New Android Eyewear Wants To Compete With Google Glass

DeviceGuru writes with this excerpt from LinuxGizmos: "GlassUp, an Italian startup, has started taking pre-orders on Indiegogo for an Android eyewear display system billed as a simpler, lower-cost alternative to Google Glass. The GlassUp device is a receive-only Bluetooth accessory to a nearby mobile device, providing a monochrome, 320 x 240-pixel augmented reality display of incoming messages and notifications. GlassUp was unveiled at CeBit in March, and is now up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo, where pre-sales opened today ranging from $199 to $399, depending on whether it's a pre-release, pre-production, or full-production version. This is less than a quarter the price of the $1,500 Google Glass Developer Edition. Already almost two years in development, GlassUp is expected to ship to presales customers in Feb. 2014, around the same time Google Glass is expected to ship in commercial production form." And for Google Glass itself, there's at least one project to bring Google's own hardware an alternative operating system.

Comments

Glass alternative operating system

[__aahlyu4518]

EyeOS ?

Re:Glass alternative operating system

[plover]

Androeyed?

Re:Glass alternative operating system

[somersault]

ForEyes

Let's Break This Down

[The Cat]

Nobody wants to wear computers.

Thank you.

Re:Let's Break This Down

[vikingpower]

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers" ( Thomas Watson Sr., IBM, 1943)

Obviously a lot of folks do want to wear computers. Even if you don't like it.

Re:Let's Break This Down

[Chameleon Man]

It's comments like this that are making me go to sites like Reddit for more insightful, open-minded discussion...something I didn't think was possible 2 years ago. There is a lot of interest in wearable tech, most notably Google Glass, which has been touted as something that feels natural and is very practical for real-world application. Take a second to look instead of living in your own world.

Re:Let's Break This Down

[Anonymous Coward]

I paid a thousand dollars to not need glasses after wearing glasses for half a century, now they're trying to sell me... glasses? These guys are probably trying to sell sand to Arabians and ice to the Antarctican scientists if they think I'll buy one.

But nobody wants to wear computers? You know those funny things you see hanging off of peoples' ears? Those are computer peripherals. Give me a voice-operated wristphone and I'll wear it. In fact, come to think of it, every digital watch is a computer, people have been wearing computers since the early seventies.

Dude, you're clueless.

Re:Let's Break This Down

[guruevi]

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, founder, chairman & president of DEC, 1977

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — A memo at Western Union, 1878 (or 1876).

“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” — Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, 1948.

right eye not partially obscured?

[anyaristow]

A human-factors thing that Google apparently didn't consider is that when you look someone in the eye you are almost always looking at them in the right eye. Even dogs know to look humans in the right eye (see PBS Nova episode "Dogs Decoded"). With Google Glass, the right eye is partially obscured by a camera/display, which is impossible to ignore.

These things look like the camera/display is more out-of-the-way. It may still be impossible to ignore if it's visible behind the glass, but it's got to be better than Google Glass.

Re:right eye not partially obscured?

[Sockatume]

If you're wearing Glass properly your eye shouldn't be obscured, the display should be above and to the right. It doesn't provide an overlay on your normal vision so it's perfectly OK (and preferable) to have it out of your normal eyeline.

Re:right eye not partially obscured?

[anyaristow]

Every single google image search result shows the display part in front of the eye, or so close above it you can't fail to focus on it when you look at someone wearing it, and the opaque part is close enough it will be an obstruction until you have the person's attention and they are looking right at you.

This new project puts the HUD projector behind the glass, to the right of the face. It will hopefully be less intrusive to the way humans normally interact face-to-face.

Re:right eye not partially obscured?

[internerdj]

I think you are going to have to elaborate. This is /. Can you provide citation for the journal articles that describe this face-to-face human interaction thing and how it is normal?

I'm holding out ...

[PPH]

... for Microsoft Glass.

Here's the problem

[aaaaaaargh!]

The problem is that if only a few percent, say 5% to 10%, of the population wear those things, surveillance of citizens will be constant and absolutely ubiquitous. And make no mistake, authorities will directly tap into these things one day, just as it is possible and routinely done with cell phones. Cameras in cities and shops are not even remotely in the same league, neither in numbers nor regarding possible abuse by governments, creeps, etc. (which doesn't mean you shouldn't be against them).

So even if you think these are cool gadgets now, please reconsider whether the long-term implications of being one of those creepswho wear them are really worth it.