Sony jumps on to smart glass bandwagon, develops transparent lens 'SmartEyeglass'

There’s some competition brewing for the **Google Glass** and **Facebook's Oculus** as Sony has unveiled its all new smart glass dubbed SmartEyeglass. This smart glass is compatible with Android smartphones and the software development kit has already been made available to interested developers.

  This piece of eyewear comes with a transparent lens and will be compatible with Android devices running version 4.1 or later. However, Android 4.3 or later is required to use the video functionality of the camera. Besides, Sony claims that the display assures that it is 85 percent transparent, has high readability and consumes low energy.   Basically, it takes advantage of Sony’s hologram optics technology to develop a lens that achieves high transparency of 85% and thickness of mere 3.0 mm. It also eliminates the need for the use of half mirrors that obstruct the user’s vision. The technology also ensures that energy consumption is lesser than a colour display and also helps achieve high luminance up to 1,000 cd/m2.   SmartEyeglass also features a vast range of sensing technologies such as CMOS image sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass, brightness sensor, and microphone. It uses these features along with GPS location information from the connected smartphone and provides information optimised to the user’s current circumstances, says the company. For instance, it can be used with Lifelog app to log in daily activities. By working with developers, Sony is also looking to accelerate the commercialization of the product for consumer use.   It is still a prototype and looks like a geeky product. The prototype hardware is likely to go on sale by the end of March 2015.