Samsung is preparing to expand its portfolio of wearable gadgets with new US trademarks for “Galaxy Glasses” AR/VR headsets and “Galaxy Ring” smart rings.
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Between established players like the Meta Quest series and rumors of Apple launching its own headset, the field of consumer AR and VR technology is constantly growing. Just last month, Samsung (in partnership with Qualcomm and Google) announced its own intentions to build extended reality hardware in the near future.
As of this week, we’re seeing the fruits of this partnership in the form of a new US trademark filed by Samsung, revealing the brand name “Galaxy Glasses”. The name alone is reminiscent of smart glasses similar to Focals by North or the Ray-Ban Stories, while the full application also includes “headsets” for AR and VR use.
The GALAXY GLASSES™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of virtual reality headsets; augmented reality headsets; Headphones; smartphones; smart glasses.
Companies often register trademarks that are a bit broader than they absolutely need to be to allow room for a project to grow. With that in mind, it’s unfortunately still too early to say whether Samsung’s big extended reality project will take the form of slim data glasses or a full-fledged VR headset experience. What we do know is that the registration of this US trademark bodes well for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Glasses in the US.
Meanwhile, the company has also registered a US trademark for “Samsung Galaxy Ring”. According to the description, the Galaxy Ring will collect health, fitness and sleep data and potentially replace the need for a traditional wrist-worn fitness tracker.
The SAMSUNG GALAXY RING™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of wearable smart devices in the form of a smart ring for tracking, measuring, monitoring and uploading health, fitness and sleep information; smart rings; smart phone.
It’s not clear at this point if these two likely upcoming Samsung wearables are related. According to the brand text alone, the Galaxy Ring should only collect health-related data and send it to your smartphone. For context, the Focals by North smart glasses (later acquired by Google) offer discrete controls via a joystick on a connected smart ring. It’s possible that part of Google’s partnership with Samsung could see a return of ring-based controls with the Galaxy Glasses.
Focals by North Smart Ring Joystick
With these marks now entering the public records, it may not be long before Samsung officially unveils the Galaxy Glasses and Galaxy Ring wearables.
One possibility is that we’ll get a preview of the “unannounced version of the Android operating system specifically designed to power devices like portable displays” that Google is preparing at the upcoming Google I/O conference. In 2021, Google I/O served as the unveiling of Wear OS 3 in collaboration with Samsung, with the smartwatch OS eventually debuting on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.
What would you like to see from a potential set of Samsung Galaxy Glasses? Would you choose a Galaxy Ring over a traditional fitness tracker? Let us know in the comments.
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