While the Google Glass smartglasses are still in its preliminary trial phase, called the Google "Glass Explorer" program, some competitors to the augmented reality devices are also on the horizon. One is already available, and its price is already set at $600.
The most recent wearable computing devices to be unveiled, though, hails from Japan. At a technology trade show this week in Tokyo, called Ceatec, Japanese wireless phone network giant NTT DoCoMO showed off "Intelligent Glass."
The smartglasses, according to The New York Times' Bits Blog, already has a trick up its sleeve that Google Glass hasn't mastered just yet: translation.
The Intelligent Glass device can instantly translate written text into different languages and display that translation right in front of your eyes. Foreign tourists in Tokyo, notes the Bits blog, have always needed translation help, and the Intelligent Glass devices may be the answer to that.
That's not all that Intelligent Glass can do. Like some apps that eventually were proscribed from development on Google Glass, DoCoMo is also working on Intelligent Glass facial recognition, meaning the glasses can provide an array of information about whoever you're looking at. Unlike the controversial early feature on Google Glass, DoCoMo has made the facial recognition something that you have to add manually, which might cut down on the creep factor a bit.
That's still not all that Intelligent Glass can do though. The smartglasses pair with a ring - that's right, wearable tech is getting into jewelry now - that turns any flat surface into a faux touchscreen. Engadget says the feature is "a little limited at these early stages," but it works to turn surfaces into something like a virtual tablet.
Truly in the sense of augmented reality, the intelligent glasses cast the app virtually on the surface, and with the ring on, you can double click icons, open apps, play movies, or do any number of other tasks as the ring tracks your finger movement.
Judging by the look of Intelligent Glass, these aren't ready for primetime yet, and there's no word yet on a release date, price, or availability by country. Still, the existence of these smartglasses has to be putting some pressure on Google.
There's a limited kind of "smartglasses" on the market already, called "Recon." Directed mostly at high-level athletes that want to record their performance, the rugged Recon "Snow" smartglasses have already sold 50,000 of its devices, priced at $599. Recon "Jet," another iteration, features a dual-core 1GHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, an HD camera and display, and an accelerometer, gyroscope, altimeter, magnetometer, and a thermometer.
The Recon smartglasses' creator, Recon Instruments, is teamed up with Intel Capital, and will be launching a new version early next year.
Check out the video below for a demonstration of Recon, including how professional cyclist George Hincapie says it facilitates "instant trash-talking."