I just saw the wireless body transmission network that my future wearable devices need

Ixana’s Wi-R network could help smart glasses stream more reliably to other connected wearable devices. After seeing a few demos at CES, I can’t wait to learn more.

Scott Stein Editor-in-chief

I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. I now explore wearable technology, VR/AR, tablets, gaming, and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv, and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.

Skill VR and AR | Games | Metaverse Technologies | Wearable Technology | Tablets Credentials

• Nearly 20 years of experience writing about technology and more than a decade reviewing wearable technology, virtual reality, and augmented reality products and applications.

I have I’ve seen enough with smart glasseswatches and rings to know that they generally don’t like to play well together. And it’s not just about combining interfaces: connection problems also arise. For example, Bluetooth connections can be choppy, especially when handling multiple devices.

I didn’t know about Ixana or Wi-R before. It is a wireless protocol and chipset designed for very short-range connections, with higher bandwidth and lower latency between devices. The Indiana-based startup has been advancing these device-connecting ideas for several years, including working in the defense space with the US Air Force and US Army. But now the Ixana team says it’s ready to develop a more advanced version of its chipset that would allow glasses, watches, rings, headphones and other wearable devices to share up to 20 megabits per second of bandwidth with each other, as long as they’re close to your body.

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I met with Shreyas Sen, Founder and CTO of Ixana, and Bob Twomey, VP of Worldwide Sales, at CES 2026 to explain the idea of ​​the technology and what it could achieve. This really looks like the next-generation wireless personal area network I’ve been hoping for – one that would allow my portable devices to communicate directly without relying on Bluetooth.

The demos I saw in a Las Vegas hotel suite were limited, but they already got me excited about the possibilities the technology offers. I wore special prototype headphones and a music pendant equipped with Wi-R compatibility and I heard music, although it cut off when I moved the headphones a certain distance from my body.

In another demo, an Ixana team member wearing a prototype dual smart bracelet, pendant, smart glasses, and headphones showed me how information could be shared between all devices with a combined data rate of 5 Mbps. While that’s not a lot of bandwidth for data-intensive tasks like video streaming, it could be enough to allow sensor data, music, and other information to flow between wearable devices without breaking their connection.

Wi-R can work at distances of up to 5 centimeters from your skin, so it should still work through clothing or even heavy jackets. Some military equipment that Ixana has already shown me is designed to function in this capacity.

It doesn’t emit a signal beyond this short range, which could make it a more secure and private personal body area network. This is a point on which Ixana relies for its military projects, Twomy and Sen tell me.

Ixana’s goal now is to enable more continuous streaming of video and audio data into always-connected AI wearable devices, such as smart glasses with cameras or smart pendants. Enabling live and always-on AI modes in today’s smart glasses, like the Meta Ray-Banquickly discharges the battery. This is partly due to active network activity. Ixana claims that Wi-R is much more energy efficient than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so a pair of glasses can live stream for up to 8 hours.

I also saw a demonstration of local data transfer between two phones and two people wearing a prototype wearable bracelet, with information exchanged only when they were in close proximity. This local conduit is what Ixana sees as an alternative to AirDrop and similar technology. But what interested me was how this could eventually enable multiple low-power wearable devices – health sensors, neural inputs or otherwise – to recognize and speak to teach others.

I already wear a lot of smart glasses. I wear a smart watch. I sometimes wear a smart ring. I wear headphones. They don’t all connect to each other and often drop out of Bluetooth or have connection issues in busy places. If we’re moving toward an era of mission-critical, continuously streaming data wearable networks — networks that are constantly transmitting information for AI analysis — I’d like these wearable devices to be as reliable as possible. Could Ixana’s Wi-R offer a faster, more reliable, lower-latency option (less than 1 millisecond, according to its performance tests) that would help the next generation of wearables perform better?

Ixana appears ready to move into consumer products, but a new wireless protocol that isn’t yet a standard would require broad industry agreement or companies choosing to adopt the idea within their own wearable ecosystems.

I’m now sort of obsessed: Could Ixana’s idea be exactly what the next wave of smart glasses and devices needs? I would love my own wearable devices to have quick cross-awareness like this. Although the idea of ​​a data network running through my body is a little intimidating, I’m intrigued to see what happens next with this technology.

Of all the things I’ve seen during my scattered time at CES this year, it’s perhaps Wi-R I think about the most. Ixana is already in talks with what it says are all the major tech companies, although it’s unclear if anything will come through in the near future. If everything is as good as it looks – more energy efficient, slower, more secure, and multi-device friendly – ​​I hope it happens soon.