×
Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy XR headset: What it’s like

Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy XR headset: What it’s like

Tech-news

After 10 long months of rumors, teases, and hype, Samsung finally delivered on the Project Moohan promise with the launch of the Galaxy XR headset.

The new VR headset (or is it AR? Or XR?) is priced at $1,799.99, and the world finally knows the official specs and feature set. And they are impressive: 8K video playback, dual micro-OLED displays, and advanced AI features.

I got the chance to demo the Samsung Galaxy XR headset for Mashable recently, and had a lot of fun doing so. If you’re considering investing in the pricey new device (it’s half the price of the Vision Pro, so “pricey” is relative), I can share my early experience.

What is the Galaxy XR headset?


Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Simply put, it’s an advanced VR headset that offers both augmented reality and fully immersive 8K video and 3D experiences.

Some would argue that VR’s best days are already behind it. Others would argue it never really caught on in the first place. Samsung thinks the best is yet to come, and it’s betting big — as is Google, Apple, and Meta — that our lives won’t be dominated by 2D screens forever.

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way right now. Apple introduced the Apple Vision Pro 18 months ago, and after an initial flash in the pan, it never really caught on. Could that be because of the whopping $3,500 price tag? Yes, duh. But Apple isn’t giving up; indeed, it just launched a new version of the headset with an M5 chip.

So, now it’s Samsung’s turn. Today, Samsung launched its own headset powered by Google’s Android XR (with an assist from Gemini). Crucially, Samsung is cutting Apple’s price in half to significantly lower the barrier of entry, which is good. But it’s not as low as headsets from Meta, which is bad (for Samsung).

Going hands-on (and head-on) with the Samsung Galaxy XR

journalist adam doud testing galaxy xr headset


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

I traveled to New York City in order to experience a guided demo of the headset. My Samsung tour guide walked me through a few different scenarios that show what the headset can do. Unfortunately, the experience didn’t answer one of the most important questions I had — why do I need this?

We’ll circle back to that point, but first let’s discuss what this headset does well. I can verify that the Samsung Galaxy XR headset is a really compelling device.

Of the various VR/AR headsets I’ve tested in my years as a gadget reviewer, this is the most comfortable one yet. It’s extremely lightweight, with an adjustable strap that tightens to the back of your head. I sport a ponytail, and that did not adversely affect my ability to use the headset comfortably.

The headset has a touch-sensitive strip on the right side of the headband, an action button on the top right-hand side of the headset, and a volume rocker on the upper-left side. Most of that is pretty standard. The headset feels light at 545 grams, which is a tad heavier than the Meta Quest 3, but practically svelte compared to the 750-gram Apple Vision Pro.

close-up view of controls on galaxy xr headset


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

close-up view of controls on galaxy xr headset


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Samsung also made a smart call to offload the battery to a cable-connected module you slip into a pocket. Samsung only promises two hours of battery (or 2.5 hours of video playback), which isn’t great. But the battery can be charged during use, so there’s that.

On the inside, there are dual 4K micro-OLED screens, each with 3,552 x 3,840 resolution. (With their powers combined, you can watch 8K HDR video.) I don’t wear prescription glasses, so I didn’t need corrective lenses fitted inside the headset. Some of my fellow media members did, and they were accommodated, so it’s safe to assume you will be too.

Mashable Light Speed

When you first strap on the headset, you get a passthrough view of your surroundings (this device is loaded with pass-through cameras, eye-tracking cameras, and various sensors). You can tell it’s digitized, but it’s also very high-res and responsive, so there’s no problem interacting with people on the outside. The primary way you interact with the headset is with hand gestures, which are intuitive — especially if you’ve used other headsets in the past. You’ll use pinch gestures in the air to select and grab things, and a palm-facing gesture to bring up the main menu.

journalist adam doud wearing galaxy xr headset and using hand controls


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

From there, you can select any app you want to launch in the space around you. You can move them around and position them however you want. You can also pair up a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse if you want to work inside the environment. Most of the apps they showed me were fairly straightforward. In Google Maps, you can fly around and zoom in and out on buildings, or search for places. Personally, I took a tour of Wrigley Field before zooming over to my house in the Chicago suburbs.

journalist adam doud wearing galaxy xr headset and using hand controls


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Now we get to what Samsung and Google (Samsung developed this headset and operating system with Google) call “AI spatializing.” The two main apps I worked with were Google Photos (not my account) and YouTube, and both play heavily into the 3D spatialization ability (powered by Gemini AI, of course).

In Google Photos, you can spatialize basically any photo you’ve ever taken. That means the headset transforms any 2D photo into a 3D scene. Your subject moves to the foreground and appears right in front of you, while the background moves away. You can see depth in the photo. Notably, one of the photos was of a child crouched down and playing on a beach, and I could see one leg in front of the other, with a sprinkling of wet sand on his feet. It was, to be frank, remarkable.

It’s exactly the type of “Oh, wow” moment you want in a device that costs almost $2,000.

galaxy xr headset held in hand


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Later, I saw an old black-and-white photo of a man holding a baby, taken decades ago. Not only did Gemini spatialize this photo, but it also colorized it, turning it into a five-second video. This was mostly fine, but it had an uncanny valley vibe that was equal parts cool and creepy. Maybe that’s just me.

Over on YouTube, Samsung showed us how we could edit our videos, add text and emojis, and spatialize them, and then upload them directly to YouTube. While the editor has a switch that allows you to upload in Spatial and 2D. YouTube itself will know what to show a potential viewer, and serve up the appropriate version of the video. 

Meanwhile, using the power of AI, YouTube can spatialize videos on the platform — even those uploaded in 2D. One example I watched involved an Air Team and jet fighters. The jet stuck out from the background in a very cool way, but when the video cut to an interview on the windy runway, the AI had a lot of trouble figuring out how the long hair blowing behind the subjects should look, and, spoiler alert: it chose wrong. It did not look good.

That concluded my brief demo. I’m eager to spend more time with the device so I can properly assess the eye tracking feature and virtual keyboard. Alas, we’ll have to wait for a full review.

The Galaxy XR headset has some limitations, for now

galaxy xr headset on display stand


Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

At launch, Samsung says the Galaxy XR will be ideal for stationary environments, like sitting on a couch. You can move windows around you 360 degrees, but you won’t be able to walk with the headset on, like you can with the Vision Pro. That means no pinning of apps around your home like a timer over the stove, or a virtual TV in your living room. That also means no travel mode, which would make it possible to use on an airplane or in a car.

This is a big miss right out of the gate, and it makes the headset feel incomplete, which is hard to ignore considering the sticker price.

Second, AI is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because it will very nicely make up for the lack of native content at launch. The Google Play Store will have apps that are designated as “spatialized” or optimized for the headset. All other apps will appear as 2D windows, which is also acceptable, but less than ideal. Meanwhile, the AI is doing an excellent job filling that gap by spatializing things on the fly. But the lack of native entertainment content for the Galaxy XR is another big issue (one that it shares with the Vision Pro).

This is all more than enough to make me nervous about the Galaxy XR.

I still have one big unanswered question: Why?

Now, we get to the final question, and it’s not one that a 30-minute demo can answer. Why does this headset exist?

At one point during my Galaxy XR experience, a colleague asked the quiet part out loud: “What are you going to do in this headset that you can’t already do with a computer or a phone?” Personally, at my desk at home, I have three monitors that already cover about 135 degrees of my vision. Do I really need to cover the rest of my field of view in pixels, too?

If I’m out strolling around downtown, I’m not going to slap on a headset and ask where the nearest pizza place is — that’s what my phone is for. Even AR glasses are a more compelling use case for most of the scenarios Samsung and Google walked us through. In one simulation, it showed a user standing in Brooklyn, looking at a bridge, and asking Gemini, “What can you tell me about this bridge?” I half-expected Gemini to say, “Well, first, take that damn thing off your face. You’re in public for crying out loud.”

But this is the hardest question to answer in any new product category. We’re still waiting for a killer, must-use app, game, or immersive VR experience that only works on a headset. Beat Saber is cool, but it wasn’t enough to make the Meta Quest a hit. Speaking of which, if you’re not comfortable using hand gestures, there are two remote controls you can use that look very much like the Meta Quest remotes.

galaxy xr headset controllers on display


Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

These are all extremely hard challenges to overcome, and I won’t really know who and what this is for until I’m able to put this thing through its paces properly. Suffice it to say, I came away impressed with my demo, and eager to keep looking for use cases for this device. But I also suspect that, like every headset that has come before it, this is a solution looking for a problem.

To be clear, Samsung and Google could still answer these questions and fix these issues. But they would have to be the first.

Source link
#Handson #Samsung #Galaxy #headset

Related Posts

With the rise in popularity of pickleball, a “pickleball movie” was inevitable. But I’m frankly relieved that The Dink is in the hands of director Josh Greenbaum. He’s the helmer of the brilliant buddy comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar and the buddy documentary Will & Harper. 

Not only are both of these movies top-tier when it comes to feel-good films, but each centers on older women without making them the butt of any jokes about aging. Instead, both celebrate their heroines for their brightness, humor, horniness, and brave honesty. And The Dink follows in their footsteps, while being a bit more mainstream. 

The Dink brings together Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Patton Oswalt, and Aaron Chen for a buddy comedy that’s laugh-out-loud hilarious and terrifically heartwarming. But of course, it begins with the fiery rivalry between tennis players and pickleballers. 

The Dink is a sensationally silly sports comedy. 

Jake Johnson stars as lovable loser Dusty Boyd, who’ll tell anyone who’ll listen about his brush with long-passed glory. As a child, Dusty was a tennis prodigy, coached by his father Chuck (a comically mirthless Ed Harris) to be the next hard-hitting legend. But after a disastrous match against Andy Roddick (yes, Andy Roddick), his reputation was destroyed. So here he is, a lollygagging tennis coach to children at a club run by his father. 

But Dusty has a chance to redeem himself in his father’s eyes when a new enemy invades their pristine tennis courts. You guessed it: pickleballers. 

In a deranged slideshow presentation, Chuck explains to Dusty how the pickleballers — led by Patton Oswalt — are demanding more courts, which will obviously lead to pickleball dominating the world, so no one can play tennis again! To beat them back, Chuck sets up a tournament, pitting the best tennis player against the best pickleballer. Winner makes the call on the courts. 

However, Dusty’s mission to squash the pickleballers gets sidetracked when he begins playing himself, alongside some charismatic older women, including Candace (Mary Steenburgen). While it’s a rough start learning the game and its playful lingo, Dusty grows close to Candace at movie nights and country bars. And through their friendship, they both begin to realize how they’ve gotten stuck in the narratives of their past, which is inhibiting their growth toward a better future. Naturally, those lessons will be tied into a big final match, where pickleball becomes a metaphor for life. 

Don’t worry. You won’t have to strain to catch that message. Greenbaum’s got John McEnroe making a cameo in The Dink, playing an unsolicited commentator on the big match. 

Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen lead a hilarious cast. 

With many years of New Girl behind him, Johnson has a lot of practice at playing a lovelorn buffoon. And given Steenburgen’s elegance, it’s easy to see how Dusty would fall for Candace. But The Dink rejects the temptation to become a cliched rom-com of opposites attract. Instead, Johnson will play the fool, while Steenburgen will be his straight man. Their chemistry is crackling and their comedic timing sublime. 

But Johnson switches gears opposite Aaron Chen, who plays a co-worker who idolizes Dusty and believes every tall tale. With Chen, Greenbaum is able to reach into more offbeat humor through goofy visual gags and a flat delivery that’s a sharp foil to Johnson’s funny floundering. 

Beyond that, The Dink has a jaw-dropping list of comedians turning up for gleefully ludicrous bit parts, like Ben Stiller as a rambling doctor, Oswalt as an uptight pickleballer, Chris Parnell as a smug tennis player, Chloe Fineman as a mean ex, and the late Lynne Marie Stewart (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Pee-wee’s Playhouse) as a flirty friend of Candace’s. However, Ed Harris deserves a special shout-out here.

Ed Harris had me howling in The Dink.

This long-celebrated American actor has really sunk his teeth into playing a string of ruthless fathers, from the grisly thriller Love Lies Bleeding to the dark comedies Riff Raff and How to Make a Killing, and now The Dink. Where Johnson goes broad and Chen goes offbeat for punchlines, Harris goes unflinchingly serious. He’s treating this squabble between club members and courts as if it’s a threat to the Earth as we know it. He regards every Dusty freakout with a stern but unfurrowed brow. And that’s what makes his bits hysterical. 

Greenbaum smartly blends these different styles of comedy to craft a movie that’ll be a crowd-pleaser. There are bits in here weird enough to exist in the wacky and wondrous world of Barb and Star. Then there are riffs of physical comedy or a serene absurdity that feels in line with the comedy of Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. Johnson plays more broadly, expertly hitting every beat with aplomb. Steenburgen offers support with stinging one-liners and lively reactions. And I can’t stress enough: The Dink won’t mock pickleball or those who play it. 

Greenbaum’s brand of comedy is defiantly wacky, welcoming, and humane, never mean. So The Dink is sure to please, whatever your age or interest in its central sport. 

The Dink premieres on Apple TV on July 24.

Topics Streaming Apple TV

#Dink #review #Apples #pickleball #movie #laughoutloud #crowdpleaser">‘The Dink’ review: Apple’s pickleball movie is a laugh-out-loud crowd-pleaser With the rise in popularity of pickleball, a “pickleball movie” was inevitable. But I’m frankly relieved that The Dink is in the hands of director Josh Greenbaum. He’s the helmer of the brilliant buddy comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar and the buddy documentary Will & Harper. Not only are both of these movies top-tier when it comes to feel-good films, but each centers on older women without making them the butt of any jokes about aging. Instead, both celebrate their heroines for their brightness, humor, horniness, and brave honesty. And The Dink follows in their footsteps, while being a bit more mainstream. The Dink brings together Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Patton Oswalt, and Aaron Chen for a buddy comedy that’s laugh-out-loud hilarious and terrifically heartwarming. But of course, it begins with the fiery rivalry between tennis players and pickleballers.  The Dink is a sensationally silly sports comedy. Jake Johnson stars as lovable loser Dusty Boyd, who’ll tell anyone who’ll listen about his brush with long-passed glory. As a child, Dusty was a tennis prodigy, coached by his father Chuck (a comically mirthless Ed Harris) to be the next hard-hitting legend. But after a disastrous match against Andy Roddick (yes, Andy Roddick), his reputation was destroyed. So here he is, a lollygagging tennis coach to children at a club run by his father. But Dusty has a chance to redeem himself in his father’s eyes when a new enemy invades their pristine tennis courts. You guessed it: pickleballers. In a deranged slideshow presentation, Chuck explains to Dusty how the pickleballers — led by Patton Oswalt — are demanding more courts, which will obviously lead to pickleball dominating the world, so no one can play tennis again! To beat them back, Chuck sets up a tournament, pitting the best tennis player against the best pickleballer. Winner makes the call on the courts. However, Dusty’s mission to squash the pickleballers gets sidetracked when he begins playing himself, alongside some charismatic older women, including Candace (Mary Steenburgen). While it’s a rough start learning the game and its playful lingo, Dusty grows close to Candace at movie nights and country bars. And through their friendship, they both begin to realize how they’ve gotten stuck in the narratives of their past, which is inhibiting their growth toward a better future. Naturally, those lessons will be tied into a big final match, where pickleball becomes a metaphor for life.  Mashable Top Stories Don’t worry. You won’t have to strain to catch that message. Greenbaum’s got John McEnroe making a cameo in The Dink, playing an unsolicited commentator on the big match. Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen lead a hilarious cast. With many years of New Girl behind him, Johnson has a lot of practice at playing a lovelorn buffoon. And given Steenburgen’s elegance, it’s easy to see how Dusty would fall for Candace. But The Dink rejects the temptation to become a cliched rom-com of opposites attract. Instead, Johnson will play the fool, while Steenburgen will be his straight man. Their chemistry is crackling and their comedic timing sublime. But Johnson switches gears opposite Aaron Chen, who plays a co-worker who idolizes Dusty and believes every tall tale. With Chen, Greenbaum is able to reach into more offbeat humor through goofy visual gags and a flat delivery that’s a sharp foil to Johnson’s funny floundering. Beyond that, The Dink has a jaw-dropping list of comedians turning up for gleefully ludicrous bit parts, like Ben Stiller as a rambling doctor, Oswalt as an uptight pickleballer, Chris Parnell as a smug tennis player, Chloe Fineman as a mean ex, and the late Lynne Marie Stewart (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Pee-wee’s Playhouse) as a flirty friend of Candace’s. However, Ed Harris deserves a special shout-out here. Ed Harris had me howling in The Dink. This long-celebrated American actor has really sunk his teeth into playing a string of ruthless fathers, from the grisly thriller Love Lies Bleeding to the dark comedies Riff Raff and How to Make a Killing, and now The Dink. Where Johnson goes broad and Chen goes offbeat for punchlines, Harris goes unflinchingly serious. He’s treating this squabble between club members and courts as if it’s a threat to the Earth as we know it. He regards every Dusty freakout with a stern but unfurrowed brow. And that’s what makes his bits hysterical. Greenbaum smartly blends these different styles of comedy to craft a movie that’ll be a crowd-pleaser. There are bits in here weird enough to exist in the wacky and wondrous world of Barb and Star. Then there are riffs of physical comedy or a serene absurdity that feels in line with the comedy of Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. Johnson plays more broadly, expertly hitting every beat with aplomb. Steenburgen offers support with stinging one-liners and lively reactions. And I can’t stress enough: The Dink won’t mock pickleball or those who play it. Greenbaum’s brand of comedy is defiantly wacky, welcoming, and humane, never mean. So The Dink is sure to please, whatever your age or interest in its central sport. The Dink premieres on Apple TV on July 24. Topics Streaming Apple TV #Dink #review #Apples #pickleball #movie #laughoutloud #crowdpleaser

The Dink premieres on Apple TV on July 24.

Topics Streaming Apple TV

#Dink #review #Apples #pickleball #movie #laughoutloud #crowdpleaser">‘The Dink’ review: Apple’s pickleball movie is a laugh-out-loud crowd-pleaser

With the rise in popularity of pickleball, a “pickleball movie” was inevitable. But I’m frankly relieved that The Dink is in the hands of director Josh Greenbaum. He’s the helmer of the brilliant buddy comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar and the buddy documentary Will & Harper. 

Not only are both of these movies top-tier when it comes to feel-good films, but each centers on older women without making them the butt of any jokes about aging. Instead, both celebrate their heroines for their brightness, humor, horniness, and brave honesty. And The Dink follows in their footsteps, while being a bit more mainstream. 

The Dink brings together Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Patton Oswalt, and Aaron Chen for a buddy comedy that’s laugh-out-loud hilarious and terrifically heartwarming. But of course, it begins with the fiery rivalry between tennis players and pickleballers. 

The Dink is a sensationally silly sports comedy. 

Jake Johnson stars as lovable loser Dusty Boyd, who’ll tell anyone who’ll listen about his brush with long-passed glory. As a child, Dusty was a tennis prodigy, coached by his father Chuck (a comically mirthless Ed Harris) to be the next hard-hitting legend. But after a disastrous match against Andy Roddick (yes, Andy Roddick), his reputation was destroyed. So here he is, a lollygagging tennis coach to children at a club run by his father. 

But Dusty has a chance to redeem himself in his father’s eyes when a new enemy invades their pristine tennis courts. You guessed it: pickleballers. 

In a deranged slideshow presentation, Chuck explains to Dusty how the pickleballers — led by Patton Oswalt — are demanding more courts, which will obviously lead to pickleball dominating the world, so no one can play tennis again! To beat them back, Chuck sets up a tournament, pitting the best tennis player against the best pickleballer. Winner makes the call on the courts. 

However, Dusty’s mission to squash the pickleballers gets sidetracked when he begins playing himself, alongside some charismatic older women, including Candace (Mary Steenburgen). While it’s a rough start learning the game and its playful lingo, Dusty grows close to Candace at movie nights and country bars. And through their friendship, they both begin to realize how they’ve gotten stuck in the narratives of their past, which is inhibiting their growth toward a better future. Naturally, those lessons will be tied into a big final match, where pickleball becomes a metaphor for life. 

Don’t worry. You won’t have to strain to catch that message. Greenbaum’s got John McEnroe making a cameo in The Dink, playing an unsolicited commentator on the big match. 

Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen lead a hilarious cast. 

With many years of New Girl behind him, Johnson has a lot of practice at playing a lovelorn buffoon. And given Steenburgen’s elegance, it’s easy to see how Dusty would fall for Candace. But The Dink rejects the temptation to become a cliched rom-com of opposites attract. Instead, Johnson will play the fool, while Steenburgen will be his straight man. Their chemistry is crackling and their comedic timing sublime. 

But Johnson switches gears opposite Aaron Chen, who plays a co-worker who idolizes Dusty and believes every tall tale. With Chen, Greenbaum is able to reach into more offbeat humor through goofy visual gags and a flat delivery that’s a sharp foil to Johnson’s funny floundering. 

Beyond that, The Dink has a jaw-dropping list of comedians turning up for gleefully ludicrous bit parts, like Ben Stiller as a rambling doctor, Oswalt as an uptight pickleballer, Chris Parnell as a smug tennis player, Chloe Fineman as a mean ex, and the late Lynne Marie Stewart (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Pee-wee’s Playhouse) as a flirty friend of Candace’s. However, Ed Harris deserves a special shout-out here.

Ed Harris had me howling in The Dink.

This long-celebrated American actor has really sunk his teeth into playing a string of ruthless fathers, from the grisly thriller Love Lies Bleeding to the dark comedies Riff Raff and How to Make a Killing, and now The Dink. Where Johnson goes broad and Chen goes offbeat for punchlines, Harris goes unflinchingly serious. He’s treating this squabble between club members and courts as if it’s a threat to the Earth as we know it. He regards every Dusty freakout with a stern but unfurrowed brow. And that’s what makes his bits hysterical. 

Greenbaum smartly blends these different styles of comedy to craft a movie that’ll be a crowd-pleaser. There are bits in here weird enough to exist in the wacky and wondrous world of Barb and Star. Then there are riffs of physical comedy or a serene absurdity that feels in line with the comedy of Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. Johnson plays more broadly, expertly hitting every beat with aplomb. Steenburgen offers support with stinging one-liners and lively reactions. And I can’t stress enough: The Dink won’t mock pickleball or those who play it. 

Greenbaum’s brand of comedy is defiantly wacky, welcoming, and humane, never mean. So The Dink is sure to please, whatever your age or interest in its central sport. 

The Dink premieres on Apple TV on July 24.

Topics Streaming Apple TV

#Dink #review #Apples #pickleball #movie #laughoutloud #crowdpleaser

Well, having tried the Halliday Gen 2, I’m happy to report these are better glasses. That secret display window is gone, replaced by more traditional but discreet waveguides. They’re not like the Meta Display’s nigh-invisible screens. You can still spot the reflection if angled just right, but they’re considerably easier to see. And inside of a single-lens display, the Gen 2 has one for each eye, giving you a much larger screen to look at. Spec-wise, the Gen 2’s displays are monochrome green, with a maximum brightness of 1,600 nits and 600 by 300 pixel resolution per eye.

On my face, the Gen 2 has a nondescript design but is very lightweight compared to other display glasses I’ve tried. The display was also easily visible inside a dark bar, though I didn’t get a chance to see how it’d fare in direct sunlight. The four-mic array was able to pick up commands despite the ambient noise, and Halliday told me that it gets about 12 hours of typical use. That’s partly because these aren’t camera glasses. The exclusion of the camera was a deliberate choice, both for privacy and to extend battery life. That’s because these are more so meant to be a tool for work meetings.

With the Gen 2, Halliday is launching a feature called Meeting Flow. It’s meant to help you follow along in a conversation, using AI to surface context or facts without needing to look at your laptop or phone. I’ve seen this in other smart glasses to varying degrees of success. (Mostly non-success.) More interesting are the so-called Thread Tracker, Decision Confirmation, and Commitment Check features. The idea is to provide real-time updates about what decisions have been made in a meeting, what items need following up on, and a visualization of a meeting’s overall conversation flow. For example, Thread Tracker might show that a team meeting started off talking about budget allocations, before moving on to potential new hires and timelines for those hires. Decision Confirmation might show that the meeting concluded that all new hires should be finished by a specific date. Lastly, Commitment Check verifies if action items have been assigned (and to whom) with a clear deadline. The glasses will also provide post-meeting transcripts and summaries.

I saw a brief glimpse of what this could look like at my demo, albeit a product interview is less conducive to these kinds of features than a typical planning meeting. That said, the glasses also support more general-use AI features like captioning, real-time translations for over 45 languages, the ability to take phone calls, and teleprompters/notecards for public speakers. Users can also make use of the Halliday AI assistant for voice control.

Overall, this is a much more tightly focused vision for a pair of smart glasses than Halliday’s original glasses. That said, we’ll have to see if the AI features are all that useful. So far, I’ve had little success with AI wearables successfully intuiting what I actually need surfaced in a conversation, or deriving the correct conclusions for to-do items. And at $599, the Gen 2 comes with a pretty steep price tag for the average person. That’s not including any extra costs for prescription lenses. (Halliday claims it’ll be able to handle my prescription, which is -10 in one eye and -8.75 in the other with monster astigmatism. We shall see!)

The Halliday Gen 2 are available for preorder starting today with a $10 deposit and a subsequent $100 discount on the final price. The glasses are expected to ship in September.

#Hallidays #latest #smart #glasses #feature #muchimproved #displayAI,Gadgets,Hands-on,News,Reviews,Tech,Wearable">Halliday’s latest smart glasses feature a much-improved displayI first slipped on Halliday’s original smart glasses at CES 2025. I was not a fan. The glasses had a tiny, movable display window embedded into the frame that was incredibly finicky to see, and my 30-minute demo left me with achy eyeballs. It was an interesting concept with terrible execution, especially compared to the several other smart glasses on the show floor. So I was skeptical when a few weeks ago, Halliday reached out to say its second attempt at smart glasses was much better.Well, having tried the Halliday Gen 2, I’m happy to report these are better glasses. That secret display window is gone, replaced by more traditional but discreet waveguides. They’re not like the Meta Display’s nigh-invisible screens. You can still spot the reflection if angled just right, but they’re considerably easier to see. And inside of a single-lens display, the Gen 2 has one for each eye, giving you a much larger screen to look at. Spec-wise, the Gen 2’s displays are monochrome green, with a maximum brightness of 1,600 nits and 600 by 300 pixel resolution per eye.On my face, the Gen 2 has a nondescript design but is very lightweight compared to other display glasses I’ve tried. The display was also easily visible inside a dark bar, though I didn’t get a chance to see how it’d fare in direct sunlight. The four-mic array was able to pick up commands despite the ambient noise, and Halliday told me that it gets about 12 hours of typical use. That’s partly because these aren’t camera glasses. The exclusion of the camera was a deliberate choice, both for privacy and to extend battery life. That’s because these are more so meant to be a tool for work meetings.With the Gen 2, Halliday is launching a feature called Meeting Flow. It’s meant to help you follow along in a conversation, using AI to surface context or facts without needing to look at your laptop or phone. I’ve seen this in other smart glasses to varying degrees of success. (Mostly non-success.) More interesting are the so-called Thread Tracker, Decision Confirmation, and Commitment Check features. The idea is to provide real-time updates about what decisions have been made in a meeting, what items need following up on, and a visualization of a meeting’s overall conversation flow. For example, Thread Tracker might show that a team meeting started off talking about budget allocations, before moving on to potential new hires and timelines for those hires. Decision Confirmation might show that the meeting concluded that all new hires should be finished by a specific date. Lastly, Commitment Check verifies if action items have been assigned (and to whom) with a clear deadline. The glasses will also provide post-meeting transcripts and summaries.I saw a brief glimpse of what this could look like at my demo, albeit a product interview is less conducive to these kinds of features than a typical planning meeting. That said, the glasses also support more general-use AI features like captioning, real-time translations for over 45 languages, the ability to take phone calls, and teleprompters/notecards for public speakers. Users can also make use of the Halliday AI assistant for voice control.Overall, this is a much more tightly focused vision for a pair of smart glasses than Halliday’s original glasses. That said, we’ll have to see if the AI features are all that useful. So far, I’ve had little success with AI wearables successfully intuiting what I actually need surfaced in a conversation, or deriving the correct conclusions for to-do items. And at 9, the Gen 2 comes with a pretty steep price tag for the average person. That’s not including any extra costs for prescription lenses. (Halliday claims it’ll be able to handle my prescription, which is -10 in one eye and -8.75 in the other with monster astigmatism. We shall see!)The Halliday Gen 2 are available for preorder starting today with a deposit and a subsequent 0 discount on the final price. The glasses are expected to ship in September.#Hallidays #latest #smart #glasses #feature #muchimproved #displayAI,Gadgets,Hands-on,News,Reviews,Tech,Wearable

Halliday’s original smart glasses at CES 2025. I was not a fan. The glasses had a tiny, movable display window embedded into the frame that was incredibly finicky to see, and my 30-minute demo left me with achy eyeballs. It was an interesting concept with terrible execution, especially compared to the several other smart glasses on the show floor. So I was skeptical when a few weeks ago, Halliday reached out to say its second attempt at smart glasses was much better.

Well, having tried the Halliday Gen 2, I’m happy to report these are better glasses. That secret display window is gone, replaced by more traditional but discreet waveguides. They’re not like the Meta Display’s nigh-invisible screens. You can still spot the reflection if angled just right, but they’re considerably easier to see. And inside of a single-lens display, the Gen 2 has one for each eye, giving you a much larger screen to look at. Spec-wise, the Gen 2’s displays are monochrome green, with a maximum brightness of 1,600 nits and 600 by 300 pixel resolution per eye.

On my face, the Gen 2 has a nondescript design but is very lightweight compared to other display glasses I’ve tried. The display was also easily visible inside a dark bar, though I didn’t get a chance to see how it’d fare in direct sunlight. The four-mic array was able to pick up commands despite the ambient noise, and Halliday told me that it gets about 12 hours of typical use. That’s partly because these aren’t camera glasses. The exclusion of the camera was a deliberate choice, both for privacy and to extend battery life. That’s because these are more so meant to be a tool for work meetings.

With the Gen 2, Halliday is launching a feature called Meeting Flow. It’s meant to help you follow along in a conversation, using AI to surface context or facts without needing to look at your laptop or phone. I’ve seen this in other smart glasses to varying degrees of success. (Mostly non-success.) More interesting are the so-called Thread Tracker, Decision Confirmation, and Commitment Check features. The idea is to provide real-time updates about what decisions have been made in a meeting, what items need following up on, and a visualization of a meeting’s overall conversation flow. For example, Thread Tracker might show that a team meeting started off talking about budget allocations, before moving on to potential new hires and timelines for those hires. Decision Confirmation might show that the meeting concluded that all new hires should be finished by a specific date. Lastly, Commitment Check verifies if action items have been assigned (and to whom) with a clear deadline. The glasses will also provide post-meeting transcripts and summaries.

I saw a brief glimpse of what this could look like at my demo, albeit a product interview is less conducive to these kinds of features than a typical planning meeting. That said, the glasses also support more general-use AI features like captioning, real-time translations for over 45 languages, the ability to take phone calls, and teleprompters/notecards for public speakers. Users can also make use of the Halliday AI assistant for voice control.

Overall, this is a much more tightly focused vision for a pair of smart glasses than Halliday’s original glasses. That said, we’ll have to see if the AI features are all that useful. So far, I’ve had little success with AI wearables successfully intuiting what I actually need surfaced in a conversation, or deriving the correct conclusions for to-do items. And at $599, the Gen 2 comes with a pretty steep price tag for the average person. That’s not including any extra costs for prescription lenses. (Halliday claims it’ll be able to handle my prescription, which is -10 in one eye and -8.75 in the other with monster astigmatism. We shall see!)

The Halliday Gen 2 are available for preorder starting today with a $10 deposit and a subsequent $100 discount on the final price. The glasses are expected to ship in September.

#Hallidays #latest #smart #glasses #feature #muchimproved #displayAI,Gadgets,Hands-on,News,Reviews,Tech,Wearable">Halliday’s latest smart glasses feature a much-improved display

I first slipped on Halliday’s original smart glasses at CES 2025. I was not a fan. The glasses had a tiny, movable display window embedded into the frame that was incredibly finicky to see, and my 30-minute demo left me with achy eyeballs. It was an interesting concept with terrible execution, especially compared to the several other smart glasses on the show floor. So I was skeptical when a few weeks ago, Halliday reached out to say its second attempt at smart glasses was much better.

Well, having tried the Halliday Gen 2, I’m happy to report these are better glasses. That secret display window is gone, replaced by more traditional but discreet waveguides. They’re not like the Meta Display’s nigh-invisible screens. You can still spot the reflection if angled just right, but they’re considerably easier to see. And inside of a single-lens display, the Gen 2 has one for each eye, giving you a much larger screen to look at. Spec-wise, the Gen 2’s displays are monochrome green, with a maximum brightness of 1,600 nits and 600 by 300 pixel resolution per eye.

On my face, the Gen 2 has a nondescript design but is very lightweight compared to other display glasses I’ve tried. The display was also easily visible inside a dark bar, though I didn’t get a chance to see how it’d fare in direct sunlight. The four-mic array was able to pick up commands despite the ambient noise, and Halliday told me that it gets about 12 hours of typical use. That’s partly because these aren’t camera glasses. The exclusion of the camera was a deliberate choice, both for privacy and to extend battery life. That’s because these are more so meant to be a tool for work meetings.

With the Gen 2, Halliday is launching a feature called Meeting Flow. It’s meant to help you follow along in a conversation, using AI to surface context or facts without needing to look at your laptop or phone. I’ve seen this in other smart glasses to varying degrees of success. (Mostly non-success.) More interesting are the so-called Thread Tracker, Decision Confirmation, and Commitment Check features. The idea is to provide real-time updates about what decisions have been made in a meeting, what items need following up on, and a visualization of a meeting’s overall conversation flow. For example, Thread Tracker might show that a team meeting started off talking about budget allocations, before moving on to potential new hires and timelines for those hires. Decision Confirmation might show that the meeting concluded that all new hires should be finished by a specific date. Lastly, Commitment Check verifies if action items have been assigned (and to whom) with a clear deadline. The glasses will also provide post-meeting transcripts and summaries.

I saw a brief glimpse of what this could look like at my demo, albeit a product interview is less conducive to these kinds of features than a typical planning meeting. That said, the glasses also support more general-use AI features like captioning, real-time translations for over 45 languages, the ability to take phone calls, and teleprompters/notecards for public speakers. Users can also make use of the Halliday AI assistant for voice control.

Overall, this is a much more tightly focused vision for a pair of smart glasses than Halliday’s original glasses. That said, we’ll have to see if the AI features are all that useful. So far, I’ve had little success with AI wearables successfully intuiting what I actually need surfaced in a conversation, or deriving the correct conclusions for to-do items. And at $599, the Gen 2 comes with a pretty steep price tag for the average person. That’s not including any extra costs for prescription lenses. (Halliday claims it’ll be able to handle my prescription, which is -10 in one eye and -8.75 in the other with monster astigmatism. We shall see!)

The Halliday Gen 2 are available for preorder starting today with a $10 deposit and a subsequent $100 discount on the final price. The glasses are expected to ship in September.

#Hallidays #latest #smart #glasses #feature #muchimproved #displayAI,Gadgets,Hands-on,News,Reviews,Tech,Wearable
One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change.

That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation.

That’s the driving idea behind Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.

“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”

Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.

“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.

Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.

TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.

Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.

Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.

What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.

“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.

But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.

“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive">Gritt exits stealth with million for robots to build solar plants—then, everything else | TechCrunch One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change. That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation. That’s the driving idea behind Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words. “Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.” Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them. “There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.” Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day. Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months. TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead. Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows. Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it. What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say. “Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software. But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory. “Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive

Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.

“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”

Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.

“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.

Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.

TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.

Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.

Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.

What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.

“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.

But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.

“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive">Gritt exits stealth with $34 million for robots to build solar plants—then, everything else | TechCrunch

One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change.

That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation.

That’s the driving idea behind Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.

“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”

Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.

“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.

Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.

TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.

Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.

Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.

What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.

“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.

But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.

“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive

Post Comment