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North Focals Review: Stealthy, Stylish Smart Glasses
Focals are currently only available after two in-person fittings (for more on North's detailed fitting process, see our first hands-on with Focals) in their Brooklyn, New York or Toronto, Canada stores. The trip is tempting as Focals cross a huge smart glasses barrier by offering functionality in a form that stands a good (but not perfect) chance of passing for regular glasses. However, while we enjoy apps like Amazon Alexa and Weather, more apps and better image quality would make the $999 / $1,200 CAD price tag (with or without prescription lenses) more forgivable.
Focals use a Qualcomm APQ8009w system-on-a-chip (SoC), which runs on four Arm Cortex A7 CPU cores at a clock speed of up to 1.09GHz. The SoC is marketed for smartwatches, with features like Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity and a Qualcomm Adreno 304 GPU.
[...] The left arm of my review sample is bare black on the outside, while the inside subtly reads "Focals by NORTH" near the temple and "CLASS 1 LASER PRODUCT" near the tip. The right arm is also bare on the outside. The inside, however, holds the holographic display projector, which uses a display technology called retinal projection to project photons, or light, or raster graphics, onto the retina. When the projector is activated, it's not visible from the outside. It projects images onto the right eye only. This advanced retina display also calls for precise measurements in the aforementioned fitting process.
On the bottom of the right arm is a small square area for connecting the charger, a small speaker/microphone and the power button.
The Loop controller ring comes in black and is mostly made of polycarbonate with gold-plated charging contacts. You'll hear a clicking noise in the glasses every time you use the joystick, unless you turn all sound off.
[...] The most impressive part of Focals' is that no one will know when you're using apps, since the AR display is only visible to the wearer. It works by creating red, green and blue light that is manipulated to make text and images the Focals' projector sends out. Next, there's a holographic lens in the right eye that's embedded with a transparent film designed to interact with red, green and blue wavelengths only. Everything else passes through. According to North, "when our specific wavelengths of light hit the transparent film, it acts like a mirror and bounces the light back towards your eye placing the image directly in your line of sight where only you can see it."
[...] After playing with the Focals for 5 continuous minutes at maximum brightness and volume, the right arm's hottest point was 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
No cameras, no wireless charging. Lame.
Previously: Intel's Vaunt Augmented Reality Smartglasses Concept Lives on at Canadian Company North
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @07:18PM (5 children)
The manufacturer have learned one important feature to not add: a camera. Google got burned on that.
The device is not yet ready for a mass market: it heats up, it has low resolution, you cannot choose the eye, you cannot select both and have stereo overlay, you have limited selection of corrective lenses, no eye tracking, no wireless charging, face measurements needed for ordering. Perhaps, it is already acceptable for some users (a Lyft|Uber driver?); but the majority of potential customers has no need for a 200x200 pixels screen, we got used to 2000 pixels. I have seen a HUD with 1024x768, it was pretty nice. Something like that will be popular.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 07 2019, @07:34PM (4 children)
Maybe some people will find smartglasses useful without a camera. But it is certainly a lot less useful. No photos, videos, or AR.
The problem with Google Glass is that you looked like a Borg while wearing it. If this thing had a noticeable display (no retinal beaming) but no camera, people would still probably get attacked over it.
The solution is to hide or miniaturize the cameras (there should be two of them).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @08:44PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:12PM (1 child)
Eventually it will [soylentnews.org] come [darpa.mil], and then there'll be no more excuses.
But is 44°C/111°F a deal breaker? This page [anandtech.com] suggests 40°C/104°F as a limit for comfortable skin temperature.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @02:00AM
When it comes, I will buy and others will buy. Not a problem. Just make them.
With regard to +44°C, I do not know if that is even close to being a deal killer. The other deficiencies are more important, the low resolution is first among them. Make it close to a modern screen, so that we can read a common text. Camera is highly optional for me personally, unless it's AR.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday February 08 2019, @06:29AM
Any lag at all is a dealbreaker for AR. The way around it is to pipe the video direct to the screen, not process it. You process and add the overlay as a separate stream. Having labels appear on things 50ms late doesn't matter, but being 5ms late with the field of view does.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.