Intel is making smart glasses that you wouldn’t be ashamed to wear on the train.
Revealed by The Verge, Vaunt is a pair of glasses that offers basic, contextual information to one eye without a bulky and unsightly piece of additional hardware fitted to them. Think of it as a refined Google Glass that may genuinely have a shot at changing our everyday lives.
The device uses a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (better known as a VCSEL, which Intel says is very safe) to project information into your eye. You’ll need a pair that’s tuned to your interpupillary distance to make sure the text displayed is clear.
Just as they appear normal on the outside, Vaunt’s display aims to unintrusive on the inside. This isn’t an AR headset that projects realistic 3D models into the real world as with Magic Leap or HoloLens, but instead a simple information-provider that tries not to get in your way. To see a message, you need only glance towards the bottom of the glasses, which is the only time information will be shown. Behavioral AI implemented into the system will figure out which data best suits the user.
What’s put on display will be contextual too; don’t expect your Twitter feed to be a look away but instead you might get walking directions or restaurant ratings as you glance at the building in question. You can dismiss and acknowledge notifications with simple swipes of the head (no hands required).
It’s not yet clear when (or even if) Intel will release Vaunt. Don’t forget that the company last year canceled plans for its standalone VR headset, Project Alloy, that would have been used as a reference design. Still, if plans do go ahead we might be looking at the first pair of smart glasses with a real shot at catching on.
