Skip to main content

Sony steps up development of the SmartEyeGlass, ready to compete with Google

Sony is stepping up development of the SmartEyeGlass, a pair of smart glasses to compete with Google Glass. The company has released a software development kit for the eyewear, helping developers get started with the tech. Sony briefly discussed its plans for the SmartEyeGlass at both CES and IFA tech shows this year, and the announcement shows it’s ready to move past the concept stage.

Sony SmartEyeGlass TopThe glasses seen in these early pictures is a developmental prototype, and is almost certainly not the final design. At least we hope it’s not, because it makes Google Glass look like an Armani suit. Like the looks, the tech inside the SmartEyeGlass goes in a slightly different direction from Glass.

Recommended Videos

Instead of using a single prism, both lenses in the SmartEyeGlass act as screens, displaying a monochrome, holographic-style image that’s transparent enough not to block your sight, while still remaining functional. Sony promises good readability even in sunlight, a notorious problem on Glass. By not choosing a color display, Sony can also make the battery last longer, but at the moment it’s stored in an external pack, and not built into the glasses.

The specs will connect to an Android phone and Sony provides a few examples of what wearers will be able to see. Like the rest of Sony’s SmartWear range, the glasses will link up with the Lifelog app. A navigational view while using GPS is to be expected, along with hands-free viewing of websites — handy for recipes, or following a how-to guide — and contextual information such as overlaying real-time player stats while at a sports game.

The SmartEyeGlass also includes the usual array of sensors, including a microphone, and a relatively basic 3-megapixel camera. Take a look at the video to get an idea of how Sony wants the interface to look, along with a demo of a sure to be controversial Face Recognition app. Now the SDK has been released, Sony can concentrate on perfecting the hardware side, and plans to have a demo device ready for developers early in 2015.

Andy Boxall
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
How does Garmin measure stress, and is it really accurate?
Garmin Vivomove Sport dial close up. Credits: Garmin official.

Garmin watches are known for their robust activity tracking, but that's not all these fitness watches can do. Over the years, the company has been adding wellness features to its lineup of watches. These new health-focused metrics allow people to analyze their fitness and identify outside factors affecting their performance. One such factor is stress, which is something Garmin watches actively measures.
But you may be wondering—exactly how does Garmin measure stress? In this article, we break down how Garmin measures stress and delve into the accuracy of this metric. Should you trust your stress score? Read on to find out.

Is Garmin's stress score accurate?

Read more