Microsoft has its own Project Glass – augmented reality glasses/wearable computer combo

Staska  By on 22 Nov 12

Microsoft has it’s own Project Glass cooking in the R&D labs.

It’s an augmented reality glasses/heads-up display, that should supply you with various bits of trivia while you are watching a live event, e.g. baseball game. The device was made public via Microsoft’s patent application published today.

Microsoft is taking a much more gradual approach than Google, which already has a working wearable computer/augmented reality glasses prototype, and will start selling it to early adopters in a few months.

The device described in Microsoft’s patent application is not intended to be used throughout the day as you are getting around. It focuses on live events like sports games or concerts, and tries to enhance your experience by beaming text and audio overlays to the action in the field. Which makes the device much more simple, since Microsoft knows you should be relatively stationary while wearing it, and won’t have to worry about you walking into stuff while trying to read information hovering in front.

Of course, it is just one patent app, and filed in May 2011 at that. Who knows what other projects Microsoft’s R&D department is working on, and where they went in 18 months since the application was submitted to USPTO. Especially after seeing all those cool demos of Google’s Project Glass this summer.

Now that Microsoft is moving into the hardware biz, I’m pretty sure that if Google’s AR device shows even a moderate success, we’ll have something similar from Redmond very soon.

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  • waaminn

    Man I never even thought about it liek that dude.

    Privacy-Max.tk

  • http://www.facebook.com/go.kart.1840 Go Kart

    I can see this being useful for movie watching. There wouldn’t be a need for subtitles on the screen. Each moviegoer could watch in the language they choose.

  • B Leu

    Finally! Augmented reality is on the way! Can you imagine using GPS and seeing arrows floating above the road instead of having to look down at your smartphone? Or walking down the street, seeing a tag hanging off of a building, “tapping” it with your finger, and seeing all the shops listed for that building, with a link to each business’ website? I can’t wait!

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