Glasses

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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Last year, North launched its first pair Focals, minimalist smart glasses that looked a lot like a traditional pair of eyeglasses. Since that time, the company has been selling Focals in showrooms located in Toronto and Brooklyn, through pop-up stores, and online. At the time of launch, there was some question as to whether or not people would pay $1,000 for smart glasses, but apparently enough people bought them to warrant a follow-up, with North today announced Focals 2.0.

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Google has put the nail in the coffin of its expensive and short-lived Google Glasses experiment but the dream of AR spectacles never truly died. It's just that pulling off one that balances comfort, portability, and privacy is one of the most difficult feats to accomplish in the tech industry. Defying those odds, OPPO has just revealed at its inaugural OPPO Inno Day that it is working exactly on its own augmented reality glasses, trying to prove that its innovation goes beyond just smartphones.

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Information released in a report today showed the company Magic Leap in deep trouble. This is a company that built its reputation on the future of augmented reality, aka AR, creating AR technology (like AR headsets) to capitalize on and participate in the modern world of AR/VR computing. But as losses mounted, they began to reach the wrong milestones - points at which they needed to fire "dozens of employees" and at which important early supporters began leaving the company.

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On November 7, 2019, Microsoft announced that HoloLens 2 was "now shipping to customers." The confusing bit here was the less-than-perfect clarity in the message and the differences between the various different sorts of "customers" about which Microsoft was speaking. The first sentence in the Microsoft news post was a bit broad, saying "Now shipping to customers, HoloLens 2 uses AI to facilitate one of the most basic human impulses: exchanging knowledge."

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A USPTO patent application was made public today as filed by Apple back in March of 2019 for a so-called "Display Device." This device is also described in the patent as "an augmented reality headset." The details of this patent - the drawings, the methods - aren't nearly as important as the patent's filing details. Let's take a peek at where Apple's at when it comes to working with augmented reality holograms in a pair of smart glasses.

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Huawei wrapped up its P30 reveal event today with something of a surprise announcement, revealing that it's partnered with Gentle Monster to create a pair of "smart glasses." Details are still relatively slim, but Huawei did briefly talk about the hardware that's built into its latest wearable. One thing is clear from Huawei's brief presentation: These probably weren't what you were expecting when you heard the phrase "smart glasses."

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The start of 2020 might well be the most exciting in years from an Apple fan's perspective. A prominent - and usually quite accurate - analyst by the name of Ming-Chi Kuo suggested Apple will likely release their first AR glasses in the second quarter of the year 2020. This will be an accessory, not a self-contained piece of hardware, according to the analyst - at least in its first edition.

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The folks at Bose revealed a new sort of product called Frames today. Bose Frames are sunglasses that have their own speakers built in. Each pair of Frames is connected via Bluetooth to the user's smartphone and provide wireless access to virtual assistants as well as sounds of all sorts. While the speakers are external, they're still relatively private - aimed at the user and kept from the rest of the world with some interesting directional sound tech.

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Smart glasses are arguably the wearable with the most promise for discreet data consumption, and North - formerly known as Thalmic Labs - believes we'll pay $1,000 for custom set of specs to deliver that. The company previously tried to corner the wearable market with a totally different limb, offering the motion-tracking Myo armband. Now, it's back for your face.

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This week the folks at Epson behind their wild but little-known smart glasses line MOVERIO revealed their latest set for sale online. These are the new model MOVERIO BT-35E Smart Glasses. In the MOVERIO Smart Glasses from Epson is one of the most advanced examples of industrial-grade augmented reality glasses technology in the world. This newest version of the glasses includes 720p HD Resolution and the equivalent of an 80" projected screen size measured at 16.4ft. This pair of glasses works with 100,000:1 contrast ratio with Si-OLED binocular display.

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