Today marks the debut of the first smart glasses that actually look like normal glasses: the Intel Vaunt.
The Intel smart glasses were revealed in an exclusive The Verge report and they look surprisingly amazing. The Intel Vaunt glasses will not have a camera and microphone that will intimidate people, nor will they rely on swipe gestures.
Why should you get excited? Because they actually look wearable.
The Intel Vaunt glasses will project a stream of information on your retina. Using a low-powered VCSEL laser, the glasses will project a red image with a resolution of 400 x 150 pixels right onto a holographic reflector found on the right lens. The image will be then reflected onto the retina.
The only thing giving away the fact that they’re more than regular glasses is a red glint in the right lens.
These smart glasses from Intel will work with prescriptions and even come in several different styles. One of the main focuses of Intel was designing a device that’s as unobtrusive as possible. This means the notifications will be visible at around 15 degrees below your relaxed line of sight.
“An LED display that’s always in your peripheral vision is too invasive. … this little flickering light. The beauty of this system is that if you choose not to look at it, it disappears. It is truly gone,” said one Intel Vaunt developer.
All the electronics in the Intel Vaunt sit in 2 modules built into the stems, near the face of the frames. Alongside the VCSEL laser, the Intel Vaunt includes an app processor, Bluetooth to communicate with the phones, an accelerometer and a compass to detect basic gestures and the direction you’re looking.
Intel hasn’t detailed yet what kind of apps will be available or how the software works.
However, there will be an early access program this year, in which developers will try the Vaunt smart glasses and hopefully be inspired to create apps for them (just like Google tried with Google Glass).
So far, for developers, the only hint is that the apps designed for Intel Vaunt will be based on the JavaScript programming language.
While smart glasses like Magic Leap or Holo Lens look positively Scifi, Intel Vaunt goes for truly wearable and discrete. We really think these smart glasses show promise, what do you say?
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