Glasses

Of all the big tech companies, Apple is perhaps the only one left without its own kind of virtual, augmented, or mixed reality headgear. Of course, it has also been rumored to be working on such devices for years now with almost no end in sight. The end might actually now be in sight if Ming-chi Kuo's predictions are on the mark. If so, Apple will not just have one but actually three such products launching in the next 9 years, including its own AR contact lenses.

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When people talk about smart glasses, most probably think of something like the canceled Google Glass or some more hi-tech augmented reality eyewear. If that's the image you have in your head with Razer's first venture into smart eyewear, you might be very disappointed. Despite Razer calling the Anzu Smart Glasses, these specs are really more like audio glasses with some smart features, including protecting your eyes from harmful light coming from your computers or devices.

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Facebook CFO David Wehner spoke this week about new smart glasses that are expected to launch later this year in collaboration with Ray-Ban and Luxottica. This isn't the first time we've heard of said glasses - but it is the first time anyone from Facebook has suggested the glasses will be anything less than extraordinary. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference today, Wehner pointed to Facebook's future in augmented reality technology.

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Some consider AR or augmented reality to be the next step forward in computing. Unlike VR, AR mixes the real and the digital in an almost seamless manner, at least ideally speaking. That goal is difficult to pull off, however, with bulky and heavy headsets that require you to be chained to a desktop or a laptop. Lightweight and "normal-looking" AR glasses are the dream for this field of computing and Nreal might be bringing exactly that to the US and Europe in the next quarter.

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Every major tech company except Google might be working on some AR headset or another. While Google may have dropped the ball, rumors about Apple's own AR glasses refuse to die. Naturally, Samsung won't be left behind, at least not for long. It has, after all, already dabbled in virtual reality and it might be looking into jumping into augmented reality if these leaked concept videos indicate the company's future vision for such wearables.

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The Pokemon glasses frames you're about to see are fun, imaginative, and unique. These are words I did not expect to attach to a pair of prescription lenses - not here in 2020, nor ever, really. In a move that I most definitely did NOT see coming, the folks at Jins worked with the official Pokemon Company and created a set of licensed glasses for people of all ages that reflect a set of Pokemon in unique and interesting ways.

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Although it is only recently that OPPO's name became more familiar around the world, the company has long been making innovations in the smartphone space, including some rather unconventional form factors. Those include the OPPO N1's rotating camera as well as the more recent OPPO Find X's pop-up top. These days, however, nothing says "unconventional" more than foldables, swivables, and rollables so it is with great pride that the company is revealing its OPPO X1 2021 rollable concept phone alongside its next step in AR eyewear.

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Audio company Bose has expanded its Frames product line of glasses packing built-in speakers. Starting today, buyers have three new Frames sunglasses models to choose from, each with a different style and tint, but with one thing in common: the company's tiniest speakers, offering what Bose says is a personal but immersive audio experience without wearing earbuds.

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Your next AirPods could use bone conduction for enhanced audio transmission. The most recent plans for this AirPods upgrade appears in the form of a patent application from Apple. In the plans, Apple shows a combination of elements, the likes of which would require a bit more than a pair of earbuds - but not quite a whole helmet-bound headset.

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Apple's prospective plans for a "modular system for head-mounted device" were revealed in a newly-public patent posted to the USPTO. The United States Patent and Trademark Office showed this document with inventors Paul X Wang and Dinesh C Mathew, as first filed in April of the year 2019. This could, possibly, point to part of Apple's design language for their eventual release of a pair of smart glasses, imbued with augmented reality abilities and tipped to be called Apple Glass.

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The future is slightly cooler than the present, according to a pair of prototype devices revealed today by HTC. This is HTC Project Proton, a prototype (a pair of prototypes) for "XR glasses-style" devices "from HTC Vive." Specs are forthcoming, but we've got some imagery of both different sorts of device. These prototypes were made specifically to gather public opinion well in advance of production.

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Panasonic HDR-capable UHD VR glasses shown this week at CES 2020 showed the world that such devices needn't look like a boxy nightmare. Where the first several generations of VR headset from companies like Oculus and HTC brought about a new sort of design language with the hunk-on-face look, the Panasonic design looks like they dropped in from an alternate dimension to bring us some VR glasses that'd be right at home in The Matrix.

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