What Smartglasses Should Be: The Atheer One Says "Atheer Later, Google Glass"

The whole smartglasses craze that has taken over the tech world was started by Google Glass, and while it definitely wasn’t the first effort in the area of virtual eyewear, it managed to capture the imagination of the tech community in only a way Google could. Google Glass is now the standard by which all future smartglasses efforts are going to be judged against, however there are some challengers that appear to be up to the task. Lumus and Vuzix are names that come to mind and arguably do a better job of creating virtual spaces than Google Glass does, however there’s one key thing missing from all of these which is gesture control, a void that the Atheer One is hoping to fill.

One of Google Glass’ prime selling points is its integration with the increasingly functional and effective Google Now by way of vocal recognition, however we’re all aware of the social ramifications of looking like you’re talking to yourself. The Atheer Labs team have put together their own take on this which will allow their smartglasses to project virtual environments and allow you to interact with them using “airtouch” gestures. Check out their pitch video:

Atheer Labs has started an Indiegogo campaign (which launched yesterday and still has 42 days on the clock) to help get their smartglasses into the hands of willing developers. Atheer Labs is offering two models of their smartglasses: the Atheer Developer Kit and the Atheer One, the former being the version that developers will want to purchase to help develop some of the apps from the pitch video, and the latter being the smoothed out version for those who just want to use the finished product. That’s not to say that these smartglasses will have a lack of apps available to them either; Atheer Labs has said that their smartglasses will have access to Play Store, and presumably will be able to interact with those apps the way you might on a smartphone.

The Atheer smartglasses boast a pretty impressive spec list, not least of which is the display resolution available per eye which is 1024×768; for reference, the Google Glass only allows for a resolution of 640×360 through its viewing prism. Compared to its competition, both the Atheer Dev Kit and the Atheer One look quite impressive, not only in technical specifications, but price as well, effectively outpacing everything else that is currently available. It’s definitely an impressive project, one which we hope succeeds and if you’re planning to get on the bandwagon, there are still Atheer Developer Kits available for $1000 and Atheer Ones for $400; the link to the Indiegogo page will be below.