Kyle Piira

Tag: display glasses

  • Testing AR Glasses as a Treadmill Companion

    I’ve always found treadmill walking to be exceptionally boring. If I’m outside, on a park trail, a greenway, or any kind of walking path, I can walk for hours without thinking about it. The time just disappears. Put me on a treadmill indoors, staring forward at the same wall or the same row of machines, and suddenly even twenty minutes feels long.

    Right now, though, walking outside isn’t really an option. The weather is cold, the wind is unpleasant, and I am not motivated enough to bundle up just to be uncomfortable the entire time. So I’m stuck indoors with the treadmill, trying to find something that makes it feel less monotonous. That was the mindset I was in when I decided to try using my Xreal display glasses while walking.

    The idea was simple. If treadmill walking is boring because there is nothing to look at and no sense of movement through space, maybe I could fake that feeling. Not perfectly replicate walking outdoors, but at least add some variety and visual interest so it does not feel like I am just walking in place.

    I found that there is a whole category of YouTube videos that are just someone walking while filming. No narration, no edits, just long, continuous footage of moving through an environment. These videos are usually around an hour long, so during my walk I managed to get through two of them.

    The first was a nature walk along a waterfront, with mountains, waterfalls, and a bit of light hiking. The second was a fully CGI walk set in the Harry Potter universe, starting at the train station and ending at Hogwarts. That one could have easily felt cheesy, but it was actually surprisingly engaging while walking.

    What caught me off guard was how well the illusion worked. Making the virtual screen as large as possible turned out to be important. Even though the screen did not fit entirely in my field of view, I could move my head slightly to look at different parts of the scene, which made it feel less like watching a video and more like being present in the space.

    Audio, unfortunately, was where things fell apart a bit. Normally when I walk, I am listening to music or a podcast. With this setup, at least on iOS, that was not really possible. As far as I can tell, the system only allows one audio source at a time, so if you are playing a YouTube video, you cannot also play music in the background.

    I assumed I could just mute the video, but the YouTube app does not actually have a mute option. The only way to silence it is to turn the system volume all the way down, which also kills your music. I tried watching in the browser so I could mute the tab, but then I could not full-screen the video. So I had to choose between full screen with audio I did not want, or muted audio with a worse visual experience.

    It is frustrating, because the ideal setup would be to mute the walking video entirely and listen to a podcast while visually moving through these environments. Maybe Android handles this better. I honestly do not know. And maybe this kind of thing improves if Apple ever releases their own display glasses with tighter OS-level integration. For now, it is a real limitation.

    Even so, the walk was still more enjoyable than a normal treadmill session. Instead of music, I ended up listening to the ambient sounds from the videos. Footsteps, gravel, water, and background noise. It was not what I planned, but it turned out to be oddly calming, and the time passed much faster than usual.

    After I finished the walking videos, I tried watching an episode of Friends while still walking. That worked well too, but in a different way. For the walking videos, I wanted the screen to feel huge and immersive. For a TV show, a smaller screen was clearly better. Being able to see the entire frame at once matters more for traditionally shot content.

    I also experimented with display modes. For treadmill walking, anchor mode was clearly the right choice. With anchor mode, the video stays fixed in space, so you can look around within it. That made the walking videos feel much more natural, especially since my own movement lined up reasonably well with what I was seeing.

    Follow mode just felt off. Since the screen moves with your head, it is hard to focus on any one part of the image. As soon as you try to look at something off to the side, the whole display shifts. For this kind of use, anchor mode is not just better. It is basically required.

    Comfort and safety were things I paid close attention to. I did not feel motion sick at all, and I never felt unsteady. That is a big reason I would not try this with a fully immersive VR headset like a Quest 3 or Vision Pro. With the Xreal glasses, you still have a clear view of the real world, especially in your peripheral vision. You are never completely cut off from your surroundings, which makes walking on a treadmill feel much safer.

    There was one visual issue worth mentioning. During one of the walking videos, the scene moved indoors and became fairly dark. I was in a brightly lit gym, and in that situation I started noticing reflections in the display. Specifically, I could see reflections of my legs and feet moving below me. I think that is due to the angled nature of the display reflecting whatever is directly underneath it. As soon as the video returned to a brighter outdoor scene, the problem disappeared. Still, it is something to be aware of if you are watching dark content in a bright room.

    Overall, I would do this again without hesitation. I went into it just trying to make treadmill walking less miserable, and I ended up with something that genuinely made the experience more engaging. It did not replace walking outdoors, but it did a decent job of capturing some of that feeling. Movement, variety, and the sense that you are actually going somewhere instead of just counting down the minutes.

  • A Portable Screen That Mostly Gets Out of the Way

    I recently picked up a pair of Xreal 1S display glasses with one very specific goal in mind: something I could use on longer trips on planes, trains, and buses to watch movies and TV without hauling around a full VR headset or squinting at my phone.

    This is my first pair of display glasses, but I’ve spent time at both ends of the spectrum. I’ve owned full VR headsets like the Quest 2, Quest 3, and the Apple Vision Pro. Those give you a giant virtual screen, but they’re heavy, bulky, and not something you casually bring on a trip.

    At the other extreme are products like the Meta Ray-Bans. They’re basically normal glasses with a bit of tech sprinkled in. Convenient, yes. Useful for watching a movie on a plane, not really.

    The Xreal glasses sit in the narrow space between those two worlds. They don’t try to be a full immersive VR system, and they’re not just smart glasses with a few novelty features. They’re aimed squarely at one thing: acting like a portable, private screen you can actually use while you’re in transit.

    Apple markets the Vision Pro heavily as a movie-watching device, but I never enjoyed that experience. The headset is heavy, and I never stopped being aware that it was strapped to my face. That’s very different from normal glasses, where after a few minutes you mostly forget they’re there. On top of that, the Vision Pro is fragile, bulky, and impractical to travel with. Bringing it along just to watch something on a plane or train would take up most of my personal item space, and it never felt worth it.

    The Quest 3 has similar issues. It’s lighter and cheaper, so I worried less about damaging it, but it’s still awkward to travel with and not something I’d casually toss into a bag.

    That’s where I hoped the Xreal glasses would be different, and for the most part, they are. They’re small and light enough to fit easily into a backpack, or even a fanny pack if you really wanted to. That alone makes them far more realistic to bring on public transportation. They’re also light enough that they don’t feel like they’re dragging your face down after half an hour.

    Another thing I like is that they don’t have an onboard computer. Everything comes from my iPhone. That means one less device to charge or think about when I’m traveling. The glasses do drain my phone battery faster, but I already carry battery packs anyway. I have a MagSafe battery that snaps onto the back of my phone and charges it wirelessly, and I can still plug the glasses into the USB port at the same time. That setup works well enough that I didn’t need to buy anything extra.

    I do wish there were a wireless option. Having a cable plugged into the phone adds friction, especially when you’re shifting around in a seat. Being able to just AirPlay to the glasses would be ideal. I understand why it’s wired, since the phone is also powering the glasses, but it’s still something I notice.

    Because the glasses simply mirror my phone, every iOS app works. This turned out to be a bigger deal than I expected. On VR headsets, app support is always spotty. The Vision Pro still lacks official apps for major services like YouTube and Netflix, and on the Quest you often end up watching content through a browser. That’s fine at home, but it’s frustrating when you’re on a plane or train and want offline downloads to actually work.

    With the Xreal glasses, I just download content ahead of time using the native apps. Netflix, YouTube, whatever. It all works exactly the way it does on my phone, with no workarounds.

    One thing I really don’t like is that the iPhone screen has to stay on for the glasses to keep displaying content. Ideally, the phone would behave like it’s connected to an external monitor and let me turn the screen off. That would save battery and feel much cleaner. Because the screen has to stay on, I had to disable auto-lock while using the glasses. I hate doing that. Auto-lock is a basic security feature, and I’ve already had a few moments where I set my phone down, forgot about it, and came back later to find the screen still on.

    For now, I’m manually toggling auto-lock on and off when I use the glasses. It works, but it’s annoying, and it feels like something Apple should be able to improve eventually.

    The displays themselves are better than I expected. I’ve tried doing real work in VR before, and it never stuck. With the Vision Pro, the resolution was incredible and text looked perfect, but the headset was too heavy to wear comfortably for long stretches. With the Quest 3, I didn’t even get that far because the resolution wasn’t good enough for reading code. Text felt blurry and pixelated, and I gave up quickly.

    Out of curiosity, I tried working in the Xreal glasses on my laptop while sitting on the couch. I managed about two hours without much trouble and probably could have gone longer. The text isn’t as sharp as the Vision Pro, but it’s noticeably better than the Quest 3. Clear enough that I didn’t feel eye strain or frustration.

    That said, I’m not replacing my monitors. I still prefer a normal setup, and wearing what look like oversized sunglasses during a Zoom call would look ridiculous. But as an occasional option, it worked better than I expected.

    Where the glasses really shine is watching movies and TV. You don’t need extreme resolution for that, and I actually prefer keeping the virtual screen a bit smaller so nothing clips at the edges of the field of view. The field of view isn’t huge, but it’s large enough that it doesn’t bother me.

    The glasses have two display modes. One anchors the screen in space, and the other has it follow your head. For movies, I prefer the follow mode. For work, the anchored mode makes more sense, since you can look toward different parts of the screen without the whole thing shifting around.

    They also include a feature that converts content into 3D. I was excited to try it, but was underwhelmed. It’s fine, but not great. It tries to guess what should pop out of the screen, and the results are inconsistent. Sometimes it’s more distracting than immersive. I turned it off after a few minutes and haven’t really felt the urge to use it again.

    These are more comfortable than a VR headset, but they’re still not normal glasses. After a while, the nose pads start to bother me, and the top of the glasses gets warm. Not hot, just warm enough that you notice it. Little things like that add up and remind you that you’re wearing something on your face.

    I don’t think I’ll use these much at home. I originally thought they might be nice for lying on the couch when the TV angle is bad, but I don’t find them comfortable enough to choose over just holding a tablet or phone.

    Overall, for what I bought them for, watching movies and TV while traveling, I’m very happy with the Xreal 1S glasses. They hit a sweet spot that VR headsets miss by being small, light, and practical. I don’t expect to use them for much beyond travel, but for that specific niche, they work surprisingly well.

    One other use case I’m curious about, but haven’t tried yet, is wearing them on a treadmill or exercise bike to watch content more comfortably. That might be a future experiment. For now, they’ve earned a spot in my travel bag.