back to article Olympus MEG4.0 smart glasses will photoshop the REAL WORLD

Japanese camera and optics company Olympus is developing a set of smart glasses along the lines of Google's Project Glass which, besides its other more useful functions, will allow users to view the real world with a brighter, friendlier glow. Olympus showed off the prototype in a press release on its website. Hot on the …

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  1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Pint

    view the real world with a brighter, friendlier glow.

    Wouldn't alcohol be cheaper?

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: view the real world with a brighter, friendlier glow.

      Not really. £3 a pint, that will add up to £1000s quite quickly.

      Though I bet the glasses might lead to as many headaches.

    2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: view the real world with a brighter, friendlier glow.

      Mo reimportantly, are they peril sensitive? will they black out the moment you might see something that could disturb you?

  2. Thomas 18
    FAIL

    I already have this

    It's called yellow tinting

  3. b0llchit Silver badge
    Big Brother

    No more dangers

    Finally, soon I will be able to get a pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses.

    Yeah!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As a(n amateur/slow) runner I like the idea of glasses like these and Google's, or certainly will when they're properly small and light. Built in GPS and info displayed on the lens means an end to glancing at my GPS watch for times when i want them or listening to Endomondo via my phone giving me times when it wants to give them.

    Inifinite other applications besides, of course, but this is one practical reason I want them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They'd better sort out kinetic charging for that use.

      Could see a use for Skiers especially those being pursued by men with machine guns,,,

      ?

      Just me then.

  5. b0llchit Silver badge
    Big Brother

    The Distributed Camera

    Will law-enforcement access the camera system?

    That must be someone's wet dream, I guess...

    1. HeNe
      Black Helicopters

      Re: The Distributed Camera

      Reminds me of the moment in one of the "Ghost in the Shell" series/movies where a policeman cried out, "My (electronic) eyes have been hacked!" Immediately after that, he had a fatal one-car "accident" on a rainy road, when he swerved his car to avoid a faked obstacle which he "saw" with his electronic eyes.

      1. Michael Habel
        Terminator

        Re: The Distributed Camera

        That would be Stand Alone Complex i.e. The Laughing Man Case.....

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: The Distributed Camera

      Not really - imagine a demo where everyone with specs might be recording any policeman and any little 'falling off the kerb accidents'. It won't be enough to merely nick anyone with a video camera at the start.

  6. D@v3
    Boffin

    prescrption glasses

    I wonder if anyone has thought about how this type of technology will work for people who wear prescription specs, it is after all, not a small amount of people to worry about not being able to sell your product to.

    1. Flugal

      Re: prescription glasses

      Perhaps they will come in prescription versions, if the glass can be ground to different prescriptions, or, ultimately, can be calibrated to modify what any wearer sees to put it in focus (which might kill off the regular lens-making industry).

      As a "speccy four eyes" myself I'm optimistic we'll be accounted for.

    2. Nev

      Re: prescrption glasses

      As with 3D it'll be a "**** you four-eyes" from the producers of such gadgets.

    3. Graham Marsden
      Facepalm

      Re: prescrption glasses

      And what about those of us who have ditched glasses for contact lenses...?!

    4. JDX Gold badge

      Re: prescrption glasses

      Why can't the display automatically de-focus the image exactly the right amount through a virtual lens?

      Now THAT would be a good patent to own.

      1. Gordon 10

        Re: prescrption glasses

        Thats exactly what I would expect. The incoming view would be translated through a software lens to correct whatever the viewers eyesight issue is. Wouldnt be at all surprised to discover that software models of vision issues already exist.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: prescrption glasses

          It's not so much focus that's the problem (there are already diopter adjustments in DSLRs etc) but 'mounting' the things. Unless you can clip it on existing glasses and calibrate it, let me tell you - you think wearing these things is going to be dorky as is? Try wearing two pairs of glasses at a the same time, too.

  7. TRT Silver badge

    Those aren't rose tinted glasses you're wearing...

    that's your own blood dripping down in front of your eyes.

  8. Fred M

    "Hot on the heels of Apple's release" - What's this got to do with Apple?

    Google have a prototype. Olympus have a prototype. As far as I know Apple only have a vague patent on peripheral vision that they'll use for trolling and lining some lawyers' pockets in the future.

  9. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Are they going to release a 'David Icke' edition, complete with lizard vision?

  10. Ian Ferguson
    Pint

    They Live!

  11. Phil Bennett
    FAIL

    Not that impressive...

    320x240 display with a 1 hr battery life isn't very impressive, especially compared to commercially available stuff like the ST1080, which is full HD and has a 4 hr life. True, it doesn't have GPS, but you're going to be hooking this thing up to a smartphone anyway. Build head tracking in, make it more transparent (10% isn't going to cut it when you're walking around) and do all the processing on the phone to save power.

  12. Tom_

    Rainbows End

    Coming soon. :)

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    its all about the battery life

    something like this cant take off until they figure out what to do about power supply.

    I think googles will have a similar problem, as their demo's have apparently involved a cable from the glasses out to a backpack!

    1. ratfox
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Cable to a backpack?

        He runs Google. The backback is inside.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HHGTG got there first

    When faced by the ravenous Bug-Bladder Beast of Traall, do they immediately turn completely black, saving the wearer from stress and anxiety?

  15. ItsNotMe
    FAIL

    These should increase the number of Darwin Award nominees.

    Can't wait to see how many fools get run over whilst wearing these, and walking straight into traffic.

    And just imagine the fun on the highwways, with some idiot behind the wheel of a vehicle, wearing the latest in Internet eyewear.

    1. Munchausen's proxy
      Pint

      Re: These should increase the number of Darwin Award nominees.

      Actually, cheap personal HUD seems like a pretty good idea for driving, assuming the content and display are useful and not just 'look what we can do'.

  16. Roger Kynaston
    Pint

    Old hat

    Or should I say old specs.

    At the last Americas Cup, the skipper of Larry Ellison's toy had glasses that connected to the boats systems and projected vital information to shave 1/1000th of a second off the time to tack such a behemoth. Granted he had a backpack computer to interface with the boat.

    Personally, i'll leave that sort of toy ashore and possibly stick to beer for getting a "nicer" of the world ashore as well.

    1. Mike Flex

      Re: Old hat

      > the skipper of Larry Ellison's toy had glasses that connected to the boats systems

      Did they have little wipers? Because when I've worn the boring old refractive style of glasses on a yacht they were covered in salt from dried spray in 3/5ths of a gnat's heartbeat.

  17. Suricou Raven

    App ideas:

    - Facial recognition cue: Now you don't need to remember the names of your coworkers and clients, as they appear in your HUD every time you look at them.

    - Nudievision: The illusion that all women are naked.

    - Anti-nudievision: The illusion that all ugly women are wearing burqas.

    - Family finder: Shows direction indicators to those in your group, for locating lost children in crowds.

    - Web browser: For reading The Register at work.

    - Adblocker: All billboards and advertising flyers removed from vision.

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