Google Glass Inspires Other Smart Eyewear Competitors

by Todd R. Weiss

For $1,500, beta users can get their own Glass device, featuring a high-resolution display, a 5MP camera with 720p video, a bone-conduction transducer audio delivery system, and a wide range of frame, color and other options. Glass lets users see and feel the world around them in new ways.

Sony takes a different approach with its “SmartEyeglass Attach” device that it plans to show in January at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It’s a “single-lens display module” that can be easily attached and detached from eyeglass frames for use when desired.

The Sony module includes a high-resolution color OLED micro display that connects to a miniaturized control board and other components that let users gain access to visual information that can add “a level of convenience to your everyday life,” according to Sony.

GlassUp is an eyeglass frame that looks like normal glasses and that focuses on providing useful information, such as driving directions, notifications and emails, rather than for entertainment, according to its designers. The desired info is shown briefly on the side of one of its lenses.

GlassUp will work for users through a Bluetooth connection and an app for Android or iOS smartphones. A Windows Phone app is also being considered. That means the device works in sync with a user’s smartphone, which must be nearby.

Laster calls its SeeThru device “wireless augmented reality (AR) eyewear.” The SeeThru lets users see information about their surroundings pop up without disrupting their normal field of vision. The SeeThru works with a user’s smartphone, which provides the processing capabilities.

The device includes built-in gyroscopes, accelerometers and other components to “see” the information that is communicated to the screen for the wearer. The information changes depending on what is being viewed, giving helpful on-screen details about the user’s location and surroundings.

ORA’s digital eyewear lets users perform hands-free wireless mobile tasks such as logistics, maintenance, sports, messaging and more, according to its manufacturer. It can run applications as a stand-alone device or it can connect via WiFi and Bluetooth to any smart device.

ORA’s virtual screen has two configurations—”augmented reality” and “glance” modes. This lets the images being viewed to be either directly in the wearer’s field of view or just below it. The devices include a dual-core CPU, a camera, a microphone, inertial sensors and more.

Atheer Labs offers its Augmented interactive Reality (AiR) platform, which includes the company’s AiR Smart Glasses and its AiR OS. These smart glasses can be used today by workers to see and interact with digital information on a screen in front of their eyes.

While wearing AiR Smart Glasses, this is what aircraft mechanics can see while doing their work using a specialized app—a heads-up display describing their next tasks, lists for needed tools, parts lists and more. The platform allows developers to create innovative enterprise applications like this one.

JINS, Japan’s largest eyewear maker, will unveil its JINS MEME fashionable smart eyewear in the U.S. in 2015, featuring bio-sensing technology that will detect tiny changes in eye and body movements, such as calories burned and steps taken, so users can monitor their bodies for improved wellness and health.

Three special frame-mounted electrodes work with six-axis sensors along the earpiece to collect health data from the wearer, allowing JINS MEME to gather extremely accurate information compared with a wearable device worn on a hand or leg. The data can be displayed on an Android or iOS smartphone.