Are you interested in wearable technology? So far 2015 seems like it’s going to be a sensational year for eyewear consumers, as there were some major announcements unveiled last year regarding the future of wearable eyewear technology. To see where the future of eyewear is going, make sure you read on to see some of last year’s highlights. This is going to be an exciting year!
- Google has the intentions to bring Google Glass forth as a regular consumer based product, so back in March of last year, Google partnered up with Luxottica (eyewear makers) in order to gain assistance with the improvement of their Google Glasses design, style, in addition to assisting them with their distribution capability to help make Glass available to more people.
- Intel, the world’s biggest PC-chipmaker, revealed last month that they will also be teaming up with the Luxottica Group, in order to develop new eyewear using wearable technology! Lately there has been the hope of pushing forward wearable technology in today’s fashion world. The alliance’s first product is expected to launch sometime this year; together they hope to create luxury and sports eyewear that is both high-tech, and “fashion-forward.”
- In addition, Intel announced in December that it will also be replacing Texas Instruments in the new version of Google Glass that is expected sometime this year! Google Glass was originally pushed as a gadget for consumers, but Intel has plans to change that; instead of Glass being pushed just for consumers, Glass will also be pushed more towards hospitals and manufacturers as a workplace-computing device.
- Last month Sony announced their new version of “smart glasses”, a new piece of technology that can make any eyewear “smart”; this will not be like Google Glasses, as it’s not a pair of smart glasses, it’s a device that will attach to ANY pre-existing pair of glasses. This amazing new piece of technology will be shown this month as a concept at CES, The International Consumer Electronics Show, which will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada through January 6-9th. The concept model weighs approximately 1.5 ounces and will be equipped with a high-resolution OLED micro display, Wi-Fi functionality, an accelerometer, a touch sensor, and an electric compass. Sony believes that this new device possesses the potential to enrich user’s lives in many ways, as it simply attaches to any pair of glasses, googles, sunglasses, and any other type of eyewear and gives the user instant access to visual information that will add a level of convenience to everybody’s everyday life. In addition, Sony plans to launch an SDK (software development kit) for this module this way developers have the ability to utilize the module to create different wearable products for specific use cases. Developers will also have the ability to connect the module to a smartphone app over Wi-Fi, or they can load the app directly onto Sony’s smart glass attachment. Sounds cool, right? If you are interested in this new piece of technology, but upset you can’t attend CES, don’t fret as Sony currently has a plan to start mass production of this module within the coming year!