Google Inviting People to Buy Its AR Eyewear

“Google on Tuesday began sending out invitations to purchase its $1,500 Glass wearable device to users of its All Access music subscription service,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “The invitations are Google's latest effort to expand its program of early users of Glass, its high-tech eyewear device. Glass is worn like a pair of glasses, and connects to users' smartphones to relay messages and make phone calls. The device is also capable of shooting photos and video as well as running smartphone-like apps that are called ‘Glassware.’ Google sent out the first invitations for Glass in early 2013, and since then the company has slowly been expanding the number of users who can purchase the gadget.” Read more.

Google Glass to Come with Rx

"Good news for all you four-eyeses of the world. Google is going to let you get Google Glass with prescription lenses in early 2014," according to Gizmodo. "A company called Rochester Optical is the one that'll be building these RX lenses. Rochester is also going to be making "fashion and sport lenses" for Glass. We think—and we surely hope—that means we can have versions of Glass that aren't so dorky looking. There's no word on pricing or styles or anything right now, but that information will almost certainly come to light in the next few months, because Google is planning to let any Tom, Dick, or Harry buy Glass starting at the beginning of next year." Read more.

New Design for Google Glasses

"Google on Monday evening unveiled a redesigned new version of its Google Glass connected eyewear… and it doesn’t help," according to Yahoo! News. "In fact, if anything, the new version probably looks even geekier than it did before. Google recently announced a new run of its $1,500 Explorer Edition Glass, and now we finally get to see what the new build looks like. For those hoping it might offer some key design changes that make it less geektastic, no such luck. Instead, Glass gets a bit bulkier and an added earbud that is sure to make any wearer the belle of the ball." Read more.

Version of Google Glass Out Soon. Google CLs?

“A version of Google Glass for people who already wear glasses will arrive in a few months, the head of the Google project said Monday,” according to a post on CIO.com. “’In the next few months we will release a version that will integrate into glasses. So if you are wearing glasses, you'd be able to use this,’ said Babak Parviz, founder and head of the Google Glass project at Google, during a speech at the Hot Chips conference in Stanford, California, on Tuesday. If the Google Glass platform is successful, ‘you'll see different optics,’ Parviz said. But will there be Google Glass contact lenses? That is possible, but perhaps in the distant future, Parviz said.” Read more.

There’s also Computer World’s version of the story.

Google Glass Gets Makeover

“Sourcebits is a software development firm that felt the current design for Google Glass was too geeky even for them. So they decided to put together a team of designers, illustrators, and 3D modelers to create a more fashion-friendly version of the glasses,” according to PSFK. “Looking more like something you could work into an existing wardrobe, the team have made a few significant changes. The first was to redistribute the weight of the glasses. Instead of having all the technology focused on one side which made the frames bulky – they divided it up across both sides, allowing for a much thinner product.” Read more.

Making AR Contacts a Reality

“Though it may be hard to imagine now, we may eventually be able to ditch head-worn devices like Google Glass and simply see images projected floating in front of us using contact lenses,” reports MIT’s Technology Review. “Researchers at Belgian nonelectronics reseach and development center Imec and Belgium’s Ghent University are in the very early stages of developing such a device, which would bring augmented reality–the insertion of digital imagery such as virtual signs and historical markers with the real world–right to your eyeballs. It’s just one of several such projects (see “Contact Lens Computer: It’s Like Google Glass Without The Glasses”), and while the idea is nowhere near the point where you could ask your eye doctor for a pair, it could become more realistic as the cost and size of electronic components continue to fall and wearable gadgets gain popularity.” Read more.

Investment in AR Expected to Exceed $2.5 Billion/Year

Developer investment in Augmented Reality (AR) applications will total US$670 million this year, according to a new market forecast from ABI Research. The annual amount is expected to exceed US$2.5 billion in 2018, as AR becomes a more everyday part of mobile experiences, especially in the domain of retail and marketing. This application segment accounts for 68% of the developer spend in 2013, with product enhancement and standalone apps contributing 22% and 10% of the total, respectively. Going forward, ABI Research believes that AR will become a significant enabler for the Internet of Everything, and namely big-data analytics.

This is an area where AR and data visualizations will have a close connection to the emergent wearable computing products. Practice director Dan Shey predicts: “In a world where a countless number of physical objects and structures will be connected by sensors, AR can serve as a visualization medium that will make the sensor data situational, bridged to the real-world surroundings. The consumer aspect is unsurprisingly making most of the headlines here, but we’d expect smart eyewear to initially make more waves in transforming the enterprise. Google Glass, like the smart-glass pioneer Vuzix, will find various use cases in verticals such as engineering, logistics, and healthcare.” Read more.

History of AR Eyewear

“We've seen the prototypes that led Google to Glass, but there are many devices that predate Mountain View's smart specs, and Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California was able to gather and display a historic number of such headsets this week,” reports EnGadget. “From Steve Mann's handmade WearComp 1 and EyeTap prototypes to Glass-like precursors from Optinvent and Vuzix, it's quite the comprehensive collection -- over thirty devices in all. While they may make their way into a museum some day, we're bringing pictures of them all to your screen right now. Enjoy.” See the pictorial display.

Up Close and Personal with Google Glasses. And How and When to Use Them.

“I had two transformative yet very minor optical experiences last week, both kicking off in the space of 2 hours: I got contact lenses, and I began experimenting with Google Glass,” according to CNET writer Scott Stein. “The two are interlinked, because I couldn't use Google's bleeding-edge wearable tech with my comfy Ray-Ban eyeglasses. If I was going to use Glass, I'd need contacts.” Read about his experience with Google Glass.

Meanwhile the New York Times reports “Google’s wearable computer, the most anticipated piece of electronic wizardry since the iPad and iPhone, will not go on sale for many months. But the resistance is already under way. The glasseslike device…has been pre-emptively banned by a Seattle bar. Large parts of Las Vegas will not welcome wearers. West Virginia legislators tried to make it illegal to use the gadget, known as Google Glass, while driving….As personal technology becomes increasingly nimble and invisible, Glass is prompting questions of whether it will distract drivers, upend relationships and strip people of what little privacy they still have in public.” Read more.

An In-Depth Look at Innovega's AR Contact Lenses

"Innovega, a start-up based near Seattle, has a novel solution: adjusting the user’s vision. It has developed contact lenses with tiny “lenslets” at their centers that can have a focus as near as 1.25 cm, enabling displays to be built into normal-looking glasses without the bulky optics," according to a post on IEEE. "Crucially, the lenses don’t impede the ability to see objects further away. An optical filter layer excludes linearly polarized light over most of each lens. Behind the central lenslet, however, the layer allows only polarized rays through. Thus, both a close-up display emitting polarized light and the distant background will look sharp. The layer also prevents light from an AR display entering the rest of the lens and creating a distracting blur.The company intends to license its technology to contact lens manufacturers (its lenses can also incorporate vision correction)." Read more.

Microsoft Said to Be Jumping in the AR Eyewear Market

“Google Glass may be hogging the spotlight when it comes to augmented reality tech, but Microsoft could be brainstorming a smart headset of its own. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is rumored to launch a pair of Internet-enabled goggles as early as next year, according to Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White,” according to Laptop. “White said he believes that Google Glass could ignite a “major push” in wearable technology following its end-of-2013 debut, Apple Insider reports. Little is known about how Microsoft would implement this AR functionality, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard murmurs of a head-mounted device. Previously discovered patents and alleged leaks indicate that the next-generation Xbox will integrate augmented reality into game play.” Read more.

China’s Google (Baidu) Developing Its Own AR Eyewear

“Baidu Inc , China's largest search engine, is developing prototype digital eyewear similar to Google Inc's Google Glass that will leverage Baidu's strengths in image search and facial recognition, a Baidu spokesman said on Wednesday,” reports NBCNews.com. “Internally known as project "Baidu Eye," the glasses are being tested internally and it is not clear whether the product will ever be commercialized, said Kaiser Kuo, Baidu's spokesman. Kuo said the device will be mounted on a headset with a small LCD screen and will allow users to make image and voice searches as well as conduct facial recognition matches.” Read more.

CNET reports that “Unnamed sources told news site Sina.com that Baidu is testing a prototype called Baidu Eye. The device has an LCD display, voice-controlled image recognition, and bone-sensing -- the same technology Google is deploying to allow for voice control functions on its Google Glass eyewear. Baidu Eye wearers will be able to make phone calls, search the Web, and use gestures to take and send photos, according to the report. The device also will have an open platform for developers. Again, that sounds like Google Glass.” Read more.

New AR Eyewear from Six15

Six15 Technologies, purchased seven months ago by Vuzix Corp., has a new augmented reality video eyewear, called Tac-Eye AR. The eyewear product displays are see-through AR-enabled binocular or monocular systems that offer a 40 degree field of view for use in a wide variety of industrial, medical, commercial, and defense applications. Six15’s patented optical see-through system reportedly allows users to view the real world while simultaneously viewing relevant computer generated information, graphics and alerts. The company also has partnered with APX Labs to provide the core software that drive the augmented reality environment. APX Labs’ truAR software is said to manage the user experience and interaction with the Tac-Eye, to connect the device in real-time to other users and systems, and to manage how custom applications run on the product. Read more.