Tag: google glass

Wearable technology may not always be chunky smartwatches and glasses

| October 14, 2014

A new kinds of tech for wearables is being developed that feels just like skin and that adheres like a patch.

As companies rush to try to bring new wearable technology to the market, there has been considerable focus on coming up with new and innovative ways to make options small, convenient, and unique from everything else that is out there.

When it comes to the direction that wearables are taking, the industry feels very certain about one thing.

The issue about which the wearable technology industry feels the most confident is that wearables are, indeed, the next era within the computing world. However, along with that certainty comes with a very important uncertainty, which is that the industry has yet to come up with a design and function that will define the way that these mobile devices are worn and used.

At the moment, the majority of major manufacturers are angling wearable technology toward smartwatches.

Wearable technology newsThis has, for example, been the case with Samsung and Apple – with the latter’s entry being only very recent, in a device that will become available for sale early next year – which have chosen smartwatches to be their primary focus in wearables. Google, on the other hand, has created an operating system for smartwatches – Android Wear – but has also chosen augmented reality glasses, that is, a type of headset worn on the face.

Three are also a large number of companies that are starting to think that smart clothing will be the next big thing. That said, there is a tremendous number of startups that are popping up and that are each taking their own unique direction on how wearables will come to be. Among them is a new form that could adhere a chip directly to the skin in the same way as a temporary tattoo or an adhesive bandage currently sticks in place.

This type of wearable technology is already in development and is extremely thin, flexible, stretchable, and can be made to be clear (or close to the color of the wearer’s skin) or could feature a unique design that would stand out. An example of that type of tech is being tested out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a company called MC10. Their attachable computers currently look like small, rectangular stickers that include a tiny battery, a wireless antenna, as well as sensors such as for heart rate and temperature.

Smart glasses from Toshiba take a different design track

| October 10, 2014

The brand has decided not to use the over-the lens prism that was selected for Google Glass.

The latest brand to have their eye – so to speak – on the smart glasses market appears to be Toshiba, which has just finished revealing their prototype in Japan at the Ceatec trade show.

While these wearables may not be ready to bump Google Glass out of the running, price may be in their favor.

So far, it looks as though the smart glasses that could be offered by Toshiba would be a bit more affordable than Google Glass, which comes with a hefty price tag, at the moment. They are currently calling this wearable technology device Toshiba Glass. While they do include a built-in projector, they are unlike the current front runner in this category in that the image that they display is simply reflected off the inside of the lens in order to provide the wearer with a kind of augmented reality display experience.

This makes the idea similar to Google’s smart glasses, but at the same time, they are rather different.

Smart Glasses - ToshibaThe Toshiba wearables feature a lightweight, small projector that is clipped onto one of the arms of the eyewear, close to the lens. It is that projector that reflects the image off the lens for the viewer to see in augmented reality. Google’s option also uses a projector, but its design is different in that it uses a prism over the lens in order to reflect the projected image to be seen by the wearer’s eye.

The product from Toshiba skips the use of the prism and has constructed the lens, itself, to be made up of a series of slim vertical prisms that are essentially invisible while looking directly through the lens as you would as you went about your daily routines. However, it allows an image to be projected upon them from an angle so that the wearer will be able to see it.

The specs from the company state that the device, as a whole, weighs about the same as Google Glass, at 42 grams. That said, they aren’t quite up to that level, particularly in that they are not wireless, as a battery in the projector would make the weight too high.