CES 2013: Vuzix M100 smart glass gets showcased

More and more companies seem to be trying their hands at augmented reality headsets. The Verge has had a hands-on session with one such device that seems to be in direct competition to Google’s Project Glass. The device, dubbed the Vuzix M100, was a prototype that ran a looped video that was watchable.

According to Vuzix, the device that was on show at CES would last around eight hours under typical usage and was close to shipping. The device can be mounted either via an ear-loop or bands that go over or behind your head.

The device boasts some impressive specs for its size, running on Android 4.0. The hardware includes the capability to shoot 720p video, 4GB of storage, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, but owing to the size of the screen and the distance from the eye, the resolution is still pretty impressive.

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The Vuzix M100 (image credit: The Verge)

The company seems to be on track to releasing the device well before Google’s Project Glass. Just last week, the project head of Project Glass—Babak Parviz—said that the development of Google Glass is “ still in flux.”

Parviz stated that with Google Glass, the company was essentially looking at a device capable of doing two things that would be useful to a lot of people. The first would be to develop a device that would allow users to have ‘pictoral communications’, i.e. have users communicate with each other with images and video. “Right now, we don’t have any devices that are specifically engineered to connect to others using images or video. So we wanted to have a device that would see the world through your eyes and allow you to share that view with other people,” he said.

Parviz stated that they are constantly trying out new ideas as to how users can use their platform. Parviz also mentioned that they were working towards making the hardware and software more robust, so as to be able to ship it to developers early this year.

Google has been developing the augmented reality wraparound shades for a while now. The runway at Diane von Furstenberg’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection show at New York Fashion Week saw a surprise entrant in the form of Google Glass. Models sashayed down the ramp in their best outfits donning the Glass at the event. Also seen at the event was Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

This electronic eyewear can snap photos, initiate video chats and display directions at the sound of a user’s voice. Images depict that the bands on every headset were made to complement the shades of the outfit showcased by the models. Interestingly, reports also suggest that one model switched on the device’s video-recording function and managed to capture her view of the runway.

Recently, there were reports of test results of the Project Glass prototypes. A few photos taken from the device made it to Project Glass’ Google+ page. While some may look a little too perfect (read: digitally cleaned up) others looked very real for a mobile-like camera.