Steve Mann, now widely known as the “father of wearable computing,” began pioneering head-mounted computers, displays, and wearable vision systems back in the 1980s—long before such technologies became mainstream. His early invention, the “Eyetap,” was a self-built extended-reality device that streamed what he saw directly to viewers, effectively layering digital visuals onto real-world vision, tells this interesting article on IEEE Spectrum. These innovations laid the groundwork for today’s augmented reality (AR) smart glasses used in operating rooms, factories, and warehouses.
Mann’s fascination with blending physical and virtual realities traces even further back. As a child, he repurposed a broken oscilloscope mounted on roller skates, combined with radar input to visualize waveforms as spatial patterns—creating an early form of extended reality without knowing it.
As a professor at the University of Toronto, Mann continued to push the boundaries of wearable tech and XR. His work across wearable computing, sousveillance (a concept he coined to describe “watching the watchers”), computer-mediated reality, and humanistic intelligence has had far-reaching societal and technological impact. His inventiveness was recognized with the 2025 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Technology Award and the 2024 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award.
Mann’s trajectory—from a curious child fiddling with electronics to the visionary creator of wearable XR systems—underscores not just his technical brilliance but his relentless drive to redefine how humans perceive and interact with the world. He continues to inspire today’s innovators in XR, AR, and beyond.