When Google first launched their Glasses under the what seemed to be lacking-in-imagination ‘Glass’ tag, people were a little weirded out. It seemed most of us were not convinced by the idea of walking around with a pair of tech specs. It seemed like a bit of an overkill for the market. The ultimate wearable in some respects but one left for the movies. Not to mention, the crazy high $1500 price tag seemed a bit too much for the average consumer and simply confirmed its place as more of a concept piece of tech then an actual usable one. In fact, a lot of people probably are still not so keen on the idea of wearing tech glasses out in public. That said, whether the market is ready for such a product, it seems as though the tech companies, themselves, are obsessed with glasses-based wearables, or ‘glassables’.
Following in the footsteps of Google, we have seen offerings in the glasses realm from both Toshiba and Sony being announced. Toshiba’s offering did attract quite a lot of attention, as it seemed to come with a rather unsightly box attached to the side of the device. Although we did get to see a (slightly) more refined product a couple of weeks ago. However, Sony seemed to be taking a much more considered approach to the glassable market and might be quietly preparing a real competitor to Google’s now infamous Glass.
In fact, at CES this year, Sony were present and correct with their glasses, dubbed ‘SmartEyeglass’ and did attract some positive attention. To further highlight the use of SmartEyeglass, Sony did managed to put together an interesting video, which shows how their offering would work in a real-world setting and in all honestly, it does not look too bad. The video shows how Sony’s glasses could be used in a variety of different industries including monitoring of equipment, personnel information and even providing stats on a baby’s health. The current video highlights a collaboration between Sony and APX Labs (who create real-time hands-free solutions) and does make for interesting watching. You can check the video out for yourself below. Let us know what you think and whether or not you are looking forward to the glassable market in general.