What is Smart Glasses?

What is Smart Glasses

Smart glasses are called head-up head-mounted display as optical technology. Wearable smart devices that allow users to see images on glasses are called smart glasses. Briefly, there is a transparent plastic screen located at eye level. While seeing the normal environment from this screen, the person can also get online information. It's kind of like putting your cell phone in the eye.

After the rapid introduction of mobile phones into our lives in 2007, the product, which is one of the most well-known smart glasses and has an important role in the popularity of these devices, is the smart glasses called "Google Glass" produced by the Google company.

These glasses would do everything a cell phone does and more. The glasses, which were presented as an example in 2013, started to be sold for $ 1500 in general in May 2014, but the glasses did not give the promised results and the price was expensive, causing the end to come quickly. In 2015, Google took the glasses back to their labs because they were in the development phase and sold a small number of glasses.

A 2013 study found that 90% of Americans would not use Google glasses even if they lowered their price. In general, it is shown that it is not aesthetic, it is difficult to use and it is problematic. While Google is expected to release its new generation smart glasses in 2015, SONY made an attack and launched its Smart Glasses. Although SONY presents itself as an elegant, lightweight design, Twitter users have stated that the product is not aesthetic and beautiful.

In addition to Sony and Google brands, Epiphany Eyewear, which can only take videos and photos with a price of $ 299, and Glassup, which brings the smartphone to the glasses screen with bluetooth, can take three-dimensional shooting with the price of $ 3000, as well as brands such as Meta1, which has an intelcore i5 processor that provides holographic images. In addition to these, many companies such as Oakley Airwave, Optinvent Ora-Sar and ION Glasses, Vuzix and Recon are in the sector. Although it is understood from the general opinions that smart glasses are not ready yet, smart glasses, which have been studied by experts for years, are followed with interest by people and have a great potential.

 

WHERE SMART GLASSES CAN BE USED

Thanks to the smart glasses called 'Smart Glasses' designed by Oxford University professor Stephen Hicks and his team, visually impaired people can see. Since the special cameras in the glasses transmit the necessary signals to the brain, the visually impaired person sees the object as a black and white figure. Glasses with 3D cameras aim at nearby objects and paint the world around them as a background. The glasses were tried on by a visually impaired mother in a maternity clinic in England last February, with positive results.

Apart from this, the American Space Agency is considering providing Smart Glasses for astronauts who will work on the NASA space station. It has made an agreement with the NASA Space Agency Osterhout Design Group, which aims to use these glasses, which are planned to be used by astronauts on the Orion spaceship, whose maintenance and repair operations will then take people to small planets and Mars.

The glasses will display a lot of information in 3D and will send the necessary information and video images directly in front of the user's eyes for maintenance and repair, without the need to carry a large number of maintenance and repair catalogs, so that the astronauts' hands will be empty.

Contact lenses, which are said to be considered as smart glasses, have been developed by Swiss researchers. These lenses have the ability to enlarge and restore the image. Lenses that magnify the image 2.8 times perform the magnification by blinking the right eye, and restore the image by blinking the left eye. The ability to ignore the involuntary blinking of the eye is an important issue that technology has overcome. It is thought to be more effective than other alternative solutions in terms of ease of use, especially for patients with age-related macular degeneration and low vision problems. Also, according to research funded by Pentagon military main research center DARPA, these lenses are thought of as bionic eyes that soldiers can use.

The patent application made by Microsoft in 2012 for smart glasses that read people's emotions was approved by the American Patent Office this year. The user will be analyzed by using visual and auditory information with cameras and microphones mounted on glasses, changes in the rhythm of speech, elevation, word choice, gaze, speed and changes in hand-arm movements. These analyzed data will be evaluated in Microsoft's database and the results will be reported to the user through smart glasses. Nevertheless, Microsoft has not yet announced that it will actually produce such glasses.

In this period where technology is advancing day by day, wearable technology products are one of the application areas that attract a lot of attention and on which serious studies are carried out.