JioReality OS: building an OS for smart glasses

An operating system for a mixed reality smart glass, where most patterns made for flat screens stop working.

Written by Madhav Nair

Context

Company: JioTesseract. Role: Research, UX, UI. Built: 2021.

JioReality OS is one of the projects I value most from JioTesseract. It was originally built for JioGlass, a mixed reality smart glass now used by enterprises.

JioReality OS home with an app grid floating in an office
The OS home with an app grid.

The problem

Most UX patterns people know were made for normal screen based apps. On a glass you wear, many of them no longer hold. The job was to redefine those foundational patterns for space.

Welcome screen with JioGlass and Hello in several Indian languages
Welcome screen with Hello in several languages.

My role

I worked across research, UX and UI, through multiple iterations. To design well for the platform, I learned how AOSP, kernels and spatial tracking work. That shaped which patterns could change, and how.

From screens to space

Here is how the OS looks.

A media app open in the OS with a side navigation rail
A media app window with a side navigation rail.
App grid with a top bar of controls
A compact dock of app icons
A settings panel floating in the room
Settings.
A second settings panel view

Timing

We built this in 2021, two years before Apple Vision Pro came out. Vision Pro apparently followed similar design patterns.

More on request

This case study is a work in progress. I'm happy to walk through the process behind JioReality OS on a call.

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Or mmadhavnair@gmail.com