Tag: google glass

This rival to Google Glass will become available for purchase during the first quarter of next year.

Sony has announced that its augmented reality glasses, a product which will be in direct competition with Google Glass, will become available by the end of March, next year.

Simultaneously, it revealed that its software development kit has now become available.

The hardware for these augmented reality glasses will also soon be available for developers. This announcement about the SmartEyeglass aligns well with a range of different product unveilings and releases within the wearable technology category. That said, while many companies (including Sony) have been stepping into wearables with devices such as smartwatches, not nearly as many have looked to headsets for this same purpose.

The augmented reality glasses from Sony were first revealed in their prototype form at the recent CES 2014.

These AR technology devices are meant to be just as versatile as Google Glass, while rising above those rival products in a number of ways. While the prototype for the SmartEyeglass is somewhat awkward in appearance, it is heavily equipped with a range of different sensors, such as an electronic compass, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, an ambient light censor, and a 3 megapixel camera. It is also wired to an external battery pack that is equipped with a microphone and added touch sensor.

Now, Sony has also released the software development kit for this wearable technology and has stated that by the end of March, next year, the hardware kits would also be ready for developers to purchase. Aside from the way that the battery is attached, the primary difference between the Sony product and Google Glass is that the SmartEyeglass uses a green monochrome display in order to be able to provide an information overlay over the actual view of the user.

Like Google Glass, the Sony augmented reality glasses will be able to sync with Android smartphones in order to provide the wearer with various types of alerts and other forms of information, such as navigation directions. After recent announcements that mobile devices have been hurting Sony’s profitability, it is clear that they are highly driven to make their mark in new cutting edge market sectors.

“Gear Blink” could be the head mounted wearable that will rival Glass in 2015.

Although Samsung has recently introduced its Gear VR, which provides consumers with a new virtual reality experience, the latest rumors surrounding the South Korean electronics giant is that it may have another wearable tech gadget in the works that could potentially be competition for Google Glass.

The device may be launched next Spring and patent images reveal some of its potential features.

The speculated launch of the unofficially named Gear Blink (also nicknamed the Gear Glass) is sometime in Spring of 2015, possibly as early as March, and may be unveiled at the same time as Samsung’s Galaxy S6, according to a Tizen Experts report.

An augmented reality app that transforms the user’s hands into a virtual keyboard may be one of the Gear Blink’s features. The reason this is speculated is a filing from the KIPRIS (Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) revealed patent images that show two versions of the keyboard, a one-handed variation and a two-handed one. The letters of the virtual keyboard are spaced out in a specific pattern, so that they correspond to different portions of the user’s fingers.

Additional patent images suggest the device’s potential design. Its appearance is not entirely unlike Google Glass, but it does look sportier. One image reveals an earbud and ear clip with a translucent display that curves in front of the user’s eye, similar to current Glass displays. Another image shows the device appears to be equipped with a microUSB cable for charging.

Innovative features like a virtual keyboard could give Samsung’s potential smartglasses a leg up over Google Glass.

It is expected that Gear Blink will be powered by a form of Tizen OS, but it is not known how these smartglasses would work with Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones or Gear watches. That being said, it is likely that connectivity will be possible among all of these gadgets.

Although there has yet to be an official announcement regarding a Samsung augmented reality headset, it would not be surprising if there was word about one soon. It will be interesting to see if Google Glass will have competition and how Google with respond to it.