The new Sony SmartEyeglass concept explained

Imagine that you walk into an airport and instantly get directions to your check-in desk, or that you get scores and names of players displayed while watching a football game in real life. These are just some of the potential use cases of the new Sony SmartEyeglass concept, that’s currently available for preview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Read on for technical details and more!

                                   The SmartEyeglass concept shown at CES 2014.

The SmartEyeglass concept, first publicly shown at CES in Las Vegas, aims to bring notifications and information instantly, and present it right in front of the eyes of the user. For example, while you’re guided to your gate at the airport like in the demo video above, you could read text messages, get notified of a missed phone call, or snap a photo of something interesting you come across.

With the wired, hand-held controller you can navigate in the user interface and control the camera that’s integrated in the SmartEyeglass prototype. With a binocular see-through eyewear display, the SmartEyeglass prototype presents information at a distance from your eyes, which gives a comfortable viewing experience.

Sony’s SmartEyeglass prototype requires an Android phone, and like in the case of SmartWatch 2 the applications for it run on the phone. The interaction between the phone and SmartEyeglass is done over Bluetooth® or Wi-Fi™.

Technical overview of the SmartEyeglass prototype

• Binocular see-trough eyewear display.
• Monochrome green colour.
• Maximum display brightness: 1000cd/m2.
• Embedded camera.
• Accelerometer, gyro, compass and brightness sensors.
• Microphone.
• Bluetooth v3.0.
• WiFi – 802.11b/g/n.
• Separate controller with touchpad along with power, navigation and camera buttons.

Currently, we’re also working on an SDK together with a few selected partners, who are able to experiment with and evaluate the APIs. The SDK is built on a similar framework as SmartWatch 2, and will allow for control of what’s displayed on the binocular see-through eyewear display, as well as access to sensors, voice input and camera. Please note that at the moment, there is no timing set for when the SDK or the SmartEyeglass concept may be publicly available.