Optinvent ORA-1 Developer Edition Smartglasses Hit Kickstarter

Optinvent has launched its ORA-1 smartglasses on Kickstarter, a wearable bringing two modes and what it hails as several features that trump Google's more popular Glass. Both a Glance Mode and an Augmented Reality mode are offered by the somewhat bulky wearable, though the prototype has slimmed down quite a bit over the years.

"True augmented reality" is one of the bragging points of the ORA-1, with the latest prototype bringing this mode via a flip-down display that can be moved out of the way when not wanted. How this augmented reality mode can be used in real life is demonstrated in the video below.

The company, which recently announced a collaboration with Himax for smaller retinal projectors, says its wearable can run many Android apps natively due to the use of a slightly customized version of Android 4.2.2. This is joined by the use of Wikitude AR browser, enabling an augmented reality experience straight out of the box.

A consumer version of the ORA-1 aren't yet available, but the company has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its developer version of the wearable, with the funding earned being used for developer platforms, an app store, and related things. Thus far about a quarter of the $100k goal has been raised, with 54 days remaining.

SOURCE: Kickstarter