A new pair of smart glasses has been introduced that may pose as competition for Google Glass in its final form.
Japanese electronics company Toshiba unveiled a prototype for its new eyewear at this year's CEATEC trade show in Japan as a small, cheaper alternative, according to PCWorld. The lens of the glasses features a small, lightweight projector on one of the arms that displays an image reflecting off the inside of the lens.
While the $1,500 Google Glass also has a projector built into it, Toshiba Glass' lens doesn't include a prism in order to reflect the image into the user's eye. These lenses instead include narrow, vertical prisms that are hard to see when viewing through the lenses. However, users will be able to see an image projected from an angle.
One quality of Google Glass that is lacking in Toshiba Glass is being wireless, as it instead works by connecting to a smartphone, PCWorld reported. The company said that the glasses rely on smartphones because the projector's battery would make the glasses too heavy to work wirelessly.
Despite this lacking feature, Toshiba Glass has the potential to be used for different purposes, such as working with a health app on the user's phone to show data like the user's heart rate while exercising.
A Toshiba researcher said the glasses could also make jobs for factory workers much easier by letting them work with both hands while helping them out, Discovery News reported.
"We still don't know what wearable formats will be the most accepted in the future," said Yoshiyuki Kokojima, senior research scientist at Toshiba. "Constantly seeing a small screen may get tiring to the eyes, but you could get information without even lifting a finger. It's less effort than consulting a wrist watch."
A Toshiba representative said at CEATEC that the company is looking to make its new glasses available in Japan and North America next year, PCWorld reported. Smart glass fans will be able to buy the device in three different frame styles, which are standard, sports-centered, and industrial for work.
