We have talked about wearable tech,
science sure is getting us things we used to fantasize about or saw in
fancy Bond series. The idea of wearing head gear like Iron Man or using
glasses that give you the feel as if you’re from future is something all
of us want. Anyhow, what we have for you right now is somewhat similar
to Google Glass but there are some added features which you might not be
able to find in Google Glass. Epson Moverio was supposedly meant to be
used as a video reviewing device for personal use.The developers at APX Labs, it seems, are fan of making crosses . So when this Epson Moverio got into their hands they saw an
opportunity and seized it.
The improvement comes in the form of a camera, microphone and a 9-axis
motion sensor setup. It was kind of okay as long as they were adding
camera and mic but this 9-axis motion sensor setup seems like they’ve
gone overboard.
This setup has been added to provide
with some brilliant Augmented Reality experience for the user. The
gadget has some awesome voice and gesture controls. That’s not all that
this gadget has to offer. This gadget has what the developers like to
call the Northstar. What is Northstar? Northstar is a collection of
field of viewpoints. One may call them a series and one need only turn
their head toward it to access the Augmented Reality content that is
associated with them. A few examples of AR content include but are in no
way limited to traffic patterns and directions to a particular
location. This one will really amaze you; using the Northstar you can ‘jack’ into other person’s live video
feed. This feature is available for your friends who are included in
your social network and using this amazing feature one can enjoy the
view of mountains while he sits in his lounge on the comfy couch.The Northstar is basically supposed to work as a cloud where people can store their content and it will be available to others.Unlike Google Glass,
which displays information in a small corner above your line of sight,
Epson's glasses display content directly in front of you as an overlay
on top of the world. The result is what looks to be an 80-inch display
hovering in front of you, which can contain information about the space
you're in, the people you're around, or about a particular project
you're working on.
The high-tech spectacles are meant for enterprise rather than consumer
users, and can be used to live-stream what's going on in front of them.
For instance, a doctor might be wearing the glasses to see vital-sign
information about a patient he's working on, and then dial in another
doctor on the glasses to see what he's working on in real time and get a
second opinion.The glasses themselves are built from plastic and feel quite sturdy. The
headset uses micro-projection technology using LCD lens that are
mounted on the sides of the glasses in order to distribute the weight
evenly. Instead of using a bulb for projection, Epson uses backlighting
and clever arrangement of mirrors in the front of the headset to
‘project’ a virtual screen in front of the user.In case there’s too much ambient light in the room, you get a lens cover
for a clearer picture. Unlike most wearable displays, which have the
lens placed in front of the headset, this is a see-through headset, so
you can actually walk around while watching your movie without bumping
into things. There are earphones attached on either side of the headset
for audio, but you also have the option to plug in your own pair in the
control unit via the headphone sockets on either side.
The headset is powered by the control unit that houses the rechargeable
battery. The unit is small enough to easily fit in your hand as well as
your pocket. It has a nice rubberised finish to it so it’s easy to grip.
The unit runs Android 2.2 and Epson has no immediate plans to upgrade
it further. The control unit features a large trackpad (no multi-touch)
and a navigational D-Pad, so you can choose whichever is comfortable to
navigate through the menu. Other than that, we have a dedicated
brightness button, a button for engaging 3D video mode for stereoscopic
3D video and a Home, Properties and Back button, typical of any android
device. There’s also a volume rocker along with the power button and
key-lock switch on the side. Other than the 1GB of internal memory, the
BT-100 comes with a 4GB microSD card as well. For connectivity, we just
have the headphone jack, microUSB port and the dock to connect the
headset to.
