Amazon Alexa making appearance in $1000 Vuzix augmented reality smart glasses

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2018
Amazon won't be the first company to deploy its Alexa voice assistant in glasses, with Vuzix stepping up to the plate to do so in mid-2018.




Vuzix CEO Paul Travers told Bloomberg about the glasses in an interview on Friday. Little is known about the performance of the glasses, with Travers saying that information from Alexa will be presented inside the wearer's field of view.

The glasses utilize an Amazon Alexa licensing program, allowing third parties to implement the technology in a variety of products. For the most part, the technology has been used in speaker sets and smartphone docks, with the Vuzix implementation being the first in a pair of smart glasses.

Amazon confirmed Vuzix's product, with a spokeswoman telling Bloomberg that the company was "excited about the potential" for the glasses in the marketplace, and how they would expand Alexa's reach.




The Amazon Alexa-embedded glasses are expected in the second quarter for about $1000. It is hoping to get the price down to under $500 by 2019.

Vuzix was founded in 1997, and has been working on "video eyewear" the entire time. The company has declared that it will be unveiling the Vuzix Blade AR Smart Glasses at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, with a companion app to connect an Android or iOS device as a data source.





Vuzix is no stranger to the CES. The company has won awards from the show for 13 consecutive years, all for "video eyewear" and related technologies.

Apple has been thought to be in the development phase of its own augmented reality headset, with rumors of the product spanning back to 2015. In October, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the technology for it "doesn't exist to do that in a quality way."

"The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face - there's huge challenges with that," Cook said in the October interview. Technical challenges, such as optics providing an adequate field of view and "the display itself," hold the concept back from being an available consumer product.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Perfect for card counters in Las Vegas.
    anton zuykovracerhomie3SnickersMagoodoozydozen
  • Reply 2 of 27
    mavemufcmavemufc Posts: 326member
    I know you guys don’t think it’ll happen but I think it’s just a matter of time till Apple gets some glasses out there.
  • Reply 3 of 27
    These at least look like a plausible set of eyewear, unlike many of the monstrosities to which we've been subjected.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 27
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Don’t be a glasshole. 
    anton zuykovGG1racerhomie3watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 27
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    With demise of other glasses of this type I am doubtful that this can be anything other than a niche product. 
    SnickersMagoowatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 27
    jd_in_sb said:
    With demise of other glasses of this type I am doubtful that this can be anything other than a niche product. 
    Just like smartphones, glass with augment what a person can do, but it will take a while to get the tech right.
    watto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 7 of 27
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    mavemufc said:
    I know you guys don’t think it’ll happen but I think it’s just a matter of time till Apple gets some glasses out there.
    Apple has already publicly commented that they're very interested in AR but the tech isn't there yet.
    watto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 8 of 27
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,007member
    ...
    king editor the grateSpamSandwichwatto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 9 of 27
    Watched the video that's embedded in the story now... still not convinced there's any "there" there. Guess who's liable if a person is preoccupied with the message/AR image/other visual clutter that pops up on the glasses and they step into traffic or fall down a flight of stairs? Right.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 27
    Watched the video that's embedded in the story now... still not convinced there's any "there" there. Guess who's liable if a person is preoccupied with the message/AR image/other visual clutter that pops up on the glasses and they step into traffic or fall down a flight of stairs? Right.
    The user? Just like if I’m distracted by my phone or the radio or a passenger while driving. 
    anton zuykovracerhomie3watto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 11 of 27
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Any guy who did not learn anything from glassholes. He focus on the tech not the human element.
    watto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 12 of 27
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    jd_in_sb said:
    With demise of other glasses of this type I am doubtful that this can be anything other than a niche product. 
    Just like smartphones, glass with augment what a person can do, but it will take a while to get the tech right.
    Before iPhone, in the early 2000s, Palm Treo and Windows Mobile phones were popular and sold by the millions. I owned them and couldn't live without Internet on my phone. I don't see people clamoring for smartglasses like they did for early smartphones. Tim Cook once said that people don't like to wear glasses unless they have to.
    watto_cobraSpamSandwichdoozydozen
  • Reply 13 of 27
    These at least look like a plausible set of eyewear, unlike many of the monstrosities to which we've been subjected.
    I think an important consideration to keep in mind is that these glasses aren't tracking your head movement, are unaware of the environment, and are using your cellphone for some of the computing. The monstrosities out there like Hololens and the upcoming slightly less monstrous Magic Leap One are packed with an armada of environmental depth mapping cameras that enable inside out positional tracking so you can move and AR objects remain realistically positioned in the real world. This takes a higher spec on-board computer (or dedicated belt-clip compute unit thingy) to handle high frame rate, low latency 3D rendering like that.  Apple is going this more advanced route supposedly, most likely with good looks even better than this pair in the article here.
    edited January 2018 king editor the gratewatto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 14 of 27
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    How is all this going to work for people who wear prescription specs?
    watto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 15 of 27
    mavemufc said:
    I know you guys don’t think it’ll happen but I think it’s just a matter of time till Apple gets some glasses out there.
    If the 'HomePod' debacle is anything to go by, they will be late, underpowered and stupidly overpriced.
    Oh, and have the battery life akin to the lifespan of a mayfly.
     
    doozydozen
  • Reply 16 of 27
    Rayz2016 said:
    How is all this going to work for people who wear prescription specs?
    Yeah, designed for people who live in the land where everyone has 20/20 vision and perfect teeth, straight noses and flawless skin.
    aka Southern California.

    doozydozen
  • Reply 17 of 27
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Perfect for card counters in Las Vegas.
    Except that an electronic device would constitute cheating.
    watto_cobradoozydozen
  • Reply 18 of 27
    These are the ugliest glasses I have ever seen...have you seen the ear pieces? Nobody in the right mind or left for that matter will wear these....
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 27
    mavemufc said:
    I know you guys don’t think it’ll happen but I think it’s just a matter of time till Apple gets some glasses out there.
    Apple has already publicly commented that they're very interested in AR but the tech isn't there yet.
    I Know, but the guys at Apple Insider don't think the glasses will happen, and so do a lot of other Apple fans.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 27

    mavemufc said:
    I know you guys don’t think it’ll happen but I think it’s just a matter of time till Apple gets some glasses out there.
    If the 'HomePod' debacle is anything to go by, they will be late, underpowered and stupidly overpriced.
    Oh, and have the battery life akin to the lifespan of a mayfly.
     
    but How do you know the HomePod is underpowered and overpriced when its not released yet?
    watto_cobra
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