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Nokia developed secret smart glasses as early as 1998
26. 05. 2026 Tuesday / By: Robert Denes / Generic / Exact time: BST / Print this page
R esearch materials published by Lab.zip and concepts found in the Nokia Design Archive at Aalto University show that Nokia developed a secret smart glasses project at a time when most people were still using traditional mobile phones without internet.
It was not just a sketch on paper, but Nokia developed a series of futuristic prototypes and concepts that combined augmented reality, wearable technology and digital information that is constantly in the user’s field of vision.
According to the materials, the project was led by designer Anna Valtonen from Nokia’s design team. The vision was to create glasses that would bring digital content directly into the user’s field of vision. Concept videos and documentaries showed, for example, navigation arrows over real streets, emails in the field of view and 3D instructions for repairing an engine. They were designed to be controlled by eye tracking and hand gestures. In other words, the glasses were designed with features that even today’s smartglasses manufacturers are trying to deliver to consumers in only a functional form.
Nokia called the entity a “Mediaterminal.” The idea was to connect the glasses to a portable computing device that would handle internet connectivity, media, communications, and computing power.
But in 1998, the technology wasn’t ready. The small displays were rudimentary, the mobile circuits were slow, and the batteries were too big and inefficient. While the idea was ambitious, it wasn’t possible to implement it in a commercially viable way.
The timing makes the project particularly interesting: in October 1998, Nokia had become the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, overtaking Motorola. However, the company’s R&D teams have already envisioned a future where computers are placed directly on people’s faces, out of their pockets.
Many of the ideas seem incredibly familiar from today’s perspective. Meta is developing Ray-Ban smart glasses, Samsung’s upcoming glasses are focused on real-time translation and AI features, and Apple is expected to have its own smart glasses in the coming years. Nokia sketched out the same vision almost 30 years ago.
It’s also interesting that Nokia didn’t completely forget about the idea later. The company returned to wearable augmented reality in 2009 with the Nokia Mixed Reality project, which again explored eye tracking, gesture control, and sunglass-like AR glasses. However, even this project did not become a consumer product. The materials currently published are part of the Nokia Design Archive, which contains more than 20,000 objects and more than 700 concepts from Nokia’s history. Many were simply too early for their age.
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