Innocent glasses transform into GPS-equipped routing mechanism... on video!
The Powers That Be may think that they're pulling the wool over our eyes, but we can see the planned fate unfolding in front of us. Before long, our arms will be effectively useless -- after all, once you can game and navigate with just your face, why bother pumping iron and keeping those biceps toned? Over at Wireless Japan 2010, the Nakajima Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications showcased a prototype that helps explain the latter. Dubbed a Wearable Personal Navigation System, this GPS-infused pair of glasses has integrated LEDs in the frame that wearers can see in their periphery; there's also a magnetic direction sensor, which detects the orientation of the user's head. Once you point your face in a given direction, the LEDs change color to let you know which way you need to head in order to walk, sprint or gallop to your destination. It's hard to tell how long we'll have to wait before we see these on Pearle Vision's Buy 1 Get 1 rack, but the video after the break ain't making it any easier to wait.
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yeah, but can you have them as sunglasses?
@dtakias
i was hoping for some kind of built-in HUD style interface where a semi-transparent map is superimposed over your vision in crispy neon green lines - and maybe with some augmented reality in there, with objects in view having annotations above them in slick call-outs and stuff. this...this is just disappointing. but i'm being too harsh. it's pretty cool actually.
The Japanese are so awesome. Seriously.
@blitzkrieg
Oh yes they are ! They were the first to understand how to increase profit without using war, corruption or politics : innovation.
All hail Japan.
@kineticdamage
You need to read up on 1937, Nanjing and all the other Asian nations under thier rule round that time to 45. Far cry from the liberal democratic Japan of today.
@kineticdamage it's pretty clear I was saying it from a technological perspective. Go be stupid somewhere else because you're not impressing anyone in here.
@blitzkrieg
what? oO
Aren't you replying to williamlau05 instead of me?
@vanglorious
OMG I was thinking the same thing... I wanted to look like Vegeta and dectec people's level power.
When can I get this in contact lens form?
Navigating with you cheek Hawking style is the sh1t.
Getting brain cancer was never this fun.
@Saad "Doc, what do you mean I have eye cancer?"
Good Morning Engadget
@Bud92 yeah XD late news
Interesting idea, but you hear stories of people blindly trusting their car GPS and heading down dirt paths. If pedestrians get overly dependent on their glasses GPS, will they start walking into the middle of the road or off steep drops just because their glasses tell them to?
"If you glasses told you to jump off a bridge?" As you're mum would say.
If only the iphone woman that used google maps to walk onto a 4 lane highway had these......she would have had some problem :-P
There could be some serious safety concerns with this...
One of three things this can be:
* GPS with no visual instructions - Perfect for blind folks
* Tracking device embedded by secret governments
* The ability to nuke your eyes and brain faster than a cellular
very Chinatic.. :)
@jhy2139 I meant japantic.
15 years and there is still nothing that can beat my Blue Blockers.
Research paper from 2006 on just about the same topic http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/20955/
it should've come with X-ray sensor. you know the perversion in Japan. :-D