I tried smart glasses with xMEMS speakers and active cooling – and they’re full of promise

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ZDNET Highlights

• Smart glasses are heavy, which compromises comfort and internal cooling system.
• xMEMS’s Sycamore Micro loudspeaker significantly reduces the size of smart glasses.
• µCooling fan-on-chip actively manages heat, preventing performance degradation.

I’ve been wearing prescriptions since elementary school, so this arrived viable Over the past few years, smart glasses have somewhat changed my perception of what I can do hands-free and how wearables look on my face.

The Meta Ray-Ban can be credited with ongoing efforts to computerize our vision, with the latest display models also featuring full-on waveguide technology that projects visual cues such as navigation, translation, and voice prompts. But there’s a serious problem with smart glasses today: bulkiness.

Also: I tested Meta Ray-Ban display alternatives, and these are better in many ways for less money

The various components of smart glasses, from camera sensors to batteries to speakers, demand real estate that goes beyond traditional eyewear size. In turn, the extra weight can burden the wearable experience and inadvertently compromise the room needed for cooling systems, preventing them from running at optimal levels.

That’s where xMEMS Labs comes in. Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to test out the brand’s solid-state audio and thermal solutions in headphones, earbuds, and its latest venture, smart glasses, and I was left cautiously optimistic. here’s why.

Solution to location problem

Mike Householder, vice president of marketing at XMEMS Labs, told me there’s a good tip when it comes to the weight of smart glasses: 30 grams. For reference, the Meta Ray-Ban weighs approximately 50 grams. So how do you slow things down without compromising performance?

xMEMS is introducing a micro loudspeaker, codenamed Sycamore. According to Householder, it’s 70% smaller and 90% lighter than a traditional coil speaker, and the reduction in real estate became apparent the moment I purchased a pair of prototype smart glasses with the integrated component. (However, the frame was missing other expected parts like the camera sensor and lens.)

With the glasses on, I cycled through audio tracks ranging from pop music to podcasts to gauge the little speaker’s versatility and, more importantly, limits. While the Sycamore didn’t provide as much oomph and intensity as my Meta Ray-Bans, and certainly not enough to completely replace a traditional pair of earbuds, it was good enough to understand conversations and keep my head from tilting unintentionally.

Also: Which Meta Ray-Ban model should you buy? I tested both pairs, and here’s how to decide

The XMEMS team believes that smart glasses users primarily listen to podcasts, phone calls, and their voice assistants, so currently, it’s more about prioritizing audio delivery in a compact size than matching the full, immersive listening experience of headphones.

Another issue with modern smart glasses

The other issue with existing smart glasses is heat management – ​​and sub-optimal solutions currently exist. Today, smart glasses rely on performance throttling — or, in other words, reducing processing bandwidth to complete tasks at a slower, more feasible rate — when internal temperatures get too high.

A more effective solution has existed on large PCs and desktops for decades: cooling fans. The folks at

xMEMS calls the fan-on-chip “µcooling” and Householder tells me its use cases are quite flexible. For example, I tried the proprietary technology on a pair of gaming headphones – where I think the fans really shine – and felt the reduction of moisture and sweat almost immediately.

Also: I biked with the Meta Oakley Vanguard, and they are easily the best smart glasses for athletes

But the construction of smart glasses makes a lot of sense; The demand for more capable, faster computing wearable devices is increasing, and with video recording being a top use case, heat management is essential. The biggest indicator is Apple’s recent effort at vapor chamber cooling on the iPhone 17 Pro series. xMEMS’s fan-on-chip idea is even more aggressive and optimized.

Bottom line (for now)

Sycamore and μCooling are both effective solutions for shrinking the smart glass form factor, but the big question mark is which brands will work with xMEMS to bring the technology to market. I’m personally interested to know how much the components will contribute to the final price of future glasses, and until big brands like Meta, Samsung, and even Apple develop competing technology.

Considering that in the course of two years we’ve made the leap from audio-only smart glasses to smart glasses with floating interfaces and neural bands, I hope you’re ready for the next frontier of wearables, because it’s probably closer than we think.