When Google first made its Project Glass public, few took the whole wearable computing device thing seriously. Although Google is now heavily pushing the concept onto consumers, it will still take some time for head-mounted computers equipped with cameras to become socially acceptable. But the technology is there, and it is constantly improving. Epson recently launched its Moverio platform, and now the latest company that may be jumping on the Glass bandwagon is Olympus, which filed a couple of interesting patents for head-mounted devices.
Olympus has filed a patent for a device that looks strikingly similar to Google Glass. Unlike Google’s take on computer-equipped glasses, however, the Olympus device would feature dual screens, as well as interchangeable parts. Depending on what you’re going to use it for, this device could potentially be fitted with either a screen at the left or the right eye, or with dual screens. This would make it attractive for people who have lost eyesight in one eye, and it opens up new possibilities when combining information on two screens.
An earlier Olympus patent depicts another unique take at the head-mounted display. It shows off a device that can be connected to a camera, and acts as the camera’s viewfinder – either extending or replacing it. Streaming a camera’s preview image via Wi-Fi is already possible with many current models, so why not stream the image directly to your eye, instead of holding the camera in front of you?
We currently do not know whether Olympus’ latest patent for dual-display glasses would include the possibility to stream your camera’s preview to one of the screens – or if it’ll event get past the concept stage – but it surely is a fascinating thought that some time in the near future, cameras might come without a display and viewfinder at all.
(Via dpreview connect)
