smart glasses
Latest
North's smart glasses are now available across the US
One of the greatest obstacles to buying North's smart glasses has simply been to find them. They've only been available at the company's Brooklyn and Toronto flagship stores as well as its pop-ups, which isn't much help to, well, most people. You might have a much easier time shopping from now on. North has released a Focals Showroom app that makes the eyewear available to people across the US and Canada. The app takes you through a depth scanning-based sizing experience that previously required an in-person visit. If you're happy with the design and make a purchase, you'll get your glasses (plus instructions for final tweaks) in several weeks.
Facebook may be creating AR glasses with Ray-Ban's owner (updated)
Apple might not be the only big tech company working on an augmented reality headset. CNBC sources maintain that Facebook is partnering with Luxottica (owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley and other brands) on AR glasses nicknamed Orion. The eyewear would be a full-fledged phone replacement, according to the contacts. You could take calls, see information and livestream what you're seeing. In that sense, it would be closer to Google Glass (which also involved Luxottica) than phone-dependent devices like Snap's Spectacles.
Nreal's mixed reality glasses will cost $499 and ship this year
First unveiled at CES 2019, Nreal's Light mixed reality glasses are almost ready for their commercial debut. According to the Chinese startup behind the glasses, they'll cost $499 and a limited quantity will ship to customers sometime this year. They'll enter mass production in 2020, and starting today, developers can place orders for the $1,199 developer kit, which will ship in September. Nreal announced the news at the AWE 2019 conference.
Epson's $500 smart glasses are literally powered by your phone
Smart glasses have been kicking around for more than half a decade now, so it's a bit jarring when a new model is released and they look, well... ugly. Google has already demonstrated that it's possible to build a pair without bottle-thick lenses and chunky frames, and yet the market's newest arrival, Epson's Moverio BT-30C smart glasses, boast exactly that.
Vuzix's M400 is another AR device built for enterprise, not you
Today, augmented reality glasses company Vuzix announced the M400 Smart Glasses, which will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. They will be one of the first headsets powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform when they hit the market later this year. Vuzix will announce pricing and availability this spring.
Smart glasses maker North reportedly lays off 150
North, the makers of the Focals smart glasses, has laid off a portion of its workforce. The company confirmed the layoffs to Engadget but would not specify how many people lost their jobs. The Verge reported today that the cuts affected 150 employees, which would account for a significant chunk of the more than 400 people who were employed by North.
North chops $400 from the price of its Focals smart glasses
The jury is still out on just how useful the recently-released Focals "smart glasses" are, but if you're the kind of person who's wanted to give head-mounted AR a shot, they at least are now a lot cheaper. Focals creator North just announced a big price cut: the glasses now cost $599, down from the $999 the company was originally asking.
Not quite Google Glass: a week with Epson's awkward smart glasses
I had the full attention of Engadget's San Francisco office as I unpacked Epson's latest augmented reality headset, the Moverio BT-200. The glasses make for one heavy, awkward wearable: Coke-bottle thick lenses with inlaid transparent displays hovering in front of each eye. My coworkers and I passed them from desk to desk anyway, snapping goofy images for Instagram and musing over what to do with them. The glasses aren't Engadget's typical review fare -- it's not a product intended for consumers, and I wonder out loud how I'm going to explain the lenses to my readers. Without missing a beat, my editor Christopher Trout looks me square in the eye and gives me an answer. "Wear them," he says. "For a week. That's an assignment. You're doing it." Hoo boy.
Cleveland Indians want to put ads where fans can see them
Advertisers and sponsors are extremely valuable to all professional sports teams, and thus it is very important to keep them engaged with the fans. In an effort to make this happen, the Cleveland Indians recently partnered with Tobii, a maker of eye-tracking glasses, to conduct a study that could determine what exactly folks look at throughout their time at Progressive Field. The MLB team says it gave 47 fans a pair of Tobii Glasses to use during the span of three days, which were worn as they watched games from various seating areas at its ballpark. Essentially, using the Tobii Insight research program as the basis, the goal was to see how much time participants spent looking at the main scoreboard and other dynamic signage. In theory, this would detect just how valuable certain locations are inside the stadium -- so, the easier it is for you spot it, the more it could potentially cost for a company to put an ad there.
A look at Optinvent's updated Ora smartglasses (hands-on)
On the last occasion we got to enjoy some face time with Optinvent's Ora smart glasses, things were a little more... "prototype." Today, at the Wearable Technology Show in London, we got a chance to see how things have moved along since then. While we were still looking at far-from-final hardware, things have definitely moved on. As you'll see from the gallery, the latest prototype is still lacking the polished, seamless finish that the retail version will have, and a lot of the touches (rubber seals adjustable nose bridge etc) are not present here. What we do see, however, is a much better sense of how the glasses will look when joe public gets to put its face in them in the next month or so. Oh, and we had a quick spin on them too.
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Vuzix's Paul Travers (update: video embedded)
Wearable domination at this year's show? Vuzix certainly had quite a presence at CES with those Smart Glasses we've been hearing so much about. We'll be discussing the product and the state of wearables with the company's CEO, Wearable domination at this year's show? Vuzix certainly had quite a presence at CES with those Smart Glasses we've been hearing so much about. We'll be discussing the product and the state of wearables with the company's CEO, Paul Travers. January 10, 2013 4:30 PM EST Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here! Update: Unfortunately Paul was unable to join us.
Oakley cooking up its own smart glasses, hoping to trump Project Glass with improved style
Oakley's Thump glasses haven't exactly succeeded in fending off the competition when it comes to portable music playback, but that isn't stopping it from working feverishly to develop the next round of vaguely intelligent eyewear. CEO Colin Baden told Bloomberg that the company has been toying with ways to project information onto sunglasses since 1997, hoping to start by augmenting the world of sports before ultimately blending into more consumery pursuits with shades that could run solo or pair up with a smartphone. Functionality is only part of the puzzle, says Baden, as aesthetics play an important role. "People get very particular when they put stuff on their face." This, perhaps, explains the lack of sales of the aforementioned Thumps.
Vuzix augmented reality Smart Glasses prototype hands-on (video)
Remember those wicked holographic augmented reality glasses that DARPA was so hot to build? They're almost here. Hiding out at Vuzix's CES booth we found a functional prototype for its Smart Glasses industrial class monocular display -- a special lens attached to a proprietary display driver that produces a bright, 1.4mm holographic picture for one of your peepers. Vuzix told us the lenses were the fruit of a DARPA project, and could allow soldiers involved in air-to-surface operations to track jets, check their ordinance and mark targets for destruction. The military / industrial monocle will go on sale in Q3 of 2012 for somewhere between $2500-3000. Want to look a little more, well, normal while you're augmenting your reality? You're covered -- or at least you will be in 2013. Not only will Vuzix's consumer facing smart glasses offer you the same holographic heads-up technology that'll power its military bound brother, it'll cost you a bundle less, too: between $350-600. The unit we saw wasn't final, but were told the final unit will be able to accept connections over HDMI, and may even be capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D content -- you know, in case the real world wasn't real enough. Hopefully, we'll be able to tell you those fit next year. Ready to see how you'll be gussying up reality in the future? Hit the break for our hands-on video coverage.
Vuzix designs Smart Glasses to look like sunshades, tout connected transparent display
Vuzix has announced plans to develop a stylish head-mounted display solution in the form of Smart Glasses, through a licensing partnership with Nokia. The yet-unnamed product would integrate a bright, high-contrast display with a pair of seemingly ordinary-looking sunglasses -- sounds like a perfect companion to the ZionEyez in-glasses camera prototype we saw last month. In Vuzix's words: This amazing new technology starts with a compact display engine capable of hi contrast and brightness for outdoor use. The output is then relayed into a 1.4 mm thick plastic waveguide lens with input and output hologram structures on the surface which squeezes the light down the waveguide and then two dimensionally expands the image back into the user's eye, creating an image that is then mixed into the real world. Naturally, the company envisions its Smart Glasses solution as a web-connected device, letting you watch videos or browse the internet while still being able to see-and-avoid pedestrians as you walk on the sidewalk or obstacles while behind the wheel -- try doing that with a Kindle or smartphone (better yet, please don't). Vuzix expects its Smart Glasses solution to start appearing as early as this summer, but we'll be getting an early look next week at CES.
