Sony SmartEyeglass

Just weeks after Google stopped selling Google Glass, Sony jumped on the smart eyewear boat and launched a cheaper edition known as SmartEyeglass.

SmartEyeglass which connects to host devices running Android 4.4 and above, uses a green display projected onto the lenses, allowing you to communicate, get directions, take photos and so much more. SmartEyeglass also includes WiFi, Bluetooth, a 3 mega pixel camera, speaker, microphone and a range of different sensors.

In the video, Sony shows exactly how the glasses can be used to send messages, take photos and get directions. The glasses, however, look like a huge step back from Google Glass. A person wearing Sony’s SmartEyeglass looks horribly geeky and more awkward than a teenager going through puberty.

Sony describes the glasses as stylish and fashionable, but really? These glasses are like a copy of Google Glass, except the only difference is that it looks like its 10 years older!

Okay, so it’s not as elegant as Google Glass, but if you do (for some crazy reason) decide to get yourself a pair of SmartEyeglass, here’s what you’ll get…

Once paired with your smartphone, the Sony glasses can show you what is going on with the apps in your pocket. The glasses display information in the colour green only and the battery can last up to two hours and 30 minutes. Unfortunately for you, it doesn't get much better than that. You’ll have to have your glasses connected with a wire to a bulky, hockey puck-sized control unit that holds everything, like your battery, speaker, microphone and touch controls… So it’s not even wireless!

While Google was smart enough to take Glass off the market and go back to the drawing board to rethink its Glass smart eyewear, their Sony rivals decided to press on with their plans. They have made their SmartEyeglass gadget available to pre-order in the UK and Germany and a developer edition will go on sale in March, however, all you non-developers won’t be able to buy one until 2016 at the earliest.

Sony is keen for developers to get their hands or rather, their eyeballs on the glasses so they can start creating apps for the device. The SmartEyeglass isn't Sony’s only product in the smart eyewear department, in December 2014, the company talked about its plans for an “attachable single-lens display module” designed to slip on to various regular glasses and transform them into smart glasses.

It seems like until manufacturers come up with something that looks less like a massive computer on your face, they’re kind of wasting their time and money testing them out on the public.

In the end Sony SmartEyeglass is about half the price that Google Glass was, but still it’s a fairly expensive way to turn people heads for all the wrong reasons!

Contact The Computer Guyz in Cape Town or Centurion for all your IT needs, from general IT support and ADSL Bandwidth to graphic design and website hosting.

Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz