As Google chews over the re-emergence of the Google Glass, Sony steps in to introduce its very own take on a smart eyewear, hoping to thrive in the arena of the rather new technology. The tech firm is bringing the Sony SmartEyeglass to the world and this early, pre-ordering the Developer Edition of the device in the U.K. and in Germany is already possible. The said edition, also dubbed as SED-E1, is scheduled to be made available in the U.S. and Japan on March 10. A non-Developer Edition won't be out until 2016.
The SmartEyeglasses comes with a £620 price tag. That's $840 in the U.S and ¥100,000 in Japan. It can connect wirelessly to compatible smartphones, plastering information across "augmented reality lenses" and into the wearer's line of sight without having to block his or her vision. This is its key difference to the Google Glass, which uses its frames as the display.
Sony wants the tech community to "imagine true augmented reality" and "a world of knowledge in front of [their] eyes" with its new offering. The tech glasses features chunky black frames and a dangling black cable that is to be fastened to the wearer's clothing. Introduced during the recent Consumer Electronics Show, the device was touted for professional use. However, there will be apps like Twitter, Gmail and Facebook as well as sports and tourism apps for the device, which make many question if its being primed for mass consumption.
The newly-introduced eyewear also has motion and brightness sensors as well as a microphone and a 3-megapixel camera. It also makes use of a handheld controller, which links up to the glasses with a cable. The SmartEyeglasses won't work unless the user is in a room with a temperature between 5 and 35 degrees Celsius — not too hot, not too cold.
Looking at the specs, the Sony SmartEyeglasses falls short in the battery department. Its battery can last up to 150 minutes on a single charge. Wearers who will use the camera will further slash 70 minutes (almost half) of that. Staying away from the camera will not save juice either as the wireless LAN connection can reportedly speed up its draining.
