Waveguide Smart Glasses Are Clearly the Future—Once They Fix These 3 Big Problems

Waveguide smart glasses are lightweight, wireless, and feature a built-in display that can show you maps, messages, and other useful info without a single glance at your phone. They promise a future of powerful, nearly invisible wearable technology, but right now they're a mix of potential and frustration.After testing multiple models, I can confidently say that waveguide smart glasses are the future of wearable tech. That's because they focus on visual information. Depending on how fast you read or can understand a diagram, a visual response to a question can be understood much more quickly than a spoken one. For example, a map with a route and big arrows that tell you when to turn is a lot more useful than having directions read to you. Likewise, subtitles that appear as a person speaks will keep you more engaged in a conversation with a language barrier, rather than waiting for the translation to be spoken. You could look at the ingredients in your fridge and immediately get a recipe for a meal you can cook with them. Waveguide smart glasses can perform these tasks, to varying degrees of success.None of the models I've tried have been successful enough to rely on in day-to-day use, though. Their functionality is limited, fragmented, unpolished, and in some cases practically unusable. It depends on the model, but even the best of the best that I've tested have had many issues. Even so, the potential is undeniable. They just need more polish, standardized features, and better third-party support before they’re worth buying. With that in mind, I'm going to tell you the top three reasons why they aren't worth your money just yet. 1. The Biggest Problem Is Right in Front of Your EyesWaveguide display smart glasses have one big thing in common: The color green. The Even Realities G2, Rokid Glasses, and Vuzix Z100 have monochrome screens that project the color green, and that's it. That's fine for text and simple drawings, but downright stifling for anything else.The Even G2's navigation mode(Credit: Will Greenwald)This is the biggest issue with most current waveguide glasses, and it's hard to get past. The Even G2 is one of the most usable waveguide smart glasses I've tested, but I have a hard time recommending it because I know color displays will be the standard within the next year or two. The monochrome waveguide display will go the way of black-and-white TVs.I'm confident in this because I've already used a few smart glasses with color waveguide…