Raven Prism

Raven Prism
Basic Info
VR/AR	Augmented reality
Type	Smart glasses
Subtype	Standalone AR
Developer	Raven Resonance
Manufacturer	Raven Resonance (assembled in the United States)
Announcement Date	15 June 2026 (press release); first public demonstration 16 June 2026 at AWE USA 2026
Release Date	Not yet released; launch planned for later in 2026 (as of September 2026)
Price	Not officially announced; a tentative base price of US$1,499 was reported in June 2026
Website	https://raven.computer/
Versions	2 GB and 4 GB RAM configurations; prescription and non-prescription lenses
System
Operating System	RavenOS (Linux-based, ARM64)
CPU	Quad-core 64-bit ARM processor
GPU	OpenGL ES 2.0 support
Storage
Memory	2 GB or 4 GB
Display
Display	Full-color LCoS with waveguide, right eye only
Resolution	720 x 720
Image
Field of View	30 degrees diagonal
Optics
Optics	Diffractive waveguide
Ocularity	Monocular (right eye)
Tracking
Eye Tracking	Yes (primary input method)
Audio
Audio	Two downward-facing speakers
Microphone	Multiple microphones
Camera	World-facing camera with physical cover and Beakon indicator lights
Connectivity
Connectivity	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
WiFi	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Power	Raven Wings hot-swappable batteries
Device
Weight	Under 70 g (reported)
Sensors	Eye control sensors, IMU, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor
Input	Eye control (gaze dwell and double blink), voice, physical button, wireless peripherals

Raven Prism is a pair of augmented reality smart glasses developed by Raven Resonance, a startup based in San Francisco. The company describes it as an "ambient computer": a standalone computer running RavenOS, its own Linux-based operating system, that does not need a smartphone to work. It shows a full-color LCoS image through a single waveguide in front of the right eye and is controlled mainly with eye tracking and voice.

The glasses use a hot-swappable battery system that Raven Resonance calls Raven Wings. According to the company, the wearer can replace a battery without shutting the glasses down, and running apps continue where they left off. Raven Resonance showed Raven Prism in public for the first time at Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2026 in Long Beach, California, in June 2026. As of September 2026 the product had not been released. The company's website said it was "Launching later this year", and pricing had not been officially announced.

Reviewed 29 September 2026. Checked every spec, date, price report, quote and attribution against the PR Newswire release, Road to VR, Auganix, It's FOSS, The Ghost Howls, the official raven.computer home and About pages, the Raven Framework GitHub README and the archived September 2025 design post. About review dates.

Announcement and release

Early development

In September 2025, Raven Resonance founder Thomas Suarez published a post on the company's blog describing the design decisions behind its glasses. At that point he called them Raven Glass and said the company had started work on the current version more than a year earlier. The post already described the main features that Raven Prism was later shown with: hot-swappable batteries, a 30-degree field of view, a monocular full-color LCoS display with a diffractive waveguide, eye tracking and voice input, on-device computing, and an operating system built on the Linux kernel. Suarez wrote that the first-generation glasses were not meant to replace the smartphone and compared them to an "iPod of AR" that would do a few things well. The company invited readers to an early tester program and said it planned to ship units to early testers before the full launch.

Raven Resonance released a preview of its Python app framework for Raven Prism on GitHub. The repository describes it as the first part of the Raven SDK.

AWE USA 2026

Raven Resonance announced Raven Prism in a press release on 15 June 2026. The release said the glasses would be shown at AWE 2026, held from 16 to 18 June in Long Beach, at booth 1028, and that commercial launch was planned for later in 2026. Road to VR reported that the demonstration on 16 June was the first public showing of the device.

Chief executive Thomas Suarez said in the announcement: "Raven Prism is not a pair of smart glasses: it is a powerful, privacy-first eye-controlled Linux computer that happens to take the form of eyewear." Road to VR also quoted him saying the device would give users a computing platform they could use hands-free "from Claude Code to creative applications and more." The company said it was aiming the product at creative professionals, makers, developers and enterprise users.

Pricing and availability

At the AWE reveal, Raven Resonance said availability, pricing and developer program details would be announced closer to launch. It's FOSS reported that the team had shared a tentative base price of US$1,499 and that the glasses would not require a subscription. In August 2026, the blog The Ghost Howls wrote that the price and release date were still undisclosed and that the glasses should launch before the end of the year. In late September 2026 the official website still described Raven Prism as "Launching later this year" and said the company was "sharing preview hardware now".

Design and hardware

Display and optics

Raven Prism has a single full-color LCoS display that is delivered through a waveguide to the right eye. The company's developer documentation lists a resolution of 720 x 720 pixels and a 30-degree diagonal field of view. It describes the display as additive: displayed light is added to light from the real world, so pure black cannot be shown and dark backgrounds with light text read best. Raven Resonance compares the virtual image to a 16-inch display at arm's length.

In his 2025 design post, Suarez explained the display choices. He wrote that the company picked a diffractive waveguide with a full-color LCoS panel over a MicroLED system because LCoS is more power-efficient when a large share of the pixels is lit, which suits full-color content. He gave several reasons for a monocular display, including lower cost, weight and power consumption, less sensitivity to differences in interpupillary distance between users, and no need to keep two displays aligned. He also noted the drawbacks: monocular glasses cannot show stereoscopic content and can cause eye fatigue while a user adjusts.

The image sits slightly to the right of and below the optical center of the eye. Suarez wrote that this position was chosen to limit distraction and eye strain, based on research on head-worn display placement, including work from Thad Starner's lab at Georgia Tech, where he had done research. The SDK design guide tells developers to place interactive elements mainly on the right side of the display.

It's FOSS reported that Raven Prism can be ordered with prescription lenses from -4.5 to +4.5 diopters or as non-prescription eyewear.

Computing

The glasses are powered by a quad-core 64-bit ARM processor. Raven Resonance has not named the chip. According to the SDK documentation, the first version of Raven Prism comes with 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM depending on the variant and has a GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. It's FOSS reported a processor clock speed of roughly 1 GHz. The company says the processor can run tasks ranging from streaming video to local language models. The Ghost Howls reported that the chip can run some models from Google's Gemma 3 family locally.

Sensors, audio and camera

The SDK documentation lists eye control sensors, an IMU, ambient light and proximity sensors, multiple microphones, two downward-facing speakers, a world-facing camera, a physical button, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The camera has a physical cover that must be removed before the camera can be used, and lights called Beakon show people nearby when the camera is in use. The Ghost Howls described the cover as magnetic. According to It's FOSS, the camera is on the left side of the frame, and the eye tracking combines Raven Resonance's own models with technology from Pupil Labs.

Batteries

Raven Wings is the company's name for its modular, hot-swappable battery system, for which it says patents are pending. The press release says Raven Prism keeps its system state while batteries are exchanged, unlike mobile devices that must be shut down or rebooted when their battery runs out. The Ghost Howls reported that there are two swappable batteries, one at the end of each temple, plus a third small battery inside the frame, so both removable batteries can be changed without turning the glasses off. The team also had batteries in many colors, which the blog noted would let owners choose the ones they want. Suarez wrote in 2025 that swappable batteries let wearers keep their glasses on, which matters when the glasses also correct their vision.

Weight

In the 2025 design post, Suarez wrote that the company was aiming for a nose weight below about 30 grams and a total weight of around 50 grams. At the 2026 reveal, It's FOSS reported that Raven Prism weighs under 70 grams.

Software and features

Raven Prism runs RavenOS, a Linux-based operating system developed by Raven Resonance. The glasses support native Linux ARM64 applications and SSH access, and the company said they would ship with more than 25 applications. Suarez wrote in 2025 that the operating system is based on the Linux kernel and is not intended to be a derivative of an existing GNU/Linux distribution with a new graphical shell. It's FOSS reported that the device can be rooted and can run software such as Unity and web apps.

The main input is eye control. In the SDK design guide, the default ways to activate an element are dwell-to-click (looking at a button for a set time) and double-blink, and scrolling can also be done with the eyes. Voice commands and wireless peripherals supplement gaze control.

Developers can write apps with the Raven Framework, a Python UI framework built on PySide6 that includes a desktop simulator. Because RavenOS is Linux-based, apps can also be written for other ARM64 Linux runtimes such as Go, Rust, Node and C/C++. The framework is proprietary software. As of September 2026, the company's website listed a hardware development kit (HDK) as coming soon. The Ghost Howls reported that accessories for the HDK would attach through the battery connectors.

Privacy

Raven Resonance presents privacy as a central design goal. The company said at the reveal that eye control data is processed on the device, that no user data leaves the device without explicit consent, and that core AI capabilities are meant to run locally whenever possible. Its website says the hardware and operating system store sensitive data in secure enclaves and ask for user consent before sensors are switched on or data is sent to an AI model. It's FOSS reported that the glasses collect no telemetry by default.

Developer

Raven Resonance Inc. designs Raven Prism's hardware and software in-house in San Francisco. The company says prototype batches are built in its San Francisco lab and that each unit is assembled, tested and shipped in the United States, with some components from partners worldwide. It was founded by Tom Suarez, an electrical and software engineer who has worn Google Glass and other customized AR and VR devices since 2013 and did wearable computing research under Thad Starner at Georgia Tech's Contextual Computing Group. The company lists Draper Associates, Horizon, Bain Capital, IAG Capital and Clay among its backers.

Reception

Writing for The Ghost Howls after meeting the team at AWE, the author said he could hold the glasses but not wear them. An engineer showed him the display of an engineering sample playing a short video, but because he was told it was a very early version, he did not assess its image quality. He called the hot-swappable battery design "very smart" and praised the company's attention to privacy. He was critical of the 30-degree field of view, calling it "kinda small", and said monocular displays make his eyes cross, so he could not imagine using one for general computing.

See also

• Smart glasses
• Augmented reality glasses
• Head-up display
• Waveguide display
• Brilliant Labs Halo
• Even Realities G1
• Vuzix Z100