Eyewear For the 21st Century and Beyond
Information Right Before Your Eyes
Augmented Reality Glasses offer the possibility of opening up a whole new world of information. No longer will you need to be tied down to a screen when you want to send and receive messages, and you will also have the advantage of getting information projected onto objects, places, and people. Virtual reality glasses and contact lenses may also give you the inside edge on people who aren't able to access information at the same speed you do. Imagine going into a negotiation with facts and figures that only you can see, or walking through a mall knowing which stores have the best prices on certain products, or are having sales. Glasses for augmented reality apps can also integrate with smartphones and earpieces to deliver audiovisual experiences to the user, or show people things. In more recent AR news, the Vuzix company has won an innovatin award at the Consumer Electronics Show for their innovative view-through Augmented Reality Eyeglass design. They use a holographic graphics engine, a six megapixel camera, and mobile AR applications similar to those found in smartphones.
Google's AR glasses are likely going to be considered crude and bulky in just a few years, considering the limited graphical capabilities and the inability to project photo-realistic imagery onto the user's field of view. In a few years, AR may not only be bigger than the Internet, but it may incorporate the World Wide Web into its own little universe. Imaging a desk without a display monitor, and consider that you could have a high definition screen projected virtually in front of you at all times. You may be watching first-run movies projected live to your glasses. Wearable computers with AR glasses (or contact lenses) would make it possible to instantly translate conversations with people directly in front of you, with subtitles.
The future of AR glasses promises an immersive world that may require a lot less space for office applications, and your teleconferces may begin and end from whatever serves as your desk, assuming you aren't outdoors enjoying the park while you do your work. Of course there could be horrible downsides to AR eyeglass technology, and there will certainly be a few deaths from distracted walkers and drivers (some of us are old enough to remember the Walkman hysteria in 1982) but overall AR glasses might be the thing that frees us from monitors and desks, with wearable computing and new ways of conducting business and enjoying our leisure time. Aside from Google, Vuzix is also creating AR glasses that may be compatible with Bluetooth, smartphone, and other applications so you may one day consider it strange that words aren't always being beamed into your field of view.
For 2014, the people at SpaceGlasses.com have launched an exciting pair of AR glasses that might finally break open the marketplace for wearable computing. The ability to interface with smartphones and tablets, turning them into virtual representations of themselves that can be manipulated holographically, is a huge breakthrough that will get people interacting with objects in real 3D space, unlike with virtual reality where the real world is invisible.
Notes and Special Information
Special note: Glasses for augmented reality apps may be expensive at first, and you probably should not be using them while driving.