After the relative failures of Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens (and HoloLens 2.0), and Magic Leap One, it seems like the world just isn’t ready for augmented reality (AR) headsets, but North wants to change that. Focals by North are AR glasses that look like everyday eyewear and carry a price far lower than their four-digit, enterprise-focused counterparts. When they were available, Focals 1.0 retailed for $599, or $799 with prescription lenses. While you can’t pick up a pair right now, North maintains a couple of showrooms for private demonstrations. I visited one in Brooklyn and got a chance to try out its first generation of augmented eyewear. With Focals 2.0 on the way, this gave me a good idea of the building blocks upon which North’s next generation of AR glasses will be based.

Customization

To get a pair of Focals, you first need to have your head scanned and measured at a showroom, as the glasses are customized for each user. According to the optician who walked me through the process, there are 94 different fits available, based on the shape of your head and face.

The scanning takes place in a 3D camera pod, a small room with specially mounted cameras and a screen. I was directed to position my head so my eyes were aligned with a pair of glasses on the screen and my ears fit inside an oval. With my head in the right place, I simply had to stare at a dot on the screen for a few seconds while the cameras captured my face from multiple angles. After this, the optician showed me the partial 3D scan of my head on the computer that controls the pod (the cameras only cover the face and front of your head, so no data is collected past your ears).

If Focals 1.0 were still in production, the scan of my head would then be used to determine which of the 94 different fits would be best for me. Since North has ceased production, only 12 sizes of demo Focals 1.0 were available at the showroom and the optician had to wing it. The pair still fit fairly well, and let me try out the AR experience.

The design looks slightly chunky but stylish in black, dark gray, or tortoiseshell, with predictably thick arms to hold the electronics, including the projection system that makes the display appear on the right lens. The arms don’t bend at the sides of the lenses, and instead fold inward halfway down their length. This means the glasses can’t easily be folded and tucked away in a pocket, though they do collapse slightly for easy storage in the included case.

AR Display and Controls

Once I positioned the glasses correctly to point my eye at the projection sweet spot on the lens, I was able see the AR display. It’s a tiny picture in the center of the right lens, displaying icons and text. Getting the glasses aligned properly was a bit awkward and the projected image was slightly blurry, but this is likely because it was a demo pair; properly fitted (and prescription lens-equipped) Focals would almost certainly be easier to align and much clearer to my nearsighted eyes.

The AR display is very small, only a bit larger than the tiny display projected by Google Glass. Its diminutive field of view is eclipsed by both HoloLens and Magic Leap One headsets, but those are also much bulkier, more expensive, and still don’t completely cover your full field of view. It’s bright and colorful, though, and easy to see when the projection is positioned directly in the center of your view. I could look straight ahead to see the display when it was active (by default, it appears for six seconds before disappearing, unless you’re actively using an app), and looking anywhere in my periphery made it virtually disappear.

Unfortunately, because the sweet spot of the projection is so small, I was unable to capture the display on camera. Carefully reflected light designed to hit part of the eye can’t easily be caught by a camera lens.

It’s important to note that Focals don’t have a camera for performing environment-sensitive AR. They can’t map out your surroundings like a HoloLens or Magic Leap One, which limits their functionality to simply providing a heads-up display without 3D hologram manipulation or any space-based interactivity. They’re closer to Google Glass in concept, just without a camera at all (which should relieve some concerns about privacy that Google Glass raised).

The glasses are controlled by the Loop, black plastic ring you wear on your finger. The ring features a sharp right angle that holds a small four-direction joystick you can move with your thumb. It provides most of the manipulation you need to scroll through the different functions and apps, though it’s supplemented by a microphone on the glasses that provides voice assistant control and voice-to-text input.

What the Glasses Can Do

To start, the glasses can serve as a notification window for messages from your phone. I received a demo message, and it popped up in the projected display. From there I could click the joystick on the ring to send a canned response in the form of a short phrase or emoji, or activate the voice-to-text function and dictate a reply.

I then switched to the navigation app by tapping right on the joystick a few times until my current location popped up. Clicking in prompted the built-in speakers to chime, directing me to request a location. I asked for a local coffee shop, and the display showed the address before going into turn-by-turn directions. It’s a handy little navigation system that suits the small display area of the glasses, but I was disappointed to see no map view available.

After that, I looked up the weather with another tap of the joystick. The current weather conditions popped up on the display, followed by a weeklong forecast. Helpful weather icons appeared brightly on the projected display, along with the predicted temperature ranges.

There are other apps with third-party integration, including Spotify and Uber, as well as full Amazon Alexa voice assistant capabilities. The messaging feature integrates with iMessage, WhatsApp, and even Slack (all to varying extents), and the notes feature works with EverNote and OneNote. That’s already a nice improvement over what was available on Google Glass.

Focals 2.0 in 2020

Of course, Focals 1.0 are no longer being sold. Focals 2.0 are on their way, though, and should be available later this year. North hasn’t announced any specific details regarding the second generation, but they should have a wider field of view and a more streamlined design. Ideally they’ll also be a little less expensive (generation one debuted at $999 before dropping to $599), but we’ll have to wait and find out. We plan to put them to the test when they come out, so check back then for a full review.