While several companies - including perhaps most famously Google[1] with its Google Glass[2] have tried their hands at the smart glasses game[3], few have succeeded in gaining popularity. Now, Intel[4] is the latest company to jump on the bandwagon with its new Vaunt glasses. The difference is that Intel's new smart glasses look like any regular glasses and have a frame that is built of plastic and weighs under 50 grams.
The Intel Vaunt smart glasses - which The Verge[5] got exclusive early access to - are devoid of cameras, buttons or touch controls. The glasses are designed to give users simple notifications. Everything is put into the stems that control a low-powered class one laser that projects a red, monochrome 400x150 pixels image directly onto the retina, the publication reports.
Intel New Devices Group's Mark Eastwood told The Verge that the glasses are better than a smartwatch as it enables users to check notifications without getting distracted. Users will be able to control the glasses with head nods or other subtle gestures.
When it comes to software, Intel has said that the Vaunt will reduce work done on smartphones, similar to what a smartwatch does. The smart glasses will reportedly support some apps and will work with both iPhones and Android devices. Notably, Intel's smart glasses will get voice assistant integration in the future as it does not have a microphone right now, the company has revealed.
With the smart glasses, Intel wants to make sure that users are not bombarded with notifications and rather provide "ambient, contextual information". The glasses can also detect if a user is in the kitchen and then send a recipe, a demo video...