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I have I’ve seen enough smart glassesAnd watches and rings to know that they usually do not like to play well together. It’s not just a matter of merging interfaces, communication issues also arise. For example, Bluetooth connections can be invalid, especially when dealing with multiple devices.
I wasn’t aware of that Xana Or Wi-R before. It is a wireless protocol and chipset designed for very short-range communications, with higher bandwidth and lower latency between devices. For several years, the Indiana-based startup has been developing hardware connectivity ideas, including defense-focused work with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army. But now the Ixana team says it’s ready to develop a more advanced version of its chips that would allow glasses, watches, rings, earbuds and other wearables to share up to 20 Mbps of bandwidth with each other, as long as they’re in close proximity to your body.
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I met Shreyas Sen, Founder and CEO of Ixana, and Bob Toomey, Vice President of Global Sales, at Consumer Electronics Show 2026 To analyze the idea of technology and what it can achieve. It really feels like the next generation wireless personal network I’d been hoping for — one that allows my wearable devices to communicate directly without relying on Bluetooth.
I tested a prototype of the Ixana necklace and wireless earbuds for Wi-R audio streaming. The connection only dropped a few centimeters outside my body but reconnected automatically once back in range.
The demos I saw at the Las Vegas hotel suite were limited, but they really got me excited about the possibilities the technology opens up. I wore special model earbuds and a music necklace with Wi-R compatibility and heard music playing, though it cut out when I moved the earbuds a certain distance away from my body.
In another demo, an Ixana team member wearing a prototype of dual smart bands, a necklace, smart glasses and earbuds showed me how information can be shared across all devices with a combined data throughput of 5 Mbps. While that’s not a lot of bandwidth for data-heavy tasks like video streaming, it could be enough to allow sensor data, music, and other information to flow between wearables without disconnecting them.
Some of the military communications equipment that Ixana is currently working on. Wi-R promises no radiation of information beyond a small personal range, making operations safer.
Wi-R can work at distances up to 5cm from your skin, so it should work through clothing or even heavy jackets. Some of the military equipment Xana showed me was actually designed to function in this capacity.
It does not radiate a signal beyond this short range, which may make it a more secure and private personal network. That’s what Ixana relies on for its military-focused projects, Twomey and Sen told me.
Ixana’s goal now is to enable continuous streaming of video and audio data in always-on, AI-powered wearable devices like smart glasses with cameras or smart pendants. Activate live, always-on AI modes in today’s smart glasses, e.g Meta Ray Ban-Drains the battery quickly. This is partly due to active network activity. Ixana says Wi-R is more power efficient than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so a pair of glasses can stream for up to 8 hours.
Conflicting data between wearable devices: The demo showed information being transferred from one device to another once both hands were in close proximity.
I also saw a demo of local data transfer between two phones and two people wearing a prototype wearable wristband, with information only exchanged when they are in close proximity. This local channel is what Ixana sees as an alternative to AirDrop and similar technology. But what interested me was how this could allow various low-power wearable devices — health sensors, neural inputs or something else — to recognize and talk to teach others.
I actually wear smart glasses a lot. I wear a smart watch. Sometimes I wear a smart ring. I’m wearing headphones. Not all of them connect to each other, and they often drop out of Bluetooth, or have connectivity issues in crowded places. If we’re moving toward the era of mission-critical, data-streaming wearable networks — networks that constantly move information back and forth for AI analysis — I want these wearables to be as reliable as possible. Can Ixana’s Wi-R offer a faster, more reliable, lower-latency (less than 1 ms, according to performance tests) option that helps the next generation of wearables work better?
A live dashboard of data moving between connected wearables, worn by someone in the room with me. Five devices share a single network that can communicate with the glasses.
Ixana appears ready to move into consumer products, but the new wireless protocol that has not yet become a standard will require broad industry agreement, or companies choosing to adopt the idea within their wearable ecosystems.
Now I’m kind of obsessed: Could Xana’s idea be exactly what the next wave of smart glasses and peripherals needs? I wish my wearables had such quick awareness. Although the idea of a data network passing through my body is a little scary, I’m interested to see what happens with this technology next.
Of all the things I’ve seen in my time spent on… CES This year, Wi-R may be what I’m thinking about most. Ixana is already in talks with what it says are all the major tech companies, though it’s not known if anything will emerge anytime soon. If everything is as good as it seems – more power efficient, less lag, more secure, and multi-device friendly – I hope it happens soon.