Last month, at Google’s I/O conference, Google displayed their Smart Glasses. This invention makes all the Sci-fi dreams come true. It are glasses that you can use to text, video chat, make or look at photos, do online shopping and much more. The search engine/mobile giant displayed their Smart Glasses with a flashy live skydiving demo.
Developers bought the Google Glasses for $1500 and by 2014, the company hopes to have a version ready for consumers that is much cheaper.
But now there’s competition for the Google glasses with Olympus announcing to launch their own version of the smartglasses, the MEG4.0. They will be ultra-compact and easy to wear. They will be equipped with Bluetooth, meaning that they can connect with other devices like smartphones and Wi-Fi connections. They will also make the glasses lightweight and they will have a low power consumption so they can be used for a long period of time.
The press release of CNet said that the display of the MEG4.0. won’t obstruct natural visibility when a consumer is wearing them because they use their own pupil device optical system see-through. And TechCrunch said that Olympus has been doing research on this for some time now and they own patent for this device for some twenty years now.
TheNextWeb said that Apple is also working on the same idea with some of the same technologies. They said that Apple too has filed a patent for their device. The difference with the other smartglasses is that Apple’s glasses will have one or two LCDs to project an image onto the user’s eyes. Since displays like this don’t project an image into the peripheral vision of a user, they will be seeing a ‘screen’ floating out in space. So when you turn them on, it will look like there’s a giant screen before your eyes.
This announcements of Olympus, Google and Apple show that the next digital revolution won’t be about the touch but about the eye and vision.
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