State of XR: Highlights from Expand North Star and GITEX Global

It’s that time of year again. Suddenly, all hotels in Dubai are booked, and getting anywhere requires sitting in traffic. There can be only one explanation: GITEX has officially begun.

GITEX and its startup-focused counterpart, Expand North Star, are among the biggest tech expos in the world. Just like last year, the spotlight was firmly on AI, but XR had its moments, with AR glasses being the most dynamic part of immersive space.

LEION Hey2 AR Glasses

LLVision was at GITEX demoing their LEION Hey2 AR device, which they market as translation glasses. LEION Hey2 can serve as a teleprompter, give directions, and do live subtitling, but it’s clear where LLVision sees its product and what its main use case is.

I gave the glasses a try and walked away quite impressed. Despite the noisy expo environment, the translation worked well, and more importantly, was very snappy. Text would appear on time and in small chunks, making it feel as if I were following someone’s train of thought in real time.

Hey2’s screens are monochrome and suitable only for text, but I found the warm-green display pleasant and comfortable. They reminded me of the Even G1 displays, which feature a 600×200 resolution and a 25° field of view. I expect Hey2 uses the same MicroLED supplier, so the specs are likely identical.

This would also explain the seemingly odd positioning of the displays right in the center. The Even G1 glasses have their displays placed on top, and one of the complaints about that design was that it makes the teleprompter feature pretty much useless. It forces the wearer to look upward, as if reading from the ceiling. The Hey2 glasses allowed me to maintain eye contact while viewing the translation and I’m sure teleprompting would appear more natural as well.

What at first struck me as a somewhat distracting placement makes sense when we think of the LEION Hey2 as a specialized translation device rather than one intended for all-day use.

I was told the price for Hey2 will be around $600, which makes it a tough proposition when Meta Ray-Ban Display retails for $800. Sure, the translation on LEION glasses appeared to be faster than on the Meta Ray-Ban Display, but Meta’s glasses can do much more than just translate. They come with a neural wristband and a screen that might be monocular but 600 x 600 in resolution. The previously mentioned Even G1 glasses also cost $600, giving Hey2 no clear advantage. Nonetheless, outside of the consumer market, Hey2 might find success. Glasses have one job, and they do it well. In a business or conference setup, this type of no-frills approach might actually be preferable.

MBZUAI Eye Tracked Glasses

Also at GITEX, I had a chance to try out the MBZUAI prototype AI glasses that feature eye tracking. The inward-facing cameras are tiny and supposedly offer near-perfect accuracy.

In their current form, the glasses don’t have any UI. Everything must be parsed through AI using voice commands and gaze control. I was told to look at something and then ask AI a query to verify it understands what I’m looking (gazing) at. While the glasses’ eye tracking seemed to work perfectly, the magic somewhat disappeared when all I got were generic LLM replies that were too lengthy and not always relevant. That is a broader and somewhat separate problem, but since MBZUAI glasses rely on AI for everything, including the interface, it’s something worth mentioning.

Currently, there’s no plan to productize the prototype. The team is exploring medical and health applications first and foremost. Glasses with eye tracking could benefit those with severe mobility limitations, and that is the venue that MBZUAI is focusing on.

GO–OZ Foot-worn Controller

Meandering through the Italian pavilion, I stumbled upon GO-OZ, a locomotion solution that relies on feet tilting for movement control.

Design-wise, they look like sandals, and the way they’re strapped is also similar. I tried them first sitting and then standing. When I stood up, I was surprised that despite the curvature underneath, GO-OZ remained very steady. I could confidently tilt my feet and would not have any issue putting on a headset, although obviously it’s different from standing on your own feet, and common-sense caution is required.

Locomoting, however, turned out challenging. I could only move reliably forward and backward. Turning left and right proved unintuitive. It felt like trying to control a remote car rather than walking. There is a steep learning curve to GO-OZ.

I suggested that it might be better to disable turning altogether and instead let users go only forward and backward while sitting on a swivel chair, but GO-OZ co-creator Stefano Moretti didn’t share my enthusiasm. “This would make GO-OZ exactly like other locomotion solutions out there,” he explained.

I did not have the patience to learn how to turn, but when mastered, it should theoretically feel like riding a Segway through VR worlds. How many people will be willing to go through the learning process is an open question. The expected price is around $200.

XR Training and Collaboration

One of the quirks of GITEX and especially of Expand North Star is that they’re start-up focused. Most exhibitors showcase their products only once, resulting in a completely new lineup each year. That said, certain trends carried over from the year prior, the continued use that XR finds in training applications, for example.

This was clear when exploring various development studios and content booths. Many teams would put strong emphasis on their expertise in XR training applications (rather than gaming or entertainment). Some, like Skillveri, would focus solely on the training expertise, offering an end-to-end solution together with proprietary input.

A good number of education companies were seen experimenting with AR-enabled books and QR codes.

Apart from training and education, another segment that remains quite active is collaboration and asset deployment. This means tools that allow users to upload existing 3D models (or use generative AI to create them) and then deploy them in VR, AR or desktop. Among these start-ups, some prioritize XR technology, whereas others concentrate mainly on browser-based solutions. One exhibitor, called VisualSyn, had no immersive capability products at all, despite advertising themselves as an “Advanced XR Content Solution.” When asked why they claim XR when their product is only desktop with no WebXR support, I was told, it’s XR because it’s 3D (3D as in running on a 3D engine like Unity or Unreal). While it feels misleading, it highlights a certain trend where the term XR is being used more and more superficially, from spatial AR to mobile AR to (in the case of VisualSyn) apparently no AR at all.

Fortunately, other exhibitors were more knowledgeable. SatoriXR made a good, professional impression. Their toolkit offers WebXR support and can be deployed both in AR and VR as well as on desktop. I asked the team why someone would choose them over free alternatives like Sketchfab, and the reply was integrated analytics, smooth workflow and added interactivity elements. I was told the biggest use cases are product exhibition, training and presentation modules. SatoriXR is a relatively new startup (founded in 2022) that has managed to find success in the post-pandemic VR/AR era, and I find its growth encouraging.

Metaverse and non-XR Spatial Tech

With trends in AI shifting from generic large language models towards more personal agentic AI, there was a substantial increase in the amount of holograms and full-height stands. They would offer various degrees of transparency and depth, some in 3D, some 2D. From older tech, like spinning LED fans, to spatial holograms, the tech has been gaining momentum since 2023, and this year’s show had the biggest number of hologram exhibitors so far.

Metaverse seems to have completely disappeared from the show floor, at least in the context of XR. I did not visit the blockchain pavilions, so it might have some presence in the world of fintech, but as a concept, the metaverse seemed completely muted this year.

State of XR

In general, immersive tech continues to stay in the shadow of the much greater push towards artificial intelligence. This was already very clear at last year’s GITEX and ENS, and this year the AI fervor was even greater. This is true for many sectors and not just XR. Even the cutting-edge tech like robotics and air-taxis seemed to have part of their spotlight taken away this year.

Most companies react by incorporating AI into their existing products and systems. XR and AI can work well together, and in most cases, the lines remain well defined. I asked Hind Sergieh, founder of ARkub, who was demoing an AI agent for XR customer service training, if they’re pivoting to AI.

“No, we’re not pivoting, just incorporating, because AI is where things are going. In our case, it’s mostly natural language and conversational AI. But we’re not putting AI where it doesn’t make sense.”

The other common theme is expanding product applications beyond just virtual and augmented reality. ModerLab demoed using the Apple Vision Pro, but their product can also be accessed on a desktop. TechTree Innovation was showcasing VR helicopter training, but the cityscape they used in the presentation was a digital twin, which is another part of their expertise.

Since visitors are becoming increasingly familiar with immersive computing, companies will now often prefer to minimize friction by using YouTube videos or tablets to showcase their XR portfolios and products. Exhibitors will often keep an HMD on display, but mainly to provide at-a-glance information about their area of work.

HMDs were often used to signal XR expertise rather than to give demos

Despite the headwinds, new XR companies continue to crop up. Some treat the reduced competition as an advantage, seeing this as a good time to enter the space.

“Meta is investing in smart glasses. They promised fully-capable AR glasses, and we don’t know if they will deliver it, but if they do, this would kickstart a large market push,” says Xienia Vogt, CEO of Identic.AI, an XR start-up company founded in 2023. “We’re making sure to position ourselves correctly, so that when AR becomes mass-market, we’re ready to seize the opportunity.”

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Next year, GITEX 2026 and Expand North Star are moving to Expo City Dubai, where, for the first time, they will be situated together. No more shuttle buses and waiting in traffic. I’m already curious to see how XR will progress and what the next year will bring.