $499 (128 GB) or $599 (512 GB). It offers good MR but note: before the new API, apps couldn’t read raw camera frames (medium.com) (only scene understanding features). The device is primarily handheld VR, so passthrough latency ~ rock-chip GPU (XR2 Gen2).
Meta Quest Pro (Meta) – Similar to Quest 3 MR. Released 2022 at $1,499. It also has color passthrough and supports Unity/Unreal dev. It preceded Quest 3 as an MR device. (All Quest devices are developer-open: Android-based with Oculus SDK/Unity support.) Without the new Camera API, Quest Pro apps likewise used only Meta’s Scene API for object info.
Varjo XR-3 (Varjo) – A high-end PC-tethered MR headset. It uses dual micro-OLED (1920×1920 focus + 2880×2720 context) with human-eye resolution, ~115° horizontal FOV (varjo.com). Varjo uses video pass-through from dual 12 MP cameras at 90 Hz (vrarwiki.com), fused with LiDAR for real-time occlusion (varjo.com). SDK: OpenXR/Unity/Unreal plugins. Price ~$5,995 (www.vrheadsetpicker.com) (plus PC). Varjo’s dev kit allows full control of MR rendering. It is top-tier fidelity but very heavy, requires powerful PC, and is sold by subscription. Varjo XR-4 (2023) is the successor, with twin 20 MP passthrough cameras and 51 PPD micro-OLED panels over 120°×105° FOV (varjo.com), further improving realism (enterprise only, shipping >$10k).
RealWear HMT-1 (RealWear) – An Android 10 rugged smart-glasses for industrial use. Not optical see-through (it has a small microdisplay), but it meets the criteria. The display is a single 0.33″ TFT (854×480 WVGA) head-mounted HUD at ~20° FOV (support.realwear.com). The interface is voice-driven. It has a 16 MP camera (up to 1080p30 video) (support.realwear.com) and supports Android apps (WearHF interface). Devs can draw static or video overlays in its tiny field. It costs around $2,000. The benefit is hands-free AR workflows (instructions, annotations), but the user still manually aims the head-display at objects; it’s a one-eye device.
(Additional) Other available AR glasses include Lenovo ThinkReality A6/A3 (enterprise smart-glasses for tethered AR, but with limited public SDK) and Nreal/Xreal Light (tethered to phone, 3DOF, small FOV). These have developer kits (Android/Unity), but usually only display secondary VR content (not full AR with tracking). Requirements such as camera data access and overlay support vary (e.g. Nreal uses phone camera and Nebula SDK on Android). They are lower-cost (Nreal Light ~ $379; ThinkReality A3 starts ~$949) but also limited in FOV and tracking (and in some cases only produce a virtual screen).
Summary: All listed devices above ship today and provide SDKs for custom graphics. In general, they allow capturing camera images (some with restrictions: e.g., HoloLens/ML use SLAM depth rather than raw RGB, Quest required the new API (www.roadtovr.com), Vision Pro uses ARKit), and let developers draw overlays via their SDK (Unity, native, etc). Key limitations vary: optical AR headsets have very limited FOV (~30–70°) (www.uploadvr.com) (developer-docs.magicleap.cloud) (www.epson.ie), while passthrough-based headsets need developers to handle depth/occlusion properly. Prices range from a few hundred dollars (Xreal, Quest) to several thousand (HoloLens2, ML2, Varjo). Each has its own trade-offs of weight, battery life, field of view, and ecosystem lock-in.
Sources: Device specs and SDK details from manufacturers and tech reviews (learn.microsoft.com) (www.techrepublic.com) (www.uploadvr.com) (80.lv) (developer-docs.magicleap.cloud) (www.roadtovr.com) (varjo.com) (www.epson.ie) (vrx.vr-expert.com).
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