Feb 06
According to a report by VentureBeat, The New York City Police Department is currently investigating how useful Google Glass could be in the fight against the city’s crime.
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Dec 05
Those ahead of the curve enough to be in possession of Google Glass can now swap their existing pair of smart specs for an updated version of the hardware—free of charge.
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Oct 22
Microsoft may have not hopped on the smartphone bandwagon especially early, but they aren’t about to be left behind again. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is already working on its own smartglasses. Yup.
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Jun 17
Spanish researchers use AR glasses and smartphones to aid student-teacher classroom communications
Posted in: Today's Chili
Gunners. They are a unique subset of students found in most any university lecture hall who steer classroom conversations with constant comments and questions directed at the professor. But what if you want a more inclusive environment that lets even timid students ask questions? One where they can communicate with their professor privately, during class, without interrupting. Well, researchers from la Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) have built a system that lets professors receive feedback from students and know which ones have questions by using augmented reality technology.
It works by leveraging the smartphones in students’ pockets and giving the professor a set of AR smart glasses. Using an app connected to the system’s server, students can indicate when they do or don’t understand a concept, that the professor should go more slowly, or that they know the answer to the question. Then, an icon indicating which action the student has taken will be displayed over that student’s head on the smart glasses’ displays. Using the system, the professor can also push predefined questions to students’ phones and control presentation slides using hand gestures and a Kinect. Intrigued? Speak Spanish? A demo video of the system in español awaits you after the break.
Jun 06
Hands-on with Meta 1, a 3D augmented reality headset with a natural UI (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Augmented reality is the future, or at least the proliferation of AR apps and hardware seems to indicate that’ll be the case. Meta revealed its own augmented reality device, called Meta 1, in January and is currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to ramp up manufacturing and get it to the people. If the headset looks familiar, that’s because its hardware is: it’s comprised, in no small part, of Epson and SoftKinetic gear. It utilizes the 960 x 540 binocular 3D displays from Epson’s Moverio glasses and the depth sensor sitting atop them comes from SoftKinetic. Of course the glasses you see are but a first generation and are wired to a battery pack worn around the waist — the company’s currently working on slimming things down with customized eyewear that’ll be revealed later this year, however. For now, the dev kit and the still-in-development Unity-based SDK are slated to ship in September, but we got to see some of what Meta 1 can do a bit early.
Filed under: Wearables
Jun 05
We’ve seen the prototypes that led Google to Glass, but there are many devices that predate Mountain View’s smart specs, and Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California was able to gather and display a historic number of such headsets this week. From Steve Mann’s handmade WearComp 1 and EyeTap prototypes to Glass-like precursors from Optinvent and Vuzix, it’s quite the comprehensive collection — over thirty devices in all. While they may make their way into a museum some day, we’re bringing pictures of them all to your screen right now. Enjoy.
May 30
Atheer Labs unveils 3D augmented reality mobile platform and a natural human UI (hands-on)
Posted in: Today's Chili
With the advent of Google Glass and the continued development of platforms like the Epson Moverio and Vuzix Smart Glasses, head-mounted wearables are getting a lot of attention these days. Atheer Labs is a small company looking to catch that wave of interest with a new set of intelligent spectacles and a novel way for folks to interact with them. What you see above is company founder Sleiman Itani wearing Atheer’s prototype device that delivers 3D augmented reality and implements what the company calls a “natural human interface.”
The hardware is still very much in the prototype stage, and the unit we saw was clearly a hand-built affair. It packs a pair of displays, a rechargeable battery, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, plus an accelerometer, gyro and an IR camera into it’s relatively bulky frame — so it’s not not exactly a form factor ready for retail shelves. However, because of that bulk, it can function as a standalone device (it runs an an open source OS that runs Android apps), though it also has the ability to offload some processing to a smartphone.
May 08
APX Labs mods Epson Moverio headset, adds camera, mic and motion sensors for improved AR
Posted in: Today's Chili
Epson’s 3D display glasses, the Moverio BT-100 have been floating around as a development platform for a couple years, and APX Labs is the latest to hack the headset. APX Labs is a software firm best known for creating Terminator Vision augmented reality tech for the US military, and it decided to use the BT-100 as a vehicle to develop and showcase a smart glasses platform it’s built to work for both business and consumer applications. In order to get the functionality it needed, APX grafted a 5 megapixel camera, mic and a full suite of motion sensors to provide nine-axis head tracking onto a Moverio headset.
All that gear is shoved into a 3D-printed module and attached to the BT-100 to turn it into a pair of smart glasses. In addition to the cameras and sensors, APX also hacked an Epson daughter board onto the Moverio’s controller to allow an HDMI video feed from a smartphone to be shown on the displays. This result? A system that understands where you are, what you’re seeing and hearing and a UI that allows users to glean information from the world around them using voice commands and head gestures. That should sound familiar to fans of Google Glass, but by using Epson’s binocular displays, these smart glasses can convey depth in a way Mountain View’s monocle cannot. (Not to mention that Glass doesn’t even do AR apps… yet). The hardware we got to see was a crude prototype built for demo purposes only, but the software platform shows promise and Epson’s got a version two Moverio headset in the works — so perhaps you can see a bit of the future of smart glasses in the video after the break.
Jan 11
Wearable domination at this year’s show? Vuzix certainly had quite a presence at CES with those Smart Glasses we’ve been hearing so much about. We’ll be discussing the product and the state of wearables with the company’s CEO, Wearable domination at this year’s show? Vuzix certainly had quite a presence at CES with those Smart Glasses we’ve been hearing so much about. We’ll be discussing the product and the state of wearables with the company’s CEO, Paul Travers.
January 10, 2013 4:30 PM EST
Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!
Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Vuzix’s Paul Travers
Filed under: Wearables
Jan 06
The wearables market is becoming a growing obsession here at CES 2013 — and it’s been the first chance we’ve got to handle the Vuzix M100 — its new lightweight set of smartglasses. It’ll have some stiff competition from Google’s incoming effort, although the premise is a little different — less augmented reality, more a wearable smart screen that pairs to your tablet or smartphone. We’re uploading our video as we speak, and we’ll have more first impressions after the break.
Gallery: Vuzix M100 hands-on at CES 2013
Continue reading Vuzix Smart Glasses M100 hands-on at CES 2013 (update: now with video!)
Filed under: Wearables
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