Smart glasses that cost up to $1,300 are recalled after burning 10 people’s faces

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of INMO Air3 smart glasses on September 24 after the company received 10 reports of the device overheating and burning wearers’ faces and ears. The augmented-reality glasses, which sold for between $900 and $1,300, can overheat at the left temple during extended wear, according to the recall notice, posing what regulators classified as a risk of serious injury or death. INMO said a free firmware update fixes the defect, but only after owners stop wearing the glasses.

A left temple that can overheat and burn skin during extended use

The hazard is confined to a single component: the recall notice states that “the left temple of the recalled smart glasses can overheat during extended use,” creating what the Consumer Product Safety Commission described as “a risk of serious injury or death from burn hazard.” INMO’s own recall page uses nearly identical language, calling it “a serious risk of injury or death due to burn hazard” tied to the same temple.

The AIR3 model was marketed for AI-assisted translation, hands-free productivity tasks and media streaming, functions that can keep the glasses powered on and worn continuously for long stretches, the exact use pattern regulators say triggers the overheating. The glasses carry black frames with “AIR3” and “INMO” printed on the right temple, and they sold for between $900 and $1,300 through Amazon, Kickstarter and INMO’s own website between December 2025 and August 2026. The Consumer Product Safety Commission catalogued the action as recall number 26-797, the identifier consumers can use to track the case on the agency’s website separately from INMO’s own case files.

Smart glasses built around always-on cameras, displays and translation chips draw more continuous power than earlier wearables like fitness trackers or simple audio glasses, and that steady power draw concentrated near the temple is what regulators say made the AIR3’s overheating possible in the first place. Unlike a phone that a user can set down when it runs warm, glasses stay in contact with skin for the entire session, which is part of why the Consumer Product Safety Commission classified the hazard as capable of causing serious injury rather than simple discomfort.

Ten reports of burns led INMO and CPSC to act

INMO has received 10 reports of the AIR3 glasses overheating, with wearers describing “a burning sensation to the face and the left side of the ear,” according to the recall notice. The reports came from roughly 1,643 units sold in the United States, a small enough population that the defect rate implied by 10 incidents is still notable given how recently most of the glasses reached customers.

An additional 120 units were sold in Canada, where no injuries had been reported as of September 17, even as the same overheating defect prompted a parallel recall north of the border. That gap between the two countries suggests either lighter use patterns among Canadian buyers or simply a smaller population in which a rare defect had not yet surfaced by the time regulators acted.

Both governments’ recall notices describe the same root cause and remedy, and neither discloses how severe the reported burns were beyond the “burning sensation” language, leaving open how many of the 10 U.S. reports involved lasting skin damage rather than a brief, painful contact with an overheated temple.

A free firmware fix, but only after owners stop wearing them

INMO’s own recall notice tells owners to stop using the device immediately and email a photo of the glasses along with order information to arrange a free repair. The company said the fix updates the glasses’ firmware to version V3.16, addressing the overheating condition without requiring owners to mail the hardware back or pay for parts.

Owners can also reach INMO by phone, at 888-212-9620, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, or by email at [email protected], and the company said it is cooperating with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the recall’s execution rather than facing it as an enforcement action. INMO International Technology Limited, the Chinese firm that makes and imports the glasses, has not said how many of the roughly 1,643 U.S. units have received the update since the recall began.

The roughly 1,763 combined owners in the United States and Canada are being asked to follow the same steps regulators require in most electronics recalls: stop using the product, do not attempt a workaround, and wait for the manufacturer’s fix before putting the glasses back on. Consumers who experience overheating with a wearable device can also report the incident directly to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s public database, a step the agency says helped surface the pattern behind this recall in the first place.

The recall leaves unresolved whether the same temple design appears in INMO’s other AI glasses lines, none of which were named in the CPSC notice, or whether the firmware fix fully eliminates the overheating risk rather than simply reducing how often the display keeps the temple running hot during long sessions of translation or video playback. Neither the CPSC notice nor INMO’s own page specifies whether the fix changes how the processor manages heat or simply throttles performance to keep the temple cooler, a distinction that matters for anyone who bought the AIR3 specifically for the longer battery life and steady performance the company advertised.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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