Stony Brook Student Showcases AI Study Tool at MIT Reality Hack

Dongchan Kim and his team participated in the MIT Reality Hack, a competitive XR (extended reality) hackathon with his invention of an AI-powered study tool using Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. There they won two awards - the Gold Prize and Best Use of the Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit (sponsored by Meta).

Kim, a student from the Department of Technology and Society, developed SmartSight with a team of five people with Kim working as a backend system engineer. SmartSight guides learning by giving students hints rather than giving direct answers. The glasses use camera and AI context awareness to understand what the user is looking at. The glasses periodically capture images that are analyzed by GPT-4.1 Vision, and students receive guidance through a voice-based AI tutor. The key feature is that the device is screen-free, creating a distraction-free learning experience.

"MIT Reality Hack is well known for XR developers who want to showcase their ability to make products," Kim said. "So if you are an XR developer, the MIT Reality Hack is the dream stage."

The project explores "ambient AI," which is AI that is integrated naturally into daily life, like a virtual assistant, rather than dictating our every move.

"For our project, it actually came from a pretty simple question: Is AI making us smarter or lazier?" Kim said. "So we used Ray-Ban Meta smart glass to build a study coach instead of just giving you the answer. It tracks what you are looking at, and gives you subtle nudges or hints to help you figure it out on your own. We wanted to build a tool for cognitive autonomy, not just a cheating machine."

Hackathons and real-world projects are the key to growth and skill development. The team plans to further develop the product and present at conferences, including at Harvard XR and Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2026.

"As Dongchan Kim's professor for his senior capstone project I was able to witness first hand his motivation to make this a success," Kevin Moriarty, professor in the Department of Technology and Society, said. "Innovation and design excellence are when creativity and motivation, drive the discipline to move a project forward. Dongchan has displayed these traits in his project."

The long-term vision of the project is for AI to become seamlessly integrated into learning and everyday environments.

"We think that AI could be applied to any other industry very naturally and we have to coexist with AI," Kim said. "The developments of AI can create a bunch of opportunities to make something great and cool for our existing world."

Kim's advice to students: Focus on building and experimenting, not just theory.

"These days, developers should take more action and be more productive in the thinking process with their product," Kim said. " These days the decision ability and critical thinking ability is more important for the developer's ability, so they can act as a product manager as well as developer."

- Angelina Livigni