Sony Smart Eyeglasses Showcased at CES 2015 – Details

Update, January 6, 2015, 16:22 PM: Sony isn’t just content with its smartwatch and smartphone line-up, but is also invested heavily in the smartglasses idea. From last year, we learned that Sony already has a prototype ready and released SDK for its Smart EyeGlass somewhere around in September.

Now it looks like that idea is finally shaping into a concrete product. Initially, company touted it as a smart glasses, but it has now become more than that. Company now wants to shape it as head-mounted display, which will turn ordinary spectacles into smart glasses.

Just like Google Glass, a tiny prism sits in front of your right eye, and it acts as what Sony calls an OLED microdisplay. Company named its new conceptual Smart Eyeglasses as Attach! Since the idea here was to make your regular glasses smart with single lens display module, although, you can’t buy one of the attach lenses as a consumer yet.

The device is still in its development stage, as a company has a kit for developers to create apps for the module. So far, the apps shown at CES booth seems to focus on sports and performance, but others might soon be in works.

No detailed specifications, as well as the date of availability, were mentioned by company officials. For now, you will have to wait to see if this would be a true consumer alternative against the heavily priced Google Glass or not.

Earlier, September 19, 2014 :Looks like Smart Glasses will be the next big commercial market for wearables after the fitness bands and smartwatches. The Japanese electronics brand Sony has also entered into the smart eyewear space, with company offering SDK for its Smart EyeGlass, starting today.

Originally, showcased during IFA week in Berlin earlier this month, the wearable tech is expected to rival with the already available Google Glass. Company plans to sell the developer variants of the device from next year in March. With SDK releasing today, developer’s community can start building apps for the smart eyewear.

Unlike Google Glass, the device will come packed with an integrated screen on the lens that will allow to acts as a secondary screen for Android smartphone. The device will be equipped with a diverse range of sensing technologies, which includes CMOS image sensor, accelerator, Gyroscope, and a brightness sensor. It also boasts the electronics compass to help in determining the directions, and a microphone to answer calls or trigger voice commands.

Though, it is unknown if the device will be running on Android operating system or will run on company’s customized OS, just like the first generation of smartwatch by Sony. But it is clear that the company will be leveraging its optics technology to develop a lens, said to achieve high transparency of 85% and thickness of just 3.0mm. As it will allow company, not to use the half mirrors that obstruct the user’s vision.

No further specification about device is known for now as the device is still in development. But it is expected that the device will be Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled as to establish a connection with other electronics devices.

The software development kit which company released today includes an emulator, sample codes, tutorials to help developers get started, in-depth guides, API references, design guidelines, test instructions, and the publishing guidelines. All these things will allow developers to get start working on their dedicated apps for the Sony SmartEyeglass. With other manufacturers like Baidu and Optinvent coming up with their smartglasses, the market is said to heat up a lot in the coming months.