back to article Samsung files patent for ear-mounted Google Glass competitor

Samsung has filed a design-patent application with the Korean Intellectual Property Office for what appears to be a cross between a Bluetooth earpiece and Google Glass. Being a design patent, there is very little descriptive text about the device, but its title describes it as an "earphone" (이어폰) and what little text there is …

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  1. Kevin 6
    Joke

    Holy crap

    Its a Dragon Ball Z scouter

    Wonder if it will give energy levels :D

    1. Thorne

      Re: Holy crap

      Saw it and thought exactly the same thing.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Holy crap

      Can you patent a hearing aid that big?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Holy crap

      Looks even more stupid than Google Glass.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wonder if Google will sue?

    1. Don Jefe

      Of course Google will sue. Along with a lot of other tiny companies run by lawyers who passed the bar (but should have stayed there :) but were so useless inside corporate law offices that they couldn't draw clients, so they started troll firms to take what they're too stupid to create.

    2. Rob

      Why?

      Why would Google want to sue, they don't sue Samsung for manufacturing phones with the Android OS. Google know that their concept will result in a raft of similar products, but if all those similar have Android on them then Google wins through sheer market saturation again.

      For Google the hardware it develops is a necessity, it's a vehicle for it's software and if it's software is everywhere then they will achieve dominance, perhaps they thought that MS got something right and have adopted a similar principle. The parallels between the 2 companies are becoming more apparent every press release.

    3. LarsG

      If it's as good as their watch it will be crap.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Has one improvement over Glass

    It would be easier for people who wear glasses, or sunglasses, to wear this.

    Plus, from the side it might look like a Bluetooth so people will only think you're a Bluetard instead of a Glasshole!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Has one improvement over Glass

      It would be easier for people who wear glasses, or sunglasses, to wear this.

      I hope you can decide which ear you wear it on, or the Vincent van Goghs of this world will lose out :).

  4. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Reminds me of...

    .. those devices people wear behind their ear that sounds an alarm if they start to fall asleep whilst driving.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Reminds me of...

      Interesting idea, actually, it can automatically video the consequences...

  5. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

    Ah, head mounted sight to aim the shark Lasers.

  6. MrXavia

    I like the idea of a HMD, but I hate the 'glass' method of implementing it..

    Maybe Samsung will do things right, unlikely but we will see...

  7. mmeier

    And now something like that from a company with long term support

    and we may have a winner. Won't buy stuff that gets no more support 6-12 month after sales start. Oh and please not tied to a specific software platform and/or set of software services either.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: And now something like that from a company with long term support

      Long term support of consumer electronics isn't very common with much of anyone anymore. It's a seldom discussed stack on effect of the 'economies of scale' everybody like to talk about all the time.

      With mass scale production it costs enormous amounts of money to maintain support if a product isn't flying off the shelves. With really slim margin stuff like most mobile anything being 10% under your sales forecasts with half the anticipated warrantable failures can put you 300-400% in the red for that product. If warranty replacements meet or exceed initial forecasts then you can easily move into the 600%+ loss range for that product. If you've sent floor planned inventory to regional distribution centers, or retailers, the losses can climb to levels that are truly phenomenal.

      Summarized, losses in mass scale production environments scale 3-5x faster than profits as a result of your 'economies of scale' collapsing and spalling zillions of mini-disasters that crash into your other products. So if a manufacturer maintains support for (Product A) even though sales are poor or, warrantable replacements are not far lower than expected, consumer prices for (Product B) jump way up. If you keep support up for lots of products that aren't doing well the prices for (Product B) can enter the stratosphere.

      That's why Samsung dropped support for the 270 Blu-Ray players I bought for donation to a school system after 7 months of them being on the market. Even big margin Apple can't afford to maintain support if products don't sell. For a super low margin manufacturer like Samsung it would destroy the affordability that customers enjoy so much.

      It's not that I don't agree with you that it sucks, but the fact companies do that kind of thing is directly responsible for their products being affordable.

      1. mmeier

        Re: And now something like that from a company with long term support

        I agree with your write up.

        But I am willing to pay a bit more for a HUD/Augmented Reality device that I can use 3-5 years (aveage time between replacement of my glasses) with regular updates/patches. And I guess industrie users will as well since electronic devices are typically written off over 3-5 years IIRC.

        I do not need an upGRADE but somethink like the continued patch support for WP7.x is required before I buy an AR system. After all if say a camera manufacturer can offer 3+ years support for an entry level DSLR so should a AR glass producer. Sure, the DSLR costs more than a compact but so be it.

  8. ThomH

    They're coming but they're not selling

    See the sales of smart watches. Smart phones said "now you don't have to go all the way to your home to see email, maps and the web". Wearables say "now you don't have to reach all the way into your pocket to see email, maps and the web". For whom is that a sufficiently compelling proposition?

    1. John Tserkezis

      Re: They're coming but they're not selling

      "For whom is that a sufficiently compelling proposition?"

      They could be, as they do more than that. If you use audiobooks or podcasts a lot, being able to fastforward/rewind with fewer button presses is certainly easier. That and, being able to tell who's calling you just by looking at your watch helps, considering your phone may be tangled within a holster or a bag or pocket or wherever. Especially so if you're using a headset, wired, bluetooth or otherwise.

      Any watch face is too small for maps and web, so there's no point in enteraining that idea, but email and SMS are readable enough. Some claim ability to respond too, but I think button presses would be too small.

      So they do have SOME merit, it's just the price that may offend.

      To the author: As far as the article states "anyone - well, anyone in the US" "Anyone in the US" doesn't count. the world does not drop off the end of the earth at the US borders. So stop claiming "anyone". Especially when wearable tech is available now for a LOT less than fucking $1500 - that's just not on.

    2. Don Jefe

      Re: They're coming but they're not selling

      Value proposition is a term that's totally irrelevant to the general consumer and even more so with consumer tech.

      The move of tech marketing in the 1980's away from actual value and into emotion is hugely responsible for the fact that consumers have tech in their homes at all. Konami, Atari and Nintendo pioneered most of the marketing tactics used in tech today. It's just been progressively refined and is now certifiable behavior management science, not just 'fun for two with dual controller ports'.

      Hell, until broadband Internet was generally available 80% of people in countries with Internet access never exceeded six (6) hours a week of computer use for an entire family even though they had a computer. The 'value' was having one and the particleboard shrine to display it on.

      If people ultimately like these things the value will be the same sort of thing, just owning one is the value. Tablets were around for over a decade before somebody figured out how to capture the emotional sale, now everybody wants one.

      1. ThomH

        Re: They're coming but they're not selling (@Don Jefe)

        If value were "totally irrelevant" then people would use smartphones exactly as much as they currently do, even if data were still 60p/megabyte. I'd suggest that (i) they wouldn't; and therefore (ii) value has _at least some_ relevance.

        In wearables terms, if it were a choice between one phone with no associated watch and one with a watch for, say, £50 more, I can see people going for the watch even if they not only then never actually wear it but also if they made exactly the same choice last year and never wore that one either. If it's a choice of paying an extra £300 in a separate transaction for a watch then I don't see that happening.

  9. frank ly
    Joke

    I'm sure that will be very comfortable to wear

    all day.

    1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      Re: I'm sure that will be very comfortable to wear

      They will certainly be more comfortable than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick....

      Unless steamlining makes that sort of thing less painful?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'm sure that will be very comfortable to wear

        Cue threats of doing just that if people with this (or Google Glass) start recording people without their permission.

        The lawyers in places where it is a legal requirement to get signed releases from everyone who might be in a picture even if it is in a public place will have a field day.

        As for me? Well anyone using one of these (or similar device) to take my picture (ugly old fizzog that it is) had better have a good reason or I might not be responsible for my actions. Just saying...

        At least with camera in phones etc, you can see people taking the shot. With these? No chance.

        1. Adrian 4

          Re: I'm sure that will be very comfortable to wear

          Be glad you can see that they _might_ be taking your picture, allowing you to dodge it.

          It's actually more convenient to take a picture with a concealed camera than it is with google glass. Unless you can think of a way to stop that, moaning about Glass is pointless.

        2. mmeier

          Re: I'm sure that will be very comfortable to wear

          A 10mm on an APS-C DSLR (optionally with battery grip), worn on the chest in a "tourist style" will see everything in front of me with a LOT better quality (and endurance) than this or Glasses. And with the lil remote in my pocket I can start the HD video recording anytime I want. No signal, no sound. All for less than 1000€ (Actually around 700-800€). And nobody cares, after all I am not "taking pictures".

          Granted no direct to Internet (that only works for pictures at this price range) but that would be done later when I put the 32GB SD card in the notebook and stream it safely in my car or at home.

          And even if someone detects it it is still legal here in germany since I am not taking pictures of people but of the scenery (Panoramafreiheit - everything I can see from public ground without using ladders etc. I can photograph) as long as I do not publish it. And see above the cam can not do that directly so the police or court will rule in my favor and call the attackers broken nose "self defence".

          Not that any Anonymous "defender of privacy" WILL likely attack me. Being 190cm and "muscular with a slightly expanding middle" (Think Bud Spencer in the 1970s/80s) is a nice defence.

          To quote the guard from "Machete": You ever noticed how you let a Mexican into your house just because he's got gardening tools? No questions asked, you just let him right in. Could have a chainsaw, you know, a machete...

  10. thomas k.

    nothing you can do to stop it?

    um ... maybe not buy it?

  11. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    There's no doubt

    The user will still look like a Borg wannabe (or just an idiot).

  12. Shady

    So after Glassholes we now have

    Eartards?

  13. Colin Wilson 2

    Lipsmackin?

    >> Despite promises that the irresistible wristable would make you a hit with the ladies, sales have been, well, "disappointing"

    They need to market them properly. It goes like this...

    Geek:

    Hey Eddie, How come you're such a hit with the girls?

    Eddie:

    Well you can tell by what I'm wearing how I get down with the Chicks - Oh Yeah!

    With Google Glasses on my eyes I get to check out all their tricks - Oh Yeah!

    And when I google through my peepers

    I get to check out which are keepers

    Google Glasses

    Chorus:

    Oooh Google Glasses

    Ear-mounted Google Glasses

    ... repeat to fade...

  14. Rick Brasche

    so..

    how many of you regularly wear your bluetooth headset/headphones for hours of the day? Seems even with market penetration that wearables only fantasize about, most people still prefer some sort of speakerphone arrangement.

    the killer app will be some method of presenting visual data to the user without a headset, a "visual speakerphone" of sorts. Something all contained in the phone itself and no extra hardware.

    damn, that's just vague enough to get by the US patent system, if I was an already rich company. I'll draw pictures and spit the revenues 50/50 to the first person who wants to finance this and play the patent troll game :P

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