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These Japanese smartglasses are trying to teach me zen
I'm on the subway, my head tilted downward to face my phone. I blink five times, I put my hand on my tummy to "feel" my breathing. To casual onlookers, I look suspicious as hell (or about to cry), but I'm meditating -- so please leave me alone. Yes, there's no lack of meditation apps on both iTunes and Google Play, but a wearable that monitors your body's reactions and offers feedback is rarer. JINS Meme is a pair of Japanese-made smartglasses that look pretty much like normal glasses. I've trained with them and run with them, and now the latest app for the specs is trying helping me to chill the eff out.
JINS smartglasses swap fitness advice for meditation guidance
In a bid to get you focusing at work, Japan-based JINS has announced a trio of companion apps for its Meme smartglasses. The focus isn't on posture or workouts this time, but literally focus -- by monitoring your eyes. These are the same glasses we've been using at the gym, but this time the apps tap into the high-tech sensors found on the nose bridge. Specifically, three-point electrooculography (EOG) sensors that can pick up minute electromagnetic changes from your eyes, detecting when you blink without any cameras involved. The company cites scientific research that shows that frequency and intensity of our blinks represent whether we're concentrating or not, and JINS has built three different apps that track that. Oh, and your posture, too. No slouching.
These smart glasses became my erratic personal trainer
Fitness wearables don't have to go on your wrist -- although it makes sense that most of them are designed that way. We've been wearing wristwatches for generations, so it's a place where we're used to tethering something. But how about the original wearable: eyewear? JINS Meme is a pair of unassuming smartglasses that have highly sensitive three-axis gyroscopes and accelerometers inside. And because they're situated on your head, the Japanese eyewear company says it can offer insight into your posture and balance and pinpoint weaknesses. To help you with all of the above, JINS recently launched a core-training application ("taikan") to complement its existing running-coach app. It tests your core strength (think: abs, back, abductors, butt, etc.) and offers a live critique on how you're doing. Here's how training went.
JINS' subtle smartglasses turn into sport-centric sunglasses
JINS' fatigue-tracking smartglasses have a new running-obsessed relative: the Meme MT. At the Japanese glasses makers' flagship store in Harajuku, JINS is offering free trials for anyone interested, but perhaps hesitating on that 19,000 yen ($160) price tag. Similar to the features we saw on the original Meme glasses, sensors and gyros inside the frames offer highly detailed metrics -- enough for software and algorithms to pump running info including your center of gravity, gait and pace to the companion running app. The glasses maker has been making a gradual push into the US, launching another flagship store in the unofficial home of wearable tech: San Francisco. Still, no word yet on when or whether it'll be offering its smartglasses options there, however.
ICYMI: A cold foam heart, fast oil change invention and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-524051{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-524051, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-524051{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-524051").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Castrol invented an oil-storing apparatus that lets you change the oil and filter by swapping in a fresh container under two minutes. It's already inside an Aston Martin racing car but the company's goal is to get it into mainstream consumer cars within a few years. Meanwhile Cornell scientists invented a polymer that has pores and can pump fluids, allowing it to act as an artificial foam heart. And a Tokyo-based eyewear company will begin selling its smart glasses next month. The classically-styled eyeglasses can track movement and are definitely less nerd-defining than the telltale Google Glass version.
JINS' fatigue-tracking smart glasses hit Japan next month
Okay, so you've been able to order JINS' non-smart (dumb?), app-customizable glasses for awhile if you live in Japan. That much is pretty well established. But the eyewear outfit's recently announced that its line of Meme smart glasses will be available in the company's home-region stores starting next month on November 5th. Maybe they'll eventually make their way stateside considering JINS' store in San Francisco. How much is that doggy in the window? According to our Japanese Engadget colleagues, ¥19,000 or about $160. We tried them out at CES this year and came away pretty impressed, especially with the purported 16-hour battery life.
I regrettably designed my own glasses on a smartphone app
JINS is a glasses maker on a mission: to make glasses worth talking about again. That usually entails a dash of technology thrown in; a few years ago, for instance, the company dotted spectacle-selling vending machines across Tokyo. Yes, it's a Japanese company. Yes, they're also dabbling in smartglasses. But I'm not talking about any of that this time. No, I took a whole 10 minutes designing my own pair of glasses on the company's "Paint" app, and then a week later, I was wearing them. It's not nearly as elaborate as, say, 3D printing, but it does offer a relatively cheap way of making yourself a one-of-a-kind pair of glasses. And mine probably would have looked better, if I had even a single creative bone in my body.
Testing the smartglasses that actually look like glasses
What happens when a company that makes old-fashioned spectacles attempts smartglasses? You get something like Meme, from Japanese glasses maker JINS. Still in prototype stage and courting developers, the glasses will go on sale early this year for around $800 (correction: JINS expects the glasses to arrive priced somewhere far more reasonable: apparently that's the point). However, let's get out of the way what Meme doesn't do. There's no screen; there are no cameras. There's no voice activation or commands. But when I put them on, they feel like... glasses. And after testing some (if not all) of the other smartglasses, it was a relief. Is less more? JINS hopes so.
New smart glasses warn when you're fatigued
Many people know that they should take breaks when they're fatigued, but actually recognizing that worn-down state is tricky; it's all too easy to push past the breaking point. If JINS' upcoming Meme smart glasses live up to their billing, though, you'll always know when it's time to relax. The Bluetooth wearable includes both eye and motion sensors that can tell when you're close to nodding off. If it gets to that point, a companion smartphone app will give you a heads-up. The eyewear is useful even when you're fully alert, as it can handle basic fitness duties like step counting and calorie tracking.
