Hasta La Gadget!

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.

Continue reading Vuzix Smart Glasses M100 hands-on at CES 2013 (update: now with video!)

Filed under: Wearables

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Vuzix, which specializes in technofancy optics, is so eager to ride the coattails of Google Glasses that they’re releasing their own version: the Vuzix Smart Glasses M100. The M100 smart glasses run Android Ice Cream Sandwich and has a 720p camera along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and head-tracking sensors. Which means, it’s kinda like Google Glasses except that every time anyone asks you if you’re wearing Google Glasses you’ll have to tell them no and they’ll think you’re an idiot for wearing knockoff Google Glasses. More »

Vuzix has revealed its challenge to Google’s Glass, the Vuzix Smart Glasses M100, a wearable Android computer set to hit the market in early 2013. Resembling an oversized Bluetooth headset, the Ice Cream Sandwich-based M100 consists of a virtual display eyepiece, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, a 720p HD camera, and head-tracking sensors, and can work in partnership with your iOS or Android smartphone for all manner of augmented reality applications.

That can include hands-free calling, photography, web browsing, and SMS messaging, as well as visual navigation using services like Google Maps. Any smartphone app which can output to an external monitor will be supported. The 3-axis head tracker is paired with a gyroscope, GPS, and a digital compass for pinning down your location, and there’s an earpiece and noise-canceling microphone for calls and speech commands.

The display itself runs at WQVGA resolution with a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, and gives the impression of looking at a 4-inch smartphone display viewed at a distance of 14-inches. It has more than 2,000 nits of brightness, essential for outdoor visibility when it will be competing with sunlight, and can be used with either the left or right eye.

As for the camera, that shoots widescreen video and images at 1280 x 720 resolution, and can save shots to up to an 8GB memory card. The whole thing runs a specially-fettled version of Android 4.0 on a 1GHz OMAP4430 processor with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage, with WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, along with physical power, select, and volume up/down keys.

Vuzix says the battery in the M100 is good for up to 8hrs of handsfree use, or two hours of hands-free use with the display active. That unfortunately halves to just an hour if you want to use the handsfree, display, and camera simultaneously. Google hasn’t discussed battery life for Project Glass in any detail yet, but balancing power consumption, functionality, and portability is going to be a challenge for all wearable device manufacturers. Mounting is via either an over-ear hoop, an over-head band, or a band behind the head.

Vuzix will be offering an SDK for app developers to hook their software directly into the Smart Glasses M100, and since the wearable is a standalone computer in its own right it will readily work with both iOS and Android phones and tablets. It’s already caught the attention of CES, winning the “Best of Innovations” awards in design and engineering for 2013.

Exact pricing and availability for the Vuzix M100 haven’t been revealed, with the company telling SlashGear only that it’s due early next year. However, a developer kit – including the Windows-based emulator, sample code, access to a private coders portal with assistance from Vuzix, and the promise of an early production M100 when available – is priced at $999, with the software elements of the bundle expected to be available in December 2012.

Vuzix Smart Glasses M100 takes on Google Glass in 2013 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The first time we featured programmer Will Powell, we learned how he was able to make a crude version of Google’s Project Glass augmented reality glasses. It turns out that Powell has made another version of his hack that is capable of translating spoken language and displaying the translation in subtitles.

Like with his earlier project, Powell used a pair of Vuzix STAR 1200 glasses as the base of the hack. If I understood what Powell said on his blog, a Jawbone Bluetooth microphone picks up the audio and sends it to a mobile device, which then processes the words using translation API made by Microsoft. The translation is then passed on to a Raspberry Pi, which sends a text of the translation to the Vuzix display and a transcript of the conversation taking place to a TV. Below is a shot of the subtitle being displayed on the glasses’ monitor:

And here’s a shot of the transcript on the TV:

Finally here’s a demo of the hack in action. Note that there is a significant delay in the translation, which according to Powell occurs mainly when the audio goes through the translation API.

The sheer number of gadgets needed plus the fact that the Raspberry Pi is physically connected to the glasses via an S-video connector means that this is not a portable system, but I am still amazed at what one man armed with off the shelf parts can do. Besides, all devices – including the ones Powell needs – get more powerful and smaller in time. The time when we’ll be able to reenact Casa de mi Padre is closer than we think.

[Will Powell via Ubergizmo]

Being an early-adopter is seldom cheap, but is Google having a laugh with its $1,500 Project Glass Explorer Edition? Put up for surprise pre-order at Google IO today – though not expected to ship until early next year – the search giant demands a hefty sum for those wanting to augment their reality early. Cutting edge costs, sure, but there’s the potential for significantly more affordable options that could be here just as soon as Google Glass is.

Google isn’t the only company working on wearables, after all. Back in March, eyeline display specialist Lumus confirmed to us that products using its technology were in the pipeline for 2013, with prices ranging from $200 for more basic models – perhaps just offering media playback – through to $500 for more advanced versions with what we’d think of as true augmented reality.

It’s not the only company working on AR projects, either. We caught up with Vuzix this month to take about its own smart glasses intentions, including the display technology it has been working on with Nokia Research. The company wouldn’t talk specific pricing, but did say that it was aiming more for the mass market and that Project Glass “is not the grail we are seeking.”

Of course, there’s a big difference between a developer kit and a commercial product, and there’s no telling exactly what Glass will do quite yet. Google has been playing its cards close to its chest on that front, only really showing camera use-cases, though we’re also expecting some other functionality like navigation. Still, even if Lumus’ estimates were to double by the time products reach shelves, that’s still a fair chunk less than Google is asking.

So, don’t feel too down-heartened if you’re not at Google IO to preorder a Glass Explorer Edition, or can’t muster the $1,500 Sergey Brin demands. Augmented reality and wearable tech is fast approaching its tipping point, and with that will inevitably come more affordable options.

Are $1,500 Google Glasses a bargain? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.