Augmented Reality concepts are rising and Google Glasses were some of the first AR based products in smart glasse range. Although the sales were not so impressive as per the analysts, Authority blogs claim that the AR based smart glasses will gain more popularity and sales in coming years and by 2025 will surpass smartphones business too.
Although Google Glasses couldn't deliver what it would have been in the consumer market from much time, there is still a huge scope for this augmented based gadget in terms of virtual assistance, fitness tracking and most importantly vast industrial applications.
With this, many other AR tech projects have came in the market with pretty attractive designs and high-tech features. Few of them ranking high are as follows.
Level
VSP Vision Care's Level Smartglasses is one of such initiative recently came into play. VSP is not a well-known brand, still, this California-based firm already has a large consumer base for vision insurance plans in US and Canada.
Having said that, Level is their new wearable product which claims a superior style and fitness tracking abilities. Level not only sharpens your vision but also tracks fitness activities. It is smart enough not to get misplaced, neither to miss any of your health activity.
Surprisingly, Level smart glasses can nicely assist people knowing their eye vision issues such as cataracts, diabetes, other diseases etc.
More on VSP Level Smart Glasses
Solos
One of the best sports smart glasses which requires their own app to connect with external sensors and display GPS activities. Experts working with USA Cycling have developed Solos smart glasses and with it 'pupil-scale' display technology, it can measure speed, distances, heart rate, and power.
Solos Sunnies don't have their own built-in sensors, rather it can smartly pull data from your other gadgets such as smartphones, GPS devices, ANT+ connections, bike computers and power meters and so on.
Solos Sunnie is one of the best smart glass wear for sports people. You can take calls, adjust its microdisplay, sync with your smartphone and more importantly have high-density Lithium-Ion batteries to run for long hours.
Buy on Solos-wearables.com
Garmin Varia Vision
Varia Vision is a HUD (Heads Up Device) specially designed for cyclists and bike riders. Actually, it is not a complete smart glasse, rather its an tech add on to the sports glasses and help the rider get information through their Garmin Edge bike computer or a Garmin Edge Varia Radar. It uses quick release style mount and does not require user to use hands or take their eyes off the road to use information.
Garmin offers total three products for cyclist safety - Smart bike lights, Rearview and Varia vision. And if you are at cross fourty of your age, Varia Vision might be a gift to you. At this age, many people have some eye correction or some or other visibility issues. Varia is surely a great tool for all of those including sports lovers.
Buy on Amazon (at $399.99)
You may also like 'Mirrycle MTB Bar End Mirror for further assist your ride' on Amazon.
Vuzix M300
Vuzix calls it as an Android-based wearable computer. Vuzix is a smart glass designed with a monocular display and an onboard processor, expandable memory and recording features including wireless connectivity.
Similar to its previous version M100, M300 stands high with latest specifications and can be easily attached to either side of a glasses. It does not even require a smartphone or a touchpad to operate, rather, its own touchpad offers smooth functioning and support wide range of controls.
Its 24-bit nHD display will give you around 5 Inch display in front of your eyes with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It has a 13Mp camera and can shoot up to 1080p videos. These smart glasses are equipped with triple axis gyro, accelerometer, magnetometer, inward/outward facing proximity sensors and also has a superb full 360-degree head tracking system. M300 supports up to date connectivity features.
Buy on Amazon (at $1499.00)
Epson Moverio BT-300
Moverio BT-300 comes with a latest OLED display technology and lighter than its predecessor. It is the third iteration of smart eyeglass lineup. A new OLED technology makes the black part of the glasses look more transparent to a user making it easier to feel and see both digital and physical objects.
Looking at tech, it has a quad-core Intel Atom X5 Soc, Android 5.1 Marshmallow OS, 5Mp camera and still unwanted but easily wearable external android touchpad which is connected using the cord.
The best part of BT-300 is its capability of producing something similar to Smart TVs. You can actually see an 80 Inch sharp display in front of you, creating excellent theater scenes. Epson is already one of the best digital projectors makers and these smart glasses are worth its price range.
Buy on Amazon (at $699.99)
Recon's Jet
Recon Jet smart glasses are the perfect AR-based device for sport and fitness lovers. It is designed by a group of cyclists, runners which give all activity metrics right in front of your eyes.
Recon Jet is also a perfect style eyewear equipped with AR features. It has a slightly higher price tag of $699 and much suitable for hardcore athletes and fitness lovers. Specifically to note, it was recently acquired by Intel for $175 million.
Its computing module is placed on the right-hand side which contains a display, camera, GPS charging ports and controls. Its actual CPU is placed beneath the plastic which includes 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, 1GB RAM, and 8GB storage along with sensors.
Recon Jet is one of the finest piece of eyewear we have seen till date.
Buy on Amazon (at $335.99)
Sony SmartEyeGlass
It's an excellent Augmented smart glass Sony released its developer edition at CES 2015. Its app development is still on the go.
SmartEyeGlass have two lenses which act as a display in front of eyes. Currently, this prototype comes with a puck-shaped device that is attached to the glasses by a wire. You also need an android smartphone or tablet to connect to it through Bluetooth. Its features include a built-in camera, gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor.
Buy at developer.sony.com
Sony SmartEyeGlass Attach
It's a new Augmented based smart glass design from Sony which brings real-time information right in front of your eyes. It is very much similar to a Google Glass concept and works on an open source project concept.
This gadget is waterproof so good news for sports lovers and enthusiasts. It features 0.23 inch OLED single lens microdisplay, ARM processor, sensor hub, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. It contains a 400mAh battery and weighs just 40g.
Buy at developer.sonymobile.com
CastAR
Caster brings an affordable AR smart glasses for masses. In 2013 CastAR raised over one million dollars through Kickstarter funding. It's a pair of glasses and a scanning surface for the glasses. Its camera between the glasses captures the surroundings and adjust accordingly to project the images.
Information is placed in front of your eyes through micro-projectors placed on top of frames. Its 'Magic Wand' is a great feature which helps you interact with the augmented objects. You can actually play AR games and use this feature to move objects.
See more on Kickstarter.com
Meta 2
Meta CEO Meron Gribetz unveiled Meta 2 AR smart glass at TEDx 2016, with large design and has near 90-degree field of view. Due to this, it becomes costlier compared to others. Still, Gear VR mobile offers almost up to 98 degrees FoV. Previous Meta had around 35 degrees FoV.
Meta system gives you a complete up to date augmented reality experience which includes seeing, creating and interacting with virtual things. It can perfectly create a digital display in front of glasses and more importantly seamlessly work with next-gen computing systems.
Comparison with Hololens
Hololens is a complete standalone windows 10 device whereas Meta 2 needs to be configured with a powerful PC to utilize its full capabilities. Full review at Amazon
Beware though, Meta 2 headset is tethered, Hololens is not. Therefore, Meta 2 gives better holographic output in terms of image quality, being connected to a powerful computer compared to a standalone Hololens.
Buy at buy.metavision.com
ODG R-7
Osterhout Design Group (ODG)'s R-7 is primarily targeted towards Enterprise customers with its robust yet lightweight design. It delivers the most advanced platform for augmented reality head-worn computing experience.
R-7 is equipped with Qualcomm's 2.7GHz Quad-core processor, 3GB pop LP-DDR3 RAM and massive 64GB storage. It also has latest inbuilt sensors and best connectivity features.
It sports a stunning ultra-transparent 3D stereoscopic display and packed with innovative features. ODG also announced smart glass developer application program through its ReticleOS Developer program.
R7 received CES 2016's Best of Innovation Award for the Tablet and Mobile Computing category. It has a very high price tag of $2750. Some of the partner applications include Blippar, Augumenta, Medweb, Dysonics, OpTech4D, Paracosm, Scope AR and Vital Enterprises. See more on Businesswire
Buy at osterhoutgroup.com
Magic Leap
Its a tech startup from South Florida with invements from Google Inc and others and a support from Richard Taylor (Founder of Avatar), Weta Workshop (Lord of the Rings special effects company) and Neal Stephenson ( a visionary futurist/novelist).
Promissing on both Virtual and Augmented reality concept, Magic Leap works parallel to design concept of Microsoft's Hololens and focusing on completely different immersive experience. Video source: Magic leap official youtube channel
More on Magicleap.com
Laster SeeThru
Laster SeeThru (A new French based startup) bringing a real competition to Google Glass. It has 800x600 display with 25 degree FoV which is twice the display window of Google Glass.
SeeThru uses the power of user's smartphone through bluetooth. Equipped with latest sensors and display technology, it can nicely deliver digital information layered on lens projections.
See more on laster.fr
ORA-2
Ora 2 is an AR based smart glasses works flawlessly with Google Android and features a disruptive transparent retinal projection technology. It runs a multiple hands-free mobile computing and AR applications including remote maintenance, diagnostics and has many other attractive features.
Buy on Optinvent.com
ODG AR/VR R-8 and R-9
ODG - Osterhout Design Group unveils its first consumer AR/Vr glasses at CES 2017. Theses glasses will sport a Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 Chipset.
ODG is a well known company for making smart glasses and other products for some big corporate sectors and US Military. Ralph Osterhout describes it as a "glasses for the masses".
R9 are priced around $1799, aimed at 'light enterprise' and has ODG's 50 deg. FoV with Project Horizon platform. The smaller and lighter R-8 will have some less than $1000 price tag and will be available in third or fourth quarter of this year.
Some of the best hollywood animation experts as 21st Century Fox and LA's Up along with OTOY (a virtual reality firm) and PTC (making AR platform Vuforia) are developing content for ODG. At the moment content from 20th Century Fox, Fox Broadcasting, NatGeo, Fox News, Fox Sports, FX are being made available for users.
Price (Awaiting)
Although Google Glasses couldn't deliver what it would have been in the consumer market from much time, there is still a huge scope for this augmented based gadget in terms of virtual assistance, fitness tracking and most importantly vast industrial applications.
With this, many other AR tech projects have came in the market with pretty attractive designs and high-tech features. Few of them ranking high are as follows.
Level
VSP Vision Care's Level Smartglasses is one of such initiative recently came into play. VSP is not a well-known brand, still, this California-based firm already has a large consumer base for vision insurance plans in US and Canada.
Having said that, Level is their new wearable product which claims a superior style and fitness tracking abilities. Level not only sharpens your vision but also tracks fitness activities. It is smart enough not to get misplaced, neither to miss any of your health activity.
Surprisingly, Level smart glasses can nicely assist people knowing their eye vision issues such as cataracts, diabetes, other diseases etc.
More on VSP Level Smart Glasses
Solos
One of the best sports smart glasses which requires their own app to connect with external sensors and display GPS activities. Experts working with USA Cycling have developed Solos smart glasses and with it 'pupil-scale' display technology, it can measure speed, distances, heart rate, and power.
Solos Sunnies don't have their own built-in sensors, rather it can smartly pull data from your other gadgets such as smartphones, GPS devices, ANT+ connections, bike computers and power meters and so on.
Solos Sunnie is one of the best smart glass wear for sports people. You can take calls, adjust its microdisplay, sync with your smartphone and more importantly have high-density Lithium-Ion batteries to run for long hours.
Buy on Solos-wearables.com
Garmin Varia Vision
Varia Vision is a HUD (Heads Up Device) specially designed for cyclists and bike riders. Actually, it is not a complete smart glasse, rather its an tech add on to the sports glasses and help the rider get information through their Garmin Edge bike computer or a Garmin Edge Varia Radar. It uses quick release style mount and does not require user to use hands or take their eyes off the road to use information.
Garmin offers total three products for cyclist safety - Smart bike lights, Rearview and Varia vision. And if you are at cross fourty of your age, Varia Vision might be a gift to you. At this age, many people have some eye correction or some or other visibility issues. Varia is surely a great tool for all of those including sports lovers.
Buy on Amazon (at $399.99)
You may also like 'Mirrycle MTB Bar End Mirror for further assist your ride' on Amazon.
Vuzix M300
Vuzix calls it as an Android-based wearable computer. Vuzix is a smart glass designed with a monocular display and an onboard processor, expandable memory and recording features including wireless connectivity.
Similar to its previous version M100, M300 stands high with latest specifications and can be easily attached to either side of a glasses. It does not even require a smartphone or a touchpad to operate, rather, its own touchpad offers smooth functioning and support wide range of controls.
Its 24-bit nHD display will give you around 5 Inch display in front of your eyes with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It has a 13Mp camera and can shoot up to 1080p videos. These smart glasses are equipped with triple axis gyro, accelerometer, magnetometer, inward/outward facing proximity sensors and also has a superb full 360-degree head tracking system. M300 supports up to date connectivity features.
Buy on Amazon (at $1499.00)
Epson Moverio BT-300
Moverio BT-300 comes with a latest OLED display technology and lighter than its predecessor. It is the third iteration of smart eyeglass lineup. A new OLED technology makes the black part of the glasses look more transparent to a user making it easier to feel and see both digital and physical objects.
Looking at tech, it has a quad-core Intel Atom X5 Soc, Android 5.1 Marshmallow OS, 5Mp camera and still unwanted but easily wearable external android touchpad which is connected using the cord.
The best part of BT-300 is its capability of producing something similar to Smart TVs. You can actually see an 80 Inch sharp display in front of you, creating excellent theater scenes. Epson is already one of the best digital projectors makers and these smart glasses are worth its price range.
Buy on Amazon (at $699.99)
Recon's Jet
Recon Jet smart glasses are the perfect AR-based device for sport and fitness lovers. It is designed by a group of cyclists, runners which give all activity metrics right in front of your eyes.
Recon Jet is also a perfect style eyewear equipped with AR features. It has a slightly higher price tag of $699 and much suitable for hardcore athletes and fitness lovers. Specifically to note, it was recently acquired by Intel for $175 million.
Its computing module is placed on the right-hand side which contains a display, camera, GPS charging ports and controls. Its actual CPU is placed beneath the plastic which includes 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, 1GB RAM, and 8GB storage along with sensors.
Recon Jet is one of the finest piece of eyewear we have seen till date.
Buy on Amazon (at $335.99)
Sony SmartEyeGlass
It's an excellent Augmented smart glass Sony released its developer edition at CES 2015. Its app development is still on the go.
SmartEyeGlass have two lenses which act as a display in front of eyes. Currently, this prototype comes with a puck-shaped device that is attached to the glasses by a wire. You also need an android smartphone or tablet to connect to it through Bluetooth. Its features include a built-in camera, gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor.
Buy at developer.sony.com
Sony SmartEyeGlass Attach
It's a new Augmented based smart glass design from Sony which brings real-time information right in front of your eyes. It is very much similar to a Google Glass concept and works on an open source project concept.
This gadget is waterproof so good news for sports lovers and enthusiasts. It features 0.23 inch OLED single lens microdisplay, ARM processor, sensor hub, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. It contains a 400mAh battery and weighs just 40g.
Buy at developer.sonymobile.com
CastAR
Caster brings an affordable AR smart glasses for masses. In 2013 CastAR raised over one million dollars through Kickstarter funding. It's a pair of glasses and a scanning surface for the glasses. Its camera between the glasses captures the surroundings and adjust accordingly to project the images.
Information is placed in front of your eyes through micro-projectors placed on top of frames. Its 'Magic Wand' is a great feature which helps you interact with the augmented objects. You can actually play AR games and use this feature to move objects.
See more on Kickstarter.com
Meta 2
Meta CEO Meron Gribetz unveiled Meta 2 AR smart glass at TEDx 2016, with large design and has near 90-degree field of view. Due to this, it becomes costlier compared to others. Still, Gear VR mobile offers almost up to 98 degrees FoV. Previous Meta had around 35 degrees FoV.
Meta system gives you a complete up to date augmented reality experience which includes seeing, creating and interacting with virtual things. It can perfectly create a digital display in front of glasses and more importantly seamlessly work with next-gen computing systems.
Comparison with Hololens
Hololens is a complete standalone windows 10 device whereas Meta 2 needs to be configured with a powerful PC to utilize its full capabilities. Full review at Amazon
Beware though, Meta 2 headset is tethered, Hololens is not. Therefore, Meta 2 gives better holographic output in terms of image quality, being connected to a powerful computer compared to a standalone Hololens.
Buy at buy.metavision.com
ODG R-7
Osterhout Design Group (ODG)'s R-7 is primarily targeted towards Enterprise customers with its robust yet lightweight design. It delivers the most advanced platform for augmented reality head-worn computing experience.
R-7 is equipped with Qualcomm's 2.7GHz Quad-core processor, 3GB pop LP-DDR3 RAM and massive 64GB storage. It also has latest inbuilt sensors and best connectivity features.
It sports a stunning ultra-transparent 3D stereoscopic display and packed with innovative features. ODG also announced smart glass developer application program through its ReticleOS Developer program.
R7 received CES 2016's Best of Innovation Award for the Tablet and Mobile Computing category. It has a very high price tag of $2750. Some of the partner applications include Blippar, Augumenta, Medweb, Dysonics, OpTech4D, Paracosm, Scope AR and Vital Enterprises. See more on Businesswire
Buy at osterhoutgroup.com
Magic Leap
Its a tech startup from South Florida with invements from Google Inc and others and a support from Richard Taylor (Founder of Avatar), Weta Workshop (Lord of the Rings special effects company) and Neal Stephenson ( a visionary futurist/novelist).
Promissing on both Virtual and Augmented reality concept, Magic Leap works parallel to design concept of Microsoft's Hololens and focusing on completely different immersive experience. Video source: Magic leap official youtube channel
More on Magicleap.com
Laster SeeThru
Laster SeeThru (A new French based startup) bringing a real competition to Google Glass. It has 800x600 display with 25 degree FoV which is twice the display window of Google Glass.
SeeThru uses the power of user's smartphone through bluetooth. Equipped with latest sensors and display technology, it can nicely deliver digital information layered on lens projections.
See more on laster.fr
ORA-2
Ora 2 is an AR based smart glasses works flawlessly with Google Android and features a disruptive transparent retinal projection technology. It runs a multiple hands-free mobile computing and AR applications including remote maintenance, diagnostics and has many other attractive features.
Buy on Optinvent.com
ODG AR/VR R-8 and R-9
ODG - Osterhout Design Group unveils its first consumer AR/Vr glasses at CES 2017. Theses glasses will sport a Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 Chipset.
ODG is a well known company for making smart glasses and other products for some big corporate sectors and US Military. Ralph Osterhout describes it as a "glasses for the masses".
R9 are priced around $1799, aimed at 'light enterprise' and has ODG's 50 deg. FoV with Project Horizon platform. The smaller and lighter R-8 will have some less than $1000 price tag and will be available in third or fourth quarter of this year.
Some of the best hollywood animation experts as 21st Century Fox and LA's Up along with OTOY (a virtual reality firm) and PTC (making AR platform Vuforia) are developing content for ODG. At the moment content from 20th Century Fox, Fox Broadcasting, NatGeo, Fox News, Fox Sports, FX are being made available for users.
Price (Awaiting)
