If you don’t mind looking a bit like a dork (not that anything is wrong with that, really) and walking around ooohhing and aaaahing at things that only you can see, then you better get excited because Sony’s SmartEyeglass augmented-reality glasses will now be on sale in 10 countries. If you live in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the US, then you’ll be one of the first to own this device.
Tech critics have been not so kind to it when it was first released, calling it unfashionable and tacky, but hey, if you want to have augmented reality eyeglasses and you have the money for it, who cares if it looks weird? It’s still in the Developer Edition phase though, so don’t expect too much from it. But if you’re an early adaptor, then you’d want to get your hands on this transparent video screen that will give you more information about what you’re actually seeing in real life.
It’s not like the virtual reality headsets that other OEMs have been announcing lately. It just simply shows you things like navigation directions or schedules of buses/trains, and maybe soon, seeing AR ads all around you. It doesn’t have a lot of functionalities for now, unlike Google Glass and the likes, but it is way cheaper and more portable (although as they said, more dorky).
If you’re from Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US, sales are open to any consumer. But for the other 6 countries, it is only available for business customers. It will cost you a steep $840 so unless you have money to spare and would really like to have one, you might want to wait a few more months.
VIA: SlashGear
