Smart - augmented reality glasses. Smart glasses

Smart Google glasses Glass feels completely alone in the market for so long, right? Let's declare a period of mourning so that this technical experiment ends already. Many tech startups and companies are launching either completely new smart glasses or improved versions of their old devices. It's not just about having a camera on your face. AR, fitness tracking and mixed reality are all included in the next generation of smart glasses. From POV videos and photos to turn-by-turn, health sensitivity and recognizing the faces of the people you meet.
We hope that our review will reveal the best smart glasses virtual reality on the market, as well as upcoming new devices that we believe will have potential in the next five years...

The best AR smart glasses

Smart smart glasses: Vuzix Blade AR

We were absolutely blown away by the Vuzix Blade smart glasses when we tried them out at CES this year. They're making AR glasses better than ever. First of all, they really look good. Not exactly perfect, but they don't scream “Look at me, I'm a robot!”
They're not entirely direct-to-consumer, but Vuzix hopes this is a big step in that direction. Alexa is on board to help you with all your tasks and you also have things like turn-by-turn navigation, location alerts and messages.


The display is really good and even crisp photos look crisp and vibrant. There's also an 8MP camera on board with 4GB of storage to fill out what you've got. As for the time battery life, you can expect 2 to 3 hours. Blade AR smart glasses are possible best move towards the basic AR glasses we've seen and while the developer kit will be available for $1,800, the company thinks it could drop to around $1,000 in due course.
Price: from 122,400 rubles or $1,800

Smart glasses: Solos

Solos smart glasses strive to become best friend cyclists. These smart glasses feature a small, hands-free heads-up display, allowing cyclists to see a wealth of useful data in real time, including speed, cadence, heart rate and power zones.
The smart glasses were supposed to be released at the end of 2016, but until recently they were supported by FCC certifications, and now they are coming to the rescue.
They will work with existing running apps such as Strava and MapMyRide, offer navigation, and are compatible with Bluetooth devices and ANT+ if you want to link them to another cycling tracking suite.
Solos has already been worn and used by the USA Cycling team, so these glasses come with elite athlete approval.
Price: from 34,000 rubles or $500, solos-wearables.com

Everysight has specialized in making heads-up gear for the military for years and has built its own smart glasses for cyclists.
With built-in smartphones, the Raptors use an OLED-based projector system that provides a display that, along with a variety of built-in sensors, can display map data, heart rate information and other ride information.
There is also a camera offering videos and voice commands in action-cam style to use hands-free. Everysight is working to open up the platform to encourage developers to create apps.
Price: from 44,200 rubles or $649, everysight.com

Each side of ODG's R7 AR glasses has a 720p lens that is 80% transparent and can display 80fps video with a 37-degree FOV.
In addition to the 4-megapixel camera, there is voice recognition, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a whole gyroscope, magnetometers and accelerometers inside.
There is also a more rugged version of the smart glasses, called the R-7HL, which will be released later this year for those who need smart glasses in more dangerous environments. Coming later this year are the R8 and R9, both of which debuted at CES 2017. These smart glasses offer a larger field of view than before - 40 degrees for the R8 and 50 degrees for the R9. There is also positional tracking, which is important. Thanks to Snapdragon processor 835 inside each one also offers images with more high resolution- two 1080p displays for each new specification.
The R8 smart glasses are the sleeker and lighter of the two, and are more targeted at ordinary people, with a pair of 1080p cameras said to be capable of capturing 3D video.
ODG has also managed to achieve similar growth, although they are still not cheap. R8 will be delivered to developers around winter 2018.
Price: from 187,000 rubles or $2,750 (R7), 68,000 rubles or $1,000 (R8), 122,400 rubles or $1,800 for the R9 model, osterhoutgroup.com

Satisfying the success of Vuzix's V100 smart glasses is new model M300 smart glasses, which are made for businesses and feature a comfortable yet durable design.
Thanks to processor performance Intel Atom M300s run on Android with 2GB RAM, 16 GB of internal memory and Wi-Fi connection. There's also a 13-megapixel camera, head tracking support, and dual microphone mute.
Price: from 114,000 rubles or £1,249, vuzix.com

The ultra-lightweight BT-300 smart glasses tackle the clunky looks of its predecessor by returning with a sleeker, more polished pair of AR glasses. The BT-300 is lighter than the previous model. The smart glasses use a significantly sharper 720p HD OLED display and now feature a 5-megapixel front camera. Smart glasses are also equipped with quad-core Intel processor Atom with Android Lollipop, covering software bases.
While Epson smart glasses have always been quite business-oriented, there are now prospects for using them in the gym.
Price: from 63,900 rubles or £719, epson.com

Sony has released core tools to allow developers to run and code apps from their competitors Google Glass back in 2014, but the SmartEyeGlass hardware seems to be stuck in the dev phase. SmartEyeGlass smart glasses include a variety of features including a gyroscope, accelerometer, light sensor and built-in camera.
However, the monochrome screen will likely save consumers if Sony decides to release these smart glasses outside the business world.
Price: from 54,500 rubles or £699, developer.sonymobile.com

Smart glasses: Sony SmartEyeGlass Attach

But you don't actually need to stick a full Sony headset on your face. The Attach accessory was introduced back in 2015, and the company used the smart accessory for its AR talks at SXSW 2016. Sony SmartEyeGlass Attach has a 0.33-inch single-lens OLED video image with a resolution of 640x400 and a control panel that contains ARM processor, sensor hub, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. The display module is only 40g and there is a 400mAh battery to power it all. Unfortunately, it's still - STILL - just a concept on at the moment, and there's no indication from Sony how much it might cost.
Price: no price, developer.sonymobile.com

The best smart glasses for leisure

The young man's choice of smart glasses, Snap's Spectacles, keeps things simple and stylish. Smartglasses record 10 seconds of 360-degree video at a time, which can then be shared with Snapchat and others social networks, such as Twitter. That's all. They blame the case, it's very simple.
These smart glasses are cheap, cheerful, and they've easily sidestepped privacy concerns—if someone is looking at you with a pair of these bad boys (and the lights are on), they're probably filming you. If not, then sorry for being too boring. While they may not be useful for everyday activities, they really shine when you're doing something special like relaxing and you just want to be able to enjoy this beautiful device freely.
Price: from 8,500 rubles or $130, spectacles.com

Toronto-based innovative technology company InterAxon and Italy's Safilo Group have partnered with Smith Optics to create the newly named Lockdown Focus.
These are unique smart watch In both function and design, they are brain-sensitive and designed to improve your performance under pressure. These stylish smart glasses are packed with sensors that can track brain waves, eye movements, facial expressions and more. In addition, there is a 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and pressure sensors. He gets biological feedback real-time brain training exercises and meditation that help you get “in the zone,” focus and stay calm.
Price: from 23,700 rubles or $349, smithoptics.com

The Vue vision glasses and smart glasses are the product of a $2 million Kickstarter campaign that aimed to ship the smart glasses by July 2017. However, thanks to some technical problems, they were delayed until October 2017. Again, no AR here. Instead, Vue glasses use wired technology so you can use them instead of headphones, as well as a touch interface to control music and calls. They also handle notifications and tracking of your activity.

We were impressed with music playback when we saw prototypes last year, and we'll be testing them out once they hit the market this year in October.
Price: 13,550 rubles or $199, enjoyvue.com

Which includes three models: from the simplest smartphone “companion” to a complex device aimed at augmented reality.

When we hear the term “augmented reality,” what associations first come to mind? As a rule, this is either an Iron Man helmet or augmented or pseudo-augmented reality applications, the most popular of which is the well-known Pokemon Go game. Or it’s Microsoft’s fantastic and futuristic HoloLens AR glasses, which currently cost $3,000, are available only to select developers, and are generally unknown when (or if!) they will appear on the consumer market.

Of course, augmented reality is not limited to such a meager set: there are many technology companies with developments in this area. One of them is the Vuzix company, which introduced new line smart glasses, which includes three devices.

The first, it is the simplest, works on the principle of a smart watch, and, in principle, can easily replace them. Blade 3000 Smart Sunglasses are equipped with a built-in processor, Wi-Fi modules and Bluetooth, an HD camera, a sensor for tracking head position, a small touchpad for control, a vibration motor for feedback, a microphone for voice control with noise reduction function and built-in battery.

The device operates under Android control. Information is displayed on so-called waveguide displays using Cobra II projectors. These are not augmented reality glasses, but the task is to show notifications without having to take out your smartphone to answer a call or view incoming message. The video posted by Vuzix was filmed using iPhone smartphone and demonstrates the operation of the glasses “as is”.

The second, more advanced model of glasses is the Vuzix Blade 3000, which the company positions as a “binocular waveguide video player.” The manufacturer states that this model“ideal for watching video,” the source of which is connected to the glasses using an HDMI connector.

You will also need a separate battery for these purposes. The smart glasses themselves are equipped with a head tracking system necessary for viewing 360 content, a built-in microphone with noise reduction function and the ability to connect headphones.

The third model, Vuzix AR3000, is positioned as “smart glasses with augmented reality.” Unlike previous models, they are equipped with two HD cameras with support for gesture recognition, with which the user can control virtual 3D objects, the image of which is superimposed on the real world. Vuzix also says that 3D objects can interact with the outside world, but doesn't show how.

The glasses will connect to a smartphone, tablet or PC via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but they require external device with a battery to which the glasses will be connected with a cable. The AR3000 is intended for corporate, industrial and medical applications.

Vaunt are very unusual smart glasses. They have no cameras, no buttons, no touchpad, no speakers or microphones. And in general, at first glance, of the things that are necessary for a “smart” set-top box, they only have the faint flicker of a projector that sends an image to the retina. But if you integrate everything listed into them, you will get it again.

The Vaunt project, born in the New Devices Group (NDG) department Intel, started like Google five years ago - with an "early access program" for developers. They must give feedback and adapt the gadget to the needs of the market. Only Intel has a different approach: instead of convincing users that they need smart glasses, the company changes smart glasses according to the wishes of users.

According to the very few testers, the Vaunt prototype feels almost indistinguishable from regular glasses. The look is complemented by several design styles, work with prescription lenses and the possibility of long-term wear.

We live in a world where our watches have LTE, our phones can turn faces into cartoon characters in real time. Everyone expects miracles from glasses, but Intel is relying on functional reduction. This is due to the main goal of the entire development - to create, at any cost, glasses that can be worn all day.

The Vaunt codename inside Intel is "Superlite", and there's a reason for that: they need to weigh less than 50 grams. That's heavier than most glasses, but Google Glass adds another 33 grams to any pair, so the achievement is obvious. Electronics and batteries had to be placed so that they did not put too much pressure on the nose and ears. Add anything else to Vault and they become inconvenient.

All of the Vaunt's electronics are contained within two small modules built into the arms, so that the arms can bend, as is the normal design of such things. Other smart glasses have batteries and computing modules designed so that the arms do not bend under different sizes heads This discreet feature is very important in wearing comfort.

Design suppressed functionality. Vaunt can only display a bit of single-color smartphone information in the periphery of your vision—simple messages like directions or notifications. This is a kind of smart watch, only for the head. But Intel has big plans for the tiny display. Let's take a closer look at the technical characteristics.

On the right temple is a set of electronics designed to power a low-power VCSEL diode laser. The laser produces a red monochrome image with a resolution of about 400x150 pixels on a holographic reflector on the right lens of the glasses. The image is reflected in back eyeball directly onto the retina. The left temple also contains electronics and the glasses are balanced.

Intel says there's no need to worry about the laser's effects on the eye—it's so low-power that it's at the very low end of laser class 1.

All hardware is made specifically for Vaunt. There is an Intel-developed chip, extremely energy-efficient light sources, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and a three-dimensional prismatic design built into the lens to reflect waves of the correct length into the eye. The resulting image is called the retinal projection. The very principle of image formation implies its constant stay in focus, which gives equally high quality (if we can talk about low-resolution monochrome projection) without and with prescription lenses.

The glasses use Bluetooth to communicate with a smartphone. The case also houses an application processor and several sensors, including an accelerometer and compass. They are responsible for the minimalistic user interface: Detects head gestures and helps the device understand where the wearer is looking. The prototype doesn't have a microphone, but the production model may have one to work with a voice assistant like Alexa.

Before equipping the Vaunt, you must complete a quick and simple procedure measurement of interpupillary distance followed by software configuration images. This is familiar to anyone who has ever made their own prescription glasses. The setting is needed to ensure that the image appears in the desired part of the field of view - a rectangle of red text and icons in the lower right corner. The display itself is invisible, it is simply not visible if information is not displayed.

Intel engineers have ensured that smart glasses do not disturb the user by their very presence and do not interfere with his ability to see the world around him. At least not more than ordinary ones. Data in the periphery of vision is read more subconsciously than consciously - perhaps this is a great advantage for a device that previously would have partially blocked a person’s main channel of perception of the world.

In theory, your consciousness in Vaunt will be unloaded by the subconscious. Practice will show how much of a working concept this is.

Intel emphasizes that it wanted to remove line-of-sight notifications. Vaunt shows them about 15 degrees below the relaxed vision zone. The LED display (as in some Vuzix glasses) is too invasive, that is, it encroaches heavily on the field of view, can interfere, and so on; it won't disappear unless you want to look at it, and that's exactly what happens in Vaunt.

The manufacturer is not yet ready to share information about the software. But I’m happy to tell you the obvious: Vaunt downloads information from your smartphone, allowing you to spend less attention on it. The glasses will work in tandem with smartphone applications on and, support is expected voice assistants.

Notifications are the first to go, but this is not a scenario that consumers like. Many people generally do not want to be distracted by letters and messages. Intel wants to go further: provide contextual information. There are no details, but hypothetical examples from company representatives are alarmingly similar to Google advertising Glass: “You're in the kitchen, you're cooking. You can just say, “Alexa, I need a cookie recipe,” and bam! He appears in your glasses."

Options for interaction on at this stage the project is also vague. Sometimes in Intel's stories, the voice comes first, sometimes - head movements, and in some places the ball is ruled by smart algorithms that themselves display relevant (according to their “opinion”) information when they deem it necessary. One thing is clear: whatever the final model of working with the interface turns out to be, it will be restrained, because there is nothing to do with your hands, no scrolling and clicking, no nervous winking. With Intel glasses, the user is less likely to look like a fool.

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It is worth noting that Bluetooth allows you to turn your smartphone into a control panel. For example, pressing the volume buttons could switch the types of data output. And don't forget about the information that paired devices have. The smartphone knows where you are, and the glasses tell it where you are looking. Sounds good. promised something similar with the Now service several years ago, but everything became meaningless due to a lack of interest in its product.

At the moment, Intel is only saying that within 5-6 years it is developing a system with AI elements that would understand the user's needs for contextual information.

The most important quality of Vaunt is their stealth, coupled with their lack of annoyingness. Project employees do not want to replace existing displays, but to create new type devices. For now, it looks like it will duplicate the functionality of a smartphone, but if developers can offer a truly unique user experience, Intel will open up the market, just as it did with watches.

The smartphone is not going anywhere, but over time it will become simpler so that you are less bothered by unnecessary functions. And augmented reality becomes even simpler, which without a camera is removed to the periphery and into the subconscious. Perhaps this is how computers of the future should work.

Researching new scenarios for a new device requires the efforts of a large, distributed community of developers. To do this, Intel will launch an “early access program” in 2018, sending prototypes to engineers around the world, as Google did for Glass in its Explorer program. The engineers will roll out the applications, and everyone else will understand whether Vaunt makes sense.

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Little is known about development for Vaunt. Intel is not ready to describe in detail how it works software or what the SDK will look like, but what is known allows us to talk about programming in JavaScript. One of Vaunt's chief engineers is Brian Hernacki, who worked on the webOS architecture. New Devices Group product manager at Intel Itai Vonshak, deeply involved in the project, has experience at Palm, then LG and Pebble. This is just something to think about.

While working on televisions, Vonshak could absorb basic principle: The user device is only the endpoint to which information is sent from the servers. The main thing is to find the right pitch. The engineer confirms that Vaunt is mobile platform for a new type of interaction with data from the Internet. And this, according to Wonshak, is the distinctive quality and strength of glasses.

But even a breakthrough gadget needs the right presentation. According to sources from The Verge, this is due to the fact that Intel is aware of its weak skills in consumer retail and is looking for partners who could cover the need for marketing and sales channels for the platform. Money is secondary here, since the chipmaker is able to sponsor any project. It very rarely brings products to market under its own brand and feels better as a provider of ideas and platforms. However, even Intel, working with frame and lens manufacturers, sees great prospects new products for those who already wear glasses.

You need to sell glasses through optical stores. If you do this, part of the bespectacled audience of 2.5 billion people will support the innovation. Intel, despite its connection with Oakley, does not have significant experience working with them. According to sources, the most likely scenario for the distribution of the new product is the opening of a separate startup that enjoys the full support of Intel and a consortium of its partners.

A big problem could be competition with a monopolist like Luxxottica, which controls many eyewear market channels around the world. The second problem is the ecosystem. - this is not Apple or Google, it does not have a well-functioning software ecosystem, or a policy in the field of its closedness/openness. The company has to do convenient tools for developers, establish relationships with them, hone the platform, while simultaneously bringing users into it.

In relations with Vaunt consumers, projects such as or will help. They let people get used to the fact that a computer in a glasses case is normal. But they have too different capabilities with the new product. The most interesting option is when Vaunt replaces regular glasses, which PC solutions are already designed to work with.

The first real smart glasses that do not cause a mixture of negative emotions. And let the oldfags criticize us, but this is augmented reality in a new interpretation. It's time to keep an eye out for yet another potential breakthrough and dream that Intel's project will yield a device that's as useful as it will be surprising to the first person to put it on at the optical store.

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Smart glasses, which also include virtual reality glasses, are a piece of wearable electronics that the user can use to obtain information while wearing it on their head like regular glasses - Google Glass and others, or like a helmet-mask - Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR etc.

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No protruding buttons, no camera, no microphone or speakers - smart glasses from Intel can easily be mistaken for regular prescription glasses. However, instead of diopters, lenses are built into the frame, which transmit the image to the retina. The technology is based on a low-power laser built into the temple of the glasses. For now, Vaunt is just a prototype, but developers will have access to the device in the future. The gadget will also work with smartphones on Android based and iOS.

Information about smart glasses with augmented reality technology from Intel first appeared in early February. Then Bloomberg reported that the American company plans to sell its AR business, which is presumably called Vaunt, for $350 million.

However, less than a week later, the company introduced smart glasses called Vaunt that project images onto the retina of the eye. Dieter Bohn, a Verge correspondent, managed to test the prototype of the device. The first feature Bohn notes is the design of the glasses. The technology is suitable for various frames, and lenses can be selected depending on vision - for example, order lenses for farsightedness or myopia. The main components of the device are hidden in the lenses and arms, and smart glasses can be distinguished from regular glasses only by a barely noticeable red reflection on the right lens.

The prototype glasses do not have a video camera, microphone or speakers, although future Vaunt models will be equipped with additional components. Thanks to this configuration, the device weighs only 50 grams.

A low-power laser built into the right temple is responsible for image transmission in the device - a surface-emitting laser with a vertical resonator, as Bohn notes. The laser transmits a red monochrome image measuring 400x150 pixels to a holographic reflector in the right lens of the glasses. From there it hits the retina. The laser is low power, so it does not harm vision.

Overlaid images do not always appear in the user's field of view. Glasses can be worn as a regular accessory, but for launch smart functions just look at the bottom of the frame. If you look away, the virtual display will disappear. This interface allows you to use glasses in public places without attracting undue attention.

The glasses work in conjunction with a smartphone via Bluetooth. The device also has a built-in processor for applications, a compass and an accelerometer. The developers promise to make glasses the same addition to a smartphone as a smartwatch or fitness tracker. The device will be integrated with iOS and Android systems, and will also be equipped with support for popular voice assistants, including Alexa.

To control the glasses, they will probably use gestures - slight tilts of the head, recorded by the accelerometer. But the developers argue that any noticeable movements to control the device ruin the concept. “We believe that glasses users should not have to face communication difficulties due to the device. If a gadget looks strange and geeky, if it constantly needs to be controlled and pressed, then it’s a failure,” said head of development Itai Vonshak. Developers will be the first to have access to the device. There is no talk of a custom version of Vaunt yet.