Optinvent ORA Smart Glasses Available – This is the $300 Google Glass

After, Baidu Eye prototype version was showcased earlier this month in Beijing, China. Now it looks like Google Glass has got another rival, which has started its Kickstarter campaign as it plans to reach $100,000 goal by the end of this October. The France-based company, Optinvent wants to provide a substantial alternative to the costly Google Glasses smart eyewear.

By pledging $300 on the crowd funding site, you might be the first of the many consumers that were looking forward to owning an Augmented Reality glass. Unlike any other known AR glasses in development, Optinvent’s ORA-X smart glasses are truly targeted to the mass market.

ORA-X will be the consumer variant while currently company is asking developers to evaluate and develop apps for its wearable tech, which will be sold under ORA-1 name. The developer variant differs from Google Glass in numerous ways, as the resolution and area of the display be significantly greater than Glass’s prism. And another interesting take by this smart eye-wear is that, you will get two modes of view, which means the display of the ORA-1 is adjustable.

The device maybe worn either in the front of the eye – where you will be able to see the projected image appears superimposed over the environment – the user may lower the display, which means it can be positioned just below the eye. While display on the Google Glass is positioned above the eye making it more uncomfortable to see it.

According to the company, the ORA-1 is the only smart glasses that are based on optical technology, as well as the wearable tech is aimed at a mass production while Google Glasses are merely priced for everyone. The ORA-1 will also allow company to learn few more things via developers, who would be building apps for this smart eyewear.

Next stage for the company is the miniaturization of the current functional unit up to 60 per cent, giving it a sleeker look. Other improvements planned by Optinvent include a 40 percent decrease in the power consumption of the device.

The device will be running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean optimized for the use on smart eye-wear. The developers can easily build app using the provided Software SDK for ORA, where they would be able to manage the functionalities and just as easily create or optimize their existing apps for the use on final consumer variant ORA-X. For the convenience, company is planning to release a full-fledged app store, aptly named AppstORA, which is in early beta stage, is already online, however.

We have already established that what devices it would be competing with, the shipping of the ORA-1 device starts from December 2014. Though, the consumers would have to wait longer to get their ORA-X, which would be August 2015.

Source: Kickstarter