Technological innovation has dominated over the past thirty years through the emergence of a desktop computer that changed the concept of workstations forever, and the personal computing revolution that did not diminish its intensity began, and then more powerful computers emerged, which became the size of the palm, and here we mean the smartphone, then came Smart glasses, and have become the largest technology companies eager to produce and take over its manufacturers, can we consider smart glasses as the next technical revolution ?.
Smart glasses are glasses with computer capabilities that can be worn to add information to their wearers, as they are sometimes known as glasses that are able to change their optical properties at run time, so that smart glasses programmed to change the dye by electronic means depending on changing lighting conditions is an example of this type of Smart glasses.
Information is installed on the field of view through a head-mounted display or wireless glasses combined with a head-screen. These systems have the ability to reflect projected digital images in addition to allowing the user to see through them.
While early models of smart glasses are able to perform basic tasks, modern models can operate standalone mobile applications, and some of them do not need to use hands but rather voice commands, while others use touch buttons.
Like other computers, glasses collect information from internal or external sensors, and may control or retrieve data from other devices or computers, and may also support wireless technologies such as bluetooth, wireless network, and GPS.
There are a number of prominent products in this field currently or under development such as:
- Vuzix: augmented reality glasses for 3D games, manufacturing training, and military applications.
- Beyond Glasses: A wearable screen that can be connected to regular eyeglasses.
- castAR: augmented reality headset for gaming.
- Epiphany Eyewear: smart glasses developed by Vergence Labs, a subsidiary of Snap.
- Epson Moverio and Moverio Pro: Epson augmented reality glasses.
- Everysight Raptor: smart goggles for cyclists.
- EyeTap: Eye-mounted camera with head-mounted display.
- North: glasses that allow sending and receiving messages, seeing directions step by step, calling Uber and talking to Alexa.
What is the difference between augmented and virtual reality?
Augmented reality adds digital elements to live view often using a smartphone camera, and examples of AR experiences include Snapchat lenses and Pokemon Go game.
While virtual reality provides a complete experience that puts the user away from the physical world, using virtual reality devices such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or Google Cardboard can move users to a number of realistic and imagined environments.
The user’s perception of reality in virtual reality depends entirely on the virtual information, while the augmented reality provides the user with additional information created by the computer that enhances their awareness of reality.
And all this is done through smart glasses or devices installed on the head or through smartphone applications, and there is a big difference between augmented reality and virtual reality, meaning that part of the surrounding environment in augmented reality is real with the addition of layers of unreal objects to the real environment, While the user's environment in virtual reality is completely unrealistic.
What is the primary purpose of smart glasses?
The main purpose of smart glasses is to place computer-generated content in the user's field of view, and this content includes augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual reality and 360-degree videos, and instead of looking at a rectangular screen, we will see words, pictures, objects and virtual environments just by looking around us .
How smart phones prepare us for the era of glasses?
Phones urge us to move from smartphones to smart glasses, which may be illustrated by the iPhone X, which comes with two main features: Appleoji and Apple Clips 2.0, which may seem to be fun for consumers, but they represent the future of Apple smart glasses to a certain degree for the iPhone manufacturer .
Since the purpose of smart glasses is to combine real and virtual, these applications do this, where Animoji takes real user voice, head movements and facial expressions and applies them to a virtual cartoon character, while Apple Clips 2.0 puts the real person in a virtual background or puts a modified real person Digitally in a default background.
It is clear that the augmented reality of Apple on the iPhone is an introduction to the main event: the augmented reality on smart glasses, just as Google does something similar with Project Tango, albeit with a small portion of developers.
Are smart glasses considered the next technical revolution?
Defenders hope that the smart glasses can replace the phone and the computer someday, but we are still probably years away before the product becomes suitable for consumers, as most smart glasses are large, expensive and strange in appearance that they are not useful for daily use, but this did not prevent companies Technology to try.
At the moment, the idea of not owning a phone may seem like a completely strange idea, but there are some emerging technologies that may convince you that we are only a few years from the end of the smartphone, not completely completely, but the technology that may end the need for a smartphone is already there, Companies are developing them.
And there is a need to go back in time a little bit to simplify matters, as when Steve Jobs stepped up on the stage in 2007 to announce for the first time the first iPhone, it was like crazy, but an iPhone changed the manufacture of phones during the next seat, and changed the trend in that time, as it was The user only needs a phone capable of making calls, texting and changing ringing tones.
This is how the gradual transformation started and the wave of adoption of the smartphone instead of the regular phone started, and within a few years everything that we knew about phones previously changed, including internet connection and social communication, and the phone screens became bigger and bigger, until we reached the stage of the emergence of screens that include holes and protrusions to add The key components are to maximize edge thickness and maximize screen size.
Accordingly, the only reasonable way out of the current situation has become the presence of an external screen, so that there is no physical obstacle limiting the visual limits of the platform used, and here comes the role of making the screen closer to your eyes, which is provided by smart glasses.
Although it is still closer to early models than being final products for consumers, it has proven at the same time that it is useful, especially in the field of business compared to the average consumer side, with a reminder that the first smartphone was not initially adopted widely as well .
Technology that allows the user to listen to music while hearing the world clearly around him is present, and there are glasses that allow the user to control them using only the mind, which is not very far from being a commercially available product, so the idea of controlling an electronic device that runs applications and runs Calls using only mental commands are not crazy.
Although the next step in technological development may seem closer to science fiction, but it may become real and not far-fetched, so that you can think about what you want to happen to see what you thought happened, and the massive investment of the digital world in smart glasses leads us to think about it, where Everyone realizes that smartphone dominance is coming to an end.
What is the role of major technology companies in this shift?
With rumors that Apple is developing its smart AR glasses that it could offer in 2022, Facebook is currently selling virtual reality products that take you from the real world to the digital world, and is also interested in developing AR glasses between 2023 and 2025, and designs Facebook these glasses to receive calls and allow users to broadcast the video to other people.
Microsoft has also filed patents to register mind-controlled, Windows applications that work on advanced augmented reality products such as HoloLens for mixed reality, while Spectacles 3 from Snap Company allow users to take pictures and videos around the world and then add augmented reality effects to those clips Inside the Snapchat app.
Although the user cannot currently see any information through the Snap glasses themselves, but the company is said to work on adding augmented reality to the frames, and the information shows that Snap has developed the fourth generation of Spectacles glasses with smart lenses capable of showing the effects of augmented reality.
Amazon has moved away from talking a lot about its augmented reality glasses, as Echo frames are just ordinary glasses, but with a loudspeaker and the company's Alexa voice assistant built into them, which tells you the weather or makes phone calls, and the company can improve these glasses by adding augmented reality, but it You need to add screens that help display that information.
Google still sells Google Glass, which displays the information, but focused on its use within the business sector, and the Android platform also supports augmented reality applications, and Google Maps contains features that will be more useful on glasses, as the augmented reality feature installs information with the real world, Including walking directions.
Conclusion
Although smart glasses are still far from everywhere as the smartphone and have not yet turned into a trend for users, Qualcomm's president, Cristiano Amon, believes it may be only two years away, but it will not replace your phone Over the next few years, he also stressed that a whole new wave of smart glasses could be on the horizon, which looks much more natural than the current smart glasses.
It is assumed that these glasses play an important role in the way of communication, Internet access and social media platforms, which are the most important use cases of smartphones today, and it will be possible to spread them further thanks to the launch of 5G networks, which may help companies in creating glasses that are smaller and lighter in weight.
And within a few years, smart glasses will be in the center of consumer and commercial electronics in the same way that smartphones have become today, and the next big jump may be just a few years away, as applications, smart voice assistants and programs already exist, and once these companies are able By making the glasses small and practical enough, we may not carry phones everywhere, because the glasses will be able to do everything we want.
0 Comments