Patent Filing Reveals Samsung's Designs For Google Glass Competitor

rjmarvin writes "A South Korean patent filing, complete with memos and device designs has let the cat out of the bag about Samsung's new head-mounted wearable device to compete with Google Glass, two days after Microsoft was found to be testing a similar prototype. The device isn't wireless; in fact it has an attached USB extension to plug into and serve as an extension of a smartphone. The device is categorized as 'sports glasses' to 'take phone calls and listen to music during workouts.' The filing gives an overhead, front, and side view of the proposed device, another entry into the rapidly expanding and increasingly competitive wearables marketplace."

Comments

please no

[Anonymous Coward]

People act overly reserved around recording devices; wearing one of these makes you the death of the party.

Hopefully they'll just sit on the patent as a community service.

Re:please no

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like the HD video camera everyone caries around on their smartphone? Save it. We heard the same luddite shit years ago when cell phone cameras were becoming popular.

I'm already planning a youtube channel chronicling the encounters I have with jackasses overreacting to me being ahead of the curve. Which is convenient, because I'll have a camera all ready to go ready to record at literally the blink of an eye.

Re:please no

[lkernan]

Holding up a camera phone is pretty obvious, having your glasses on record isn't.

Re:please no

[ozmanjusri]

People act overly reserved around recording devices; wearing one of these makes you the death of the party.

Thousands of YouTube videos would suggest otherwise...

Anyway, video camera glasses are already widely available at minimal cost, and the world hasn't ended yet. https://www.google.com/search?q=Video+Camera+Sunglasses&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&lr=lang_en. I doubt these offerings from Google, Samsung, Microsoft et al will change the world as video recording or surveillance devices. That niche is already well-stocked.

These things could be a genuine enabling technology, changing the way we do things in interesting and unpredictable ways. Classing them with simple concealed video recorders is - ahem - short sighted.

Re:please no

[gl4ss]

surely if you wore vuzix video/audio glasses 7 years ago at a party people have thought you to been pretty damn high and wasted.

point being, you don't wear sports headphones and displays to a party. or a gopro.

Re:please no

[interkin3tic]

Party? You must be new here.

Re:please no

[JabberWokky]

I'm not taking a position here: I don't have a firm opinion. However, I will point out that audio recording is not obvious, and cell phones can not only do that, they can also easily send exactly what is being said to somebody in real time by simply calling them and then sliding your phone into your shirt pocket (mine, by the way, also has the camera peeking over the pocket, so I could record video as well. I tested it once, and have had zero reason to do so since.)

So, audio recording is not obvious already. Yet people speak freely, even when somebody casually lays a phone down on the table in between everybody.

Not anatomically correct

[growingtedium]

Judging from the drawings, I don't see how the earphones would actually connect to ones ears.

Re:Not anatomically correct

[viperidaenz]

Perhaps they're planning on using bone conduction to transmit the sound.
That way nobody around you gets irritated by your horrible choice in music.
Or perhaps so no one can over hear your smartphone reading out your text messages and emails so you don't get hit by a bus crossing a street.

not a competitor

[Gravis Zero]

you call this competing?!

here's a real competitor!

Still waiting for the cell free version

[WillAffleckUW]

I'd much prefer to wear a cell wristband than dangle a cord from a watch.

Who uses watches, anyway?

That's so last century.

Found picture

[SuperKendall]

Given the size of the smart watch, I'm pretty sure I stumbled across a Samsung Glasses prototype.

Re:Found picture

[Anonymous Coward]

dumb. doesnt sound like a joke, wasting ppl's time

Re:Found picture

[SuperKendall]

doesnt sound like a joke

You might try using Flickr with your eye(s?) instead of your ear.

wasting pp.'s time

Glad to see you got that time back by dropping eole .

Re:Found picture

[grumpy_old_grandpa]

Actually, I think this is their inspiration:
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/438558-zak-mckracken-and-the-alien-mindbenders-atari-st-screenshot.png

Re:Found picture

[SuperKendall]

My money is on the first Glasses clone that includes a mustache. Brilliant!

Samsung? Wow!

[93 Escort Wagon]

I hope this is as stylish and subtle as your smart watch turned out to be!

Re:Samsung? Wow!

[Anubis IV]

To be fair, this is likely a case of them simply pushing their engineers to start solving the problems inherent in such a design. Historically, I wouldn't consider "a smart sense of design or style" to be Samsung's strong point. Most of their decent designs tend to start out as aping their competitors until they can create something of their own, but they still need to have their engineering and technology in place in order to put out those redesigns, and that stuff can take a lot longer.

Whether this particular product succeeds or fails doesn't really matter (and the minimal amount of marketing for the Gear is evidence that they're not really trying with it either). What matters to them is that they're building the technological foundation they need. Once they figure out which way the market is going with wearable devices, they'll make something that fits that niche using this technology and then will market the hell out of it. But, for now, they don't know if it's heading towards wrist watches, glasses, or something else, so they're just throwing things out there and pushing their engineers to solve the problems that are coming up.

Yay! more wasted time and money

[BitZtream]

Seriously, the only useful thing Google Glass does is act as a piss poor GoPro that costs over 3 times as much, only allows you to record a few seconds of video at low resolution with shitty optics.

Google Glass is such a ridiculous failure its not even funny.

Anyone who has one knows how pointless it is.

Thank you!

[grub]

Thank you so much Samsung team. I was waiting this Google Glass competitor. It is really great user friendly and smooth.

Earbuds?

[Bandraginus]

"The device is categorized as 'sports glasses' to 'take phone calls and listen to music during workouts.' "

Uhhh.. won't a $2 pair of ear buds do the same?

Stupid

[The Cat]

Google glass is stupid. The first guy that gets caught taking salacious pictures with it will doom the project forever.

And no female will EVER wear Google glass on purpose.

Just give it up.

What is patentable about that?

[aiadot]

I'm usually not really bitchy about patents. I even tolerate software patents as long as they actually describe something truly novel, after all everything can be described as a set of mathematical equations. But what is novel about that? Earplugs and phone calls? If that passes does it mean that if a decide to "invent" any existing device, but with integrated earplugs and capable of making phone calls, I can patent it?

TFTFY

[aaaaaaargh!]

another entry into the rapidly expanding and increasingly competitive wearables marketplace that no customer is interested in

TFTFY