Toshiba Glass with Projector to Provide Augmented Reality-Type Display

Like other big electronics giant, Toshiba is not being stay behind from the smart glasses market, as company has unveiled what appears to be the prototype pair of smart glasses designed by company. At the Ceatec trade show in Japan this week, company chooses to showcase its smart glasses. Making them fourth contender since last month, like Baidu, Sony and a California-based company are already in a race to compete with Google Glass.

It will have similar principle like Google Glass, which also uses a built-in projector, though unlike those first commercial smart glasses, Toshiba’s smart eyewear won’t have a prism over the lens to reflect the image into the eye.

While company is touting the ability of glass lenses that itself comprises a series of narrow, vertical prisms. They have made them pretty much invisible, as when you look straight through the lens, but an image project from an angle reflects back into the eye.

Toshiba claims that their smart eyewear weigh 42 grams, which is just about the same as Google Glass (reportedly); the Mountain View Company doesn’t mention the weight in its specs. But in many ways Toshiba is not up to the par with other prototype Smart glasses shown in the recent times. As they don’t have battery stuffed inside them, not even a little one, which would be quite a headache for the consumer as the Toshiba Glass would be powered by your Smartphone.

In short, the wearable tech that the Japanese electronics giant showcased is not up to the mark with the current standard of design. They also lack any high-end computational functionality, as they are just a display system, which will connect to your smartphone, in order to use. Well, that’s not a convenient thing going on for a consumer’s point of view.

Though, the simplest use case scenario of these smart glasses lies under only limited usage. Including the displaying of information form health app, as well as you would be able to see your speed and monitor your BPM via its heart rate sensors. But with the wired connection between the eyewear and the smartphone, it is highly unlikely that these glasses would be useful in everyday’s work.

That begs the question of its pricing model, as it should be quite cheap against Google Glass’s hefty price tag of $1500. Company representative at the Ceatec trade show claims that they will be shipping the product next year in Japan and North America. The smart eyewear will be available in three styles of frame- standard, sport and industrial being protective goggles, which can be used during the lab work.