Tag: samsung wearable technology

“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.

Has the industry made such a tremendous amount of noise that consumers lost interest before it caught on?

In the mobile tech industry, marketing needs to be conducted extremely carefully in order to make sure that consumers will gain interest and retain it enough to make a purchase and tell all of their friends – wearable technology is no exception to this rule.

When it comes to these mobile devices, brands and advertisers have stopped at no expense to spread the word.

However, as of yet, these wearable technology devices – which tend to be rather on the pricy side – still have yet to catch on with the majority of consumers. While it has generated some interest as individuals read up on the latest developments in the market, the number who do actually make a purchase of one of these gadgets is not as big as it was predicted to be. While some analysts believe that it is still too early in the evolution of the devices to tell for certain what the future will bring, others wonder if the hype was so great in this area that it died off before getting started.

This has left wearable technology makers wondering if they are looking to the future or not.

From smartwatches to augmented reality glasses, there is no shortage of different options available for the consumer to choose. However, as this flood of options has been tremendously hyped and the choices have raced their way forward even before many consumers could even tell what they are, many wonder if the flame on that torch was burnt out before most people could even become aware of the existence of most of the products.

According to the trends that have been seen over the last year, and that were renewed a few weeks ago in Barcelona at the 2014 Mobile World Congress (MWC), it looks as though this year is going to be an exceptionally critical one in the arena of wearable technology. Though Google Glass and Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatches have seen disappointing sales, so far, the marketing has been pushing forward to boost enthusiasm. Now, all the analysts can do is watch to see whether or not 2014 truly proves to be the year of the wearable tech.