What comes after Google Glass? It was at CES, just in pieces
[Philip Lelyveld comment: This article is a good overview of AR glasses at CES. Our old friends from the 3D Lab era, Vuzix, are repurposing their glasses for the AR age.]
To capture a mainstream audience, smart glasses need to be compact and stylish enough that they feel just like a regular pair of glasses. The technology needs to disappear. The closest thing I saw at CES that fits that bill is Vuzix's waveguide technology (similar to fiber optics), which creates images on lenses — no "prisms" or weird outgrowths from your temple. That way, the frames look normal, and the lenses stay transparent.
Vuzix's consumer model hadn't been perfected in time for the show, but I did see a working pair of prototype lenses, as well as the frames in which the company intends to build them. They looked just like something Bono would wear if Vuzix can put them together, which is likely, now that Intel has invested $25 million in the company.
"What Google was trying to do, Vuzix is going to do," company CEO Paul Travers said. "Once people start using these guys, they won't go back to their phones."
See the full story here: http://mashable.com/2015/01/09/ces-2015-google-glass-smart-glasses/