The world of wearable computing has certainly moved ahead by leaps and bounds, including the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Gear, and folks over in Japan do look as though they are also interested in giving this particular device a go to boot. Hiroshima City University staff member Kazuhiro Taniguchi has come up with a new wearable computer prototype that brings back memories of the personal computer that is worn over the ear by Joaquin Phoenix’s character in Her, which was a recent motion picture. This particularly compact PC’s interface will make use of infrared waves so that it can recognize whenever the computer-wearer opens or closes his or her mouth. As these movements occur, there will be corresponding command signals which will be sent to the miniature mechanism.
A few months ago we checked out an iPhone case that had several add-ons with different functions. The Pivothead SMART glasses have a very similar feature. The glasses have two microUSB ports – one at the end of each temple – from which you can attach small accessories called Smart Mods.
Unlike Google Glass, which has a heads up display to present detailed visual information, Pivothead SMART uses LED guides to display notifications and other basic data. That’s because the glasses are not really designed to be wearable personal computers like Glass. Instead, they’re taking on wearable cameras like the GoPro (though to some extent Google Glass falls into that bucket as well). For starters, it has a camera with an 8mp Sony CMOS sensor that can record 1080p video at 30fps. It has still, burst and time-lapse modes and auto, fixed and macro focus presets.
By default, the Pivothead SMART has 16GB storage and a battery good for an hour of continuous video recording. Here’s where the Smart Mods come in.
The Fuel Mod is a battery pack that adds more power to the glasses, equivalent to two more hours of continuous video recording. The Live Mod adds a MicroSD slot, but that’s actually just a bonus feature of the add-on. The main feature of Live Mod is that it allows the glasses to stream full HD video via Wi-Fi to a desktop computer, mobile device or to the web.
Even though Pivothead wants to be the next GoPro, its Air Mod has the potential to make it more versatile. The Air Mod add-on has the same features as the Live Mod add-on – i.e. streaming and a MicroSD slot – but it’s also much more than that. It’s actually a tiny, display-less Android device, with a dual-core 1.3GHz ARM A7 CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and a host of sensors.
The idea is for developers to make apps that will run on the Air Mod, which will in turn enhance the functionality of the glasses. The video above showed a couple of concept apps for the Air Mod, such as a boarding pass scanner and an app that can analyze street signs.
Pledge at least $229 (USD) on Indiegogo to get a pair of Pivothead SMART glasses without any Smart Mods. You’ll need to pledge at least $409 to get the glasses and all three Smart Mods. The Smart Mods are also available as separate rewards. The Air Mod will – like any mobile device – live and die by its app ecosystem, but at least it’s an optional purchase. The glasses are still quite useful on their own.
Overall this seems to be a really promising device, but its makers need to find a way to explain its features to everyday consumers if they really want it to take off like GoPro cameras.
When my eyes first saw the lady in the image above wearing what seems to be an oversized pair of ruby quartz glasses of X-Men fame, the first thing that came across my mind was, since when did Jean Grey end up with Cyclop’s optic blast power? It does make you wonder actually, that Scott’s skin is so tough from the inside, so much so that closing his eyes alone are enough to contain the optic blast energy. I guess this will venture into the realm of biology and science fiction, but for now, what the model is actually wearing would be the EYETOP, touted to be the “first wearable computer”. Hmmm, now where have we heard such a claim before?
The EYETOP has apparently already ended up as a registered trademark over at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Hailing from OLiGHTEK in China, the EYETOP continues to be one of the company’s major research and development products. Not only that, the company has also begun a new business unit just in case it has to handle the international market. Needless to say, many people would be wondering whether the EYETOP is a rip-off of the Google Glass. Winsum Ji, the president of EYETOP, explained, “A wearable computer is one kind of wearable device. The first computers that could be placed on a desk were called desktops, then, later on, when notebook computers were launched, they were called laptops. The EYETOP is a natural continuation of that concept. The device integrates a computer display and computing into a pair of glasses, and consumers can surf the net, play games, do some business once they don a pair.”
Hmmm, theoretically speaking, as the EYETOP comes with a complete computer architecture, it will then be able to handle basic computer functions such as games, movies and email. Some of the EYETOP’s hardware specifications include a 0.5” micro AMOLED micro-display that offers 2,000ppi precision, making it seem as though you were viewing a screen from 20 meters away, and boasts of all-new parallel true 3D features. Sounds good on paper bub, but we would like to see it in the flesh for ourselves.
If the thought of your own wearable computer from Google was enough to make you giddy, you will be thrilled to hear the latest news from the tech giant. Google has confirmed that the Glass Explorer Edition will ship within the next month. Before you get too excited, note that Google is talking about shipping the Glass Explorer Edition to developers, not end users yet.
Google recently ran a contest allowing people to state their case for why they should be the the first to purchase the Glass Explorer devices. The contest was criticized heavily and some of the people that Google invited in that contest were later uninvited.
The Glass Explorer Edition will sell for $1500 each making it far from a small investment for most people. It’s unclear what the retail pricing will be when Google Glass eventually hits the consumer market. We’re expecting to hear a lot more about the Google Glass and Google’s plans for developers at the Google I/O conference kicking off May 15th and running through the 17th.
The way things are shaping up, we think 2013 will be the year of the smartwatch as some of the biggest names in tech, like Apple, Samsung and Google, are all expected to release some kind of smart watch device in the future. Today, another company is possibly throwing their watch into the ring.
According to The Korea Times, LG is the latest manufacturer to possibly be joining in on the smart-watch craze as they’re rumored to be currently developing not only a smartwatch, but an additional wearable computing device similar to the Google Glass. The smartwatch device LG is currently working on is said to be similar to the Pebble and will reportedly run on Android, although there’s also a chance it will run the new FireFox OS. (more…)
An LED display, camera, microphone, speaker and accelerometer all packaged into a t-shirt and controlled via your smartphone? That’s the concept behind tshirtOS, a wearable platform for “self-expression” that currently only exists as a prototype. It can show off tweets, play music videos, capture belly-height photos and send them off to Instagram, and pretty much do anything except play percussion. CuteCircuit, which came up with the idea in cahoots (inexplicably) with Ballantine’s whisky, says it’s about to conduct product tests and will mass produce the smart-shirts if enough folks register interest. There’s no Kickstarter page, definite specs or pricing for any of this, but based on CuteCircuit’s history and the video after the break we’re inclined to believe TshirtOS is more than just viral marketing stunt for the sake of a dram — click onwards and judge for yourself.
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