Intel is launching plain-looking smartglasses that beam a monochrome red image directly into your retina using a laser. There are no cameras on the device:
Intel has launched an impressively light, regular-looking set of smart glasses called Vaunt, confirming rumors from Bloomberg and others. Seen by The Verge, they have plastic frames and weigh under 50 grams, a bit more than regular eyeglasses but much less than Google Glass, for example. The electronics are crammed into the stems and control a very low-powered, class one laser that shines a red, monochrome 400 x 150 pixel image into your eye. Critically, the glasses contain no camera, eliminating the "big brother" vibe from Glass and other smart glasses.
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Intel will shut down its New Devices Group, spelling an end to the company's Vaunt smartglasses project:
When Intel showed off its Vaunt smart glasses (aka "Superlight" internally) back in February, we had high hopes for a new wave of wearable tech that wouldn't turn us into Borgs. Alas, according to The Information's source, word has it that the chip maker is closing the group responsible for wearable devices which, sadly, included the Vaunt. This was later confirmed by Intel in a statement, which hinted at a lack of investment due to "market dynamics." Indeed, Bloomberg had earlier reported that Intel was looking to sell a majority stake in this division, which had about 200 employees and was valued at $350 million.
To avoid the awkwardness that doomed the Google Glass, Intel took the subtle approach by cramming a retinal laser projector -- along with all the other electronic bits, somehow -- into the Vaunt's ordinary-looking spectacle frame; plus there was no camera on it. The low-power projector would beam a red, monochrome 400 x 150 pixel image into the lower right corner of one's visual field, thus eliminating the need of a protruding display medium.
Vaunt is what you get when your committee is too scared of the "Glasshole" fiasco to make a useful product. People on camera could easily identify Google Glass because of its protruding head-mounted display and hardware, as well as the camera indicator light. Build the SoC and any flat buttons directly into a black frame, put small camera lenses at the hinges and/or center, use retinal laser projection or make the lenses into full field of view displays, and remove the indicator light. Then the wearer doesn't have a "Glasshole" problem (but those being viewed might still end up with a "Glasshole.")
Also at The Verge, ZDNet, and AppleInsider.
Previously: Intel Unveils "Vaunt" Smartglasses
North has acquired the patents and tech behind Intel's Vaunt AR glasses
North, the company behind the Focals AR glasses, has acquired the "technology portfolio" behind another set of AR [Augmented Reality] glasses, the cancelled Intel Vaunt glasses. The company wouldn't disclose the terms of the deal, but Intel Capital is a major investor in North and led its last financing round in 2016. Both Focals and Vaunt had the same basic idea: use a tiny laser embedded in the stem of your glasses to project a reflected image directly into your retina. Unlike other AR and VR [Virtual Reality] efforts, the goal is to create a pair of glasses you'd actually want to wear — something that looks relatively normal and doesn't weigh too much.
[...] Focals have the same basic idea as Vaunt but are actually set to ship to consumers fairly soon. The Canadian company already has a couple of stores where you can select the right style of glasses. But more importantly, you need to get them fitted, North says, because aligning the projector so you can see the image requires that the glasses be adjusted for your face.
[...] North CEO and co-founder Stephen Lake tells me that his company is acquiring 230 patents or applications along with some "technology and assets," which will mean the company should have over 650 patents by the end of the year.
[...] In some ways, North's Focals are a little more advanced than the Intel Vaunt prototypes I tried back in February. The image it displays is slightly larger and displays in full color instead of Vaunt's red monochrome. But Intel had some tech that North wanted, Lake tells me that the Vaunt team "did a lot of work in MEMs technology and the optics related to that." More specifically, Intel seems to have done a lot of work to miniaturize the display system.
Lake says that North is acquiring the patents for future versions of Focals and not to go on a lawsuit spree. "It's really about a defensive position," he says. Intel also had done work related to the core interface of using AR glasses. The patents North is acquiring cover "everything from new techniques, user interfaces, to ways to interact with the glasses."
Also at TechCrunch.
Previously: Intel Unveils "Vaunt" Smartglasses
Intel Abandons Vaunt AR (Augmented Reality) Smartglasses
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Arik on Monday February 05 2018, @08:58PM (10 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:06PM (6 children)
Relax. I've worked for Intel twice and like their CPU and SSD.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Monday February 05 2018, @09:10PM (4 children)
I'm glad to know they hire bone-headedly stupid people. And re-hire them even.
Their products are defective by design and how you *feel* about them is of absolutely no relevance to that.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:15PM
It's a boy?! Send him to the operating room for reconstructive genital surgery!
Evolution; defective by design.
(Score: 4, Informative) by requerdanos on Monday February 05 2018, @10:31PM (2 children)
This is one of the most important facts that babies need to learn about the universe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @10:39PM
I'm glad you feel that way.
or *citation_needed
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @10:48PM
Bob is angry at me and I feel his anger is misplaced and invalid.
Babe the pig really enjoys life. Joe the farmer feels like eating porkchops.
Lupus the wolf enjoys being one of the apex predators. Humans feel Lupus and family would be better in a more docile form.
Huh, sure seems that how we feel can be quite important to some facts.
Hmm, for an example more pertinent to the topic: company needs to produce chips that meet a certain specification. Users don't seem to care about a less-than-secure optimization scheme, project is passed on as viable.
20 years later: users care about security, chips are no longer designed with questionable optimization.
Huh, imagine that, general statements almost always have outliers. Generation feelz ftw!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:11PM
Wow, what a testimonial. Thanks for this deep insight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:12PM (2 children)
Just sayin'.
I mean, IME aside, Linux basically Just Works with Intel's stuff.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:23PM
--Andy Tanenbaum [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday February 05 2018, @11:56PM
I mean, sure, it's built on a sandbar, but what a pretty house! Don't you love the trim?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:34PM (5 children)
Laser directly into your retina, what could go wrong? Anyway I'd be cautious, I've heard recently about an Intel thing called metldown so don't wanna experience eyeball meltdown.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 05 2018, @10:29PM
Caution: Do not look into Intel glasses with your remaining eye
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 05 2018, @10:57PM
A secret auction is currently ongoing to decide which lucky advertiser gets the "burn text into retina" laser power unlock code.
Sadly, half of the black hats already guessed it's 123456 (the others didn't think it could be as dumb as a luggage code), and are conducting their own secret auction.
The future is bright! (with dark logos imprinted)
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday February 05 2018, @11:33PM (1 child)
Rest assured, nothing. They are smart glasses, remember? They wouldn't do anything stupid.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:03AM
smartglassessmartasses. FTFY(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:41AM
Just make sure you use the eye drops [youtube.com].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Monday February 05 2018, @09:43PM (12 children)
"As it's beamed onto the back of your retina, it's always in focus, regardless of whether you have prescription or non-prescription lenses."
So, you could have it beam the environment around a blind person (or someone with bad sight) directly onto their retina and have them see in perfect focus?
IANAOpthamologist.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wonkey_monkey on Monday February 05 2018, @09:52PM (1 child)
When we see a point source, the eye is focusing many rays of light that hit the lens at different points into a single point on the retina. But if you could somehow reduce the point source so that only a [i]single[/i] ray hit your lens, it would always be a point on your retina because it can't be blurred.
I'm not quite sure how this works when you're projecting a multi-pixel image, but at a guess, people with different prescriptions would see differently-distorted - but still fundamantally sharp - images. And that distortion could be corrected in software.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Funny) by requerdanos on Monday February 05 2018, @10:33PM
Oh, yeah, blow off the problem and let the coders deal with it. Thanks again Engineers!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @09:54PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday February 05 2018, @10:04PM (4 children)
At 400x150 pixels, the world would be pretty blocky. Of course the future holds better resolution.
For me though, I must be getting old. I have zero interest in getting phone notifications right in my eyeball.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday February 05 2018, @10:21PM
It's where they end up anyway. Unless you get yours delivered in Morse code via vibration.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday February 05 2018, @11:21PM
Watch out: creeper behind you!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @11:39PM
May i interest you in getting them left into your eyeball? 'Left there' as in 'permanently engraved there'.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday February 05 2018, @11:44PM
Same here, but.... at greater resolutions some pretty neat things are possible. That being said, it either requires a camera, sending very precise telemetry to Intel, or a very powerful localized mobile computer.
I'd like to see augmented reality like that where a red path winds off into the horizon, and that's my hiking trail. Grab my wrist, and my vitals come up on the "screen".
This looks like the start of something at least.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday February 05 2018, @10:24PM (2 children)
I've remembered the example I meant to give earlier, but couldn't think of - it's like the speckle pattern you see when you point a laser pointer into your eye (don't do this!) - it's always "in focus", such as it is, regardless of your prescription.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Tuesday February 06 2018, @01:13PM (1 child)
FTFY.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @08:27PM
can blue lasers make a blue screen the last thing you ever see?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @10:42PM
wouldn't the shape of the lens have an inpact? As in I'd suspect the image would move/distort differently if you're focusing on something nearby verses something far away.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:44AM
the spectre of my eyeballs meltingdown encourages me to leave intel outside.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:59AM
OK, so they miniaturized an imager from a virtual-boy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy/ [wikipedia.org], but managed to make the resolution suck more... oh, boy.
The VB imager was from the now long defunct Reflection Technologies product, private-eye. I got to use one, it was ok by late 80's standards.
With the recent price crash in VR headsets, No-one's even going to touch this at anything over a $50 retail impulse buy.
At that price point though, I'd wear it over a smart-watch, maybe if it included bone-conduction BT audio.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @08:13PM
How about focusing on making a processor that can be trusted?