Intel has launched an impressively light, regular-looking set of smart glasses called Vaunt, confirming rumors from Bloomberg and others. Seen by The Verge, they have plastic frames and weigh under 50 grams, a bit more than regular eyeglasses but much less than Google Glass, for example. The electronics are crammed into the stems and control a very low-powered, class one laser that shines a red, monochrome 400 x 150 pixel image into your eye. Critically, the glasses contain no camera, eliminating the “big brother” vibe from Glass and other smart glasses.
Vaunt is mainly aimed at giving you relatively simple heads-up notifications. Intel says that the glasses are more stealthy than a smartwatch, allowing you to check notifications while doing other activities. In one demo, it showed that you could see a person’s birthday and other pertinent personal info while you’re chatting with them on the phone. The motion sensors can also detect whether you’re in the kitchen, for instance, and give you recipes or a shopping list.
You might be worried about having a laser beamed into your eyeball, but “it is so low-power that it’s at the very bottom end of a class one laser,” Intel New Devices Group’s Mark Eastwood told the Verge. On top of that, the display isn’t even visible unless you look at it, making it unobtrusive for wearers. As it’s beamed onto the back of your retina, it’s always in focus, regardless of whether you have prescription or non-prescription lenses.
Source:
