For years, IKEA has toyed with using the Microsoft's HoloLens to allow customers to plan out a kitchen, bathroom or room redesign, while Lowe's implemented a pilot program in several stores in Smart glasses initially hit the market as early as , but most have relied on enterprise clients, with only a few temporarily targeting consumers. In , Google released the first prototype of the Google Glass to a select group of consumers before going public in May The latest iteration geared toward the enterprise community was launched in Despite a slow integration into the consumer market, Covid and the rise in remote work could accelerate smart glasses integration in health, medical and service fields.
Vuzix recently announced they would partner with a medical technology company to assist with remote servicing during the pandemic. Microsoft is also putting smart glasses to use in the defense sector. First available to consumers in , the HoloLens glasses can overlay images and display computer programs.
The decision caused some concerns among employees who across the tech sectors have been more vocal in recent years as activists questioning some uses of their own technology. But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later defended the decision in an interview with CNN Business , citing that the company would not "withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.
In , Snap made its foray into the smart glasses market with Spectacles, a wearable product that allowed users to record videos to sync with their phones. But by , several media outlets reported that the creator of Snapchat largely overestimated demand and less than half of buyers continued using the product within a month of purchase , internal company data obtained by Business Insider suggested.
Offering consumer-friendly pricing for the products is one way to accelerate the rollout, but companies also need to ensure smart glasses are accompanied by easy-to-use apps and libraries of content that keep consumers occupied. Without these vast content libraries released in tandem with smart-glasses, consumers are less likely to materialize the benefits of the product, said Allan Cook, a managing partner at Deloitte leading the digital reality practice. Snap, which unveiled its smart Spectacles in , this year launched AR glasses but they are not for sale and are offered only to AR creators.
Facebook and Ray-Ban's first smart glasses which launched on September 9, Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, recently announced the company was setting up a team to work on building the metaverse , a shared virtual environment which it is betting will be the successor to the mobile internet.
Facebook, which has been criticized over its handling of user data , said it would not access the media used by its smart-glasses customers without their consent. In fact, people are more concerned about their privacy than ever before. For a project like this to be successful in the current climate, it would have to make it very visible when a user is recording. That was already attempted in the Google Glass, though some have argued that the idea could have been pushed further.
But with social media platforms like TikTok taking off and enjoying so much success, perhaps this device could actually have a place in the right parts of the market. It just has to be advertised correctly and introduced in a more gentle manner.
Perhaps the time is not right yet. We saw similar discussions in the mids when camera phones started getting really popular. In the end, the technology was not only accepted, but it evolved into much more powerful versions of itself.
Right now, pretty much everyone is carrying an advanced camera in their pocket, and everyone treats it as a normal part of life. Fascinated by smart glasses? Read this article to find out exactly what they are and how they work. Stefan is a writer with a passion for the new. Fortnite Game of Thrones Books. Comics Music. Filed under: Tech Augmented Reality. Linkedin Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Next Up In Tech. Sign up for the newsletter Verge Deals Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week.
Just one more thing!
0コメント