Samsung has been working on some form of mixed-reality platform since at least February of 2023, when the Korean company announced a partnership with tech giants Google and Qualcomm.
The trio of companies presumably were working on a mixed-reality headset that would rival the Apple Vision Pro. Google announced a special version of the Android operating system for AR, VR and XR interfaces.
“Now we believe that we have reached a certain threshold,” Samsung CEO TM Roh said in 2023. He explained that Google, Samsung and Qualcomm will play similar roles in this partnership as they do when building phones together, supplying chips and software to power Samsung’s hardware. In a recent interview with CNBC, Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon said that the partnership is exploring a set of mixed-reality smart glasses that would link to a smartphone instead of a headset. It’s a much different approach than the rumored headset.
I’ve actually been ideating on a FOSS AR system myself but using an HMD as the primary target (currently have Xreal Airs but am going to try building my own OSHW with birdbath optics).
You might be interested in project North Star. It looks interesting based on what I read in the documentation.