LILYGO's T-Glass Is a Low-Cost Espressif ESP32 Platform for Head-Up Display Projects

Embedded and hobbyist hardware specialist LILYGO has announced a new device, designed to make it easier to build your own head-up display for wearables projects: the T-Glass, powered by an Espressif ESP32-S3 chip.

"[The] T-Glass] [is a kit for] DIY prism display glasses," LILYGO explains of its latest hardware launch, "[featuring an Espressif] ESP32-S3 [microcontroller], microphone, IMU [Inertial Measurement Unit sensor], [and] prism [display]."

The new kit, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, is designed to provide a low-cost platform for experimentation with head-up display systems. It's based on the company's earlier T-Wristband platform, and uses the same microcontroller: an Espressif ESP32-S3 FN4R2 with 2MB of QSPI-connected pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) and 4MB of flash storage.

To this, LILYGO has added a 1.1" AMOLED display with a 294×126 resolution — the same again as the T-Wristband, though with a lower visible area of 126×126 due to the use of the prism. This is what makes it a head-up rather than head-down display: the prism makes the display appear as though it's floating in front of the viewer's eyes, always visible wherever they turn their head.

Elsewhere in the kit's circuitry is a Bosch BHI260AP six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) with integrated machine-learning coprocessor capable of running positional tracking and activity recognition on-sensor without involving the microcontroller, an integrated microphone — though no speaker — and a real-time clock. There's a single button to act as a touch interface, too.

On the software front, the T-Glass is designed to be used with the LVGL embedded graphics library, and the company provides MIT-licensed sample projects on GitHub covering the use of the the clock, button, microphone for voice activity detection, and IMU for motion tracking.

The T-Glass is now available to pre-order on the LILYGO store at $41, with shipping scheduled to begin in July.