News & Reviews:   smart glasses

At the recent World Economic Forum 2022 (WEF 2022), Nokia's CEO claimed that 6G could be available as early as 2030 and that it could make smartphones obsolete. That got many people thinking, "What device could take the place of this incredibly useful gadget?" Lundmark says smart glasses could replace them, and I'm inclined to agree.

We've seen quite a few smart glasses, but Microsoft has gone the Augmented Reality way with the announcement of their new HoloLens headset. While no actual tech specs were revealed, the headset allows a 3D augmented reality sort of view of the real world. This includes watching news on a wall with no actual display or playing Minecraft (Holobuilder according to Microsoft) on your coffee table with no actual pieces. We've seen this with the Meta Pro smart glasses before. However, there are still no details as to Malaysia pricing or exact release dates just yet. Microsoft say that we could see it within the year though, but it remains unclear as to when exactly that might be. In addition, Microsoft are also working on the Holo Studio, which looks to be like a 3D design studio connected to a 3D printer, so you can design stuff in the HoloLens and then get it in the real world. Check out the videos in this article for a closer look.

After seeing a whole lot of other smartglasses, we're quite interested to see what another big brand company would come up with asides from Google which is what Sony has done with it's SmartEyeglass concept. Still very much in the prototype stage, the concept consists of a pair of glasses attached by wire to a handheld computer which also houses the controls. Rather than have a tiny crystal display like Google Glass, the SmartEyeglass uses a Binocular see-through eyewear display so you have a more comfortable Augmented Reality feel to it.

While smart glasses already exist, most don't really look that good. Vuzix are working on that though as they have just made a deal with a major electronics company which could result in smart glasses that have that "designer sunglasses" look. These sunglasses would utilize waveguide optics, allowing the display to be a bit more subtle than the standard crystal display overlaying the glasses lens. Unfortunately, Vuzix says that such good-looking smart glasses will only start prototyping by the end of 2014. This could mean some nice looking smart glasses in mid 2015 but if you can't wait (and don't mind the look) do check out the Vuzix site for a pair of less good-looking smart glasses. We want one that is affordable or at least on par with smartphone prices, which is what smartglasses actually are, but this is likely just wishful thinking on our part.

Intel backed Recon Instruments is now offering live streaming of stats for the snowy sportsperson through their Snow2 heads-up display smart goggles. The Snow2 is a pair of smart goggles that will soon be able to live stream stats like speed, vertical descent, distance or air time directly to Facebook. This Facebook integration is part of the new ReconOS 3.2 update for the Recon Snow2 smart goggles which is due on 18 December 2013. While we're thinking it could be a great tool for showing off when something goes right it will more likely live stream more embarrassing accidents when something goes wrong on the slopes. No news on Malaysia release dates but if you've already picked up a pair of Recon Snow2 smart goggles somehow, you should be able to download the update when it comes out next week.