back to article Oakley: 'smart' sunglasses ready to shine

Sunglasses manufacturer Oakley reckons the time is ripe for 'smart glasses', and has revealed its own R&D efforts in specs technology, which could see it compete with Google's Project Glass in the not-too-distant future. "As an organisation, we’ve been chasing this beast since 1997,” said Oakley CEO Colin Baden in an interview …

COMMENTS

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  1. Andrew James

    Could be quite handy.

    - Using gps via phone to give a golfer approx distance to flag and suggest the optimal club for that distance.

    - Route & speed info for cyclists / drivers

    - Video feed from a drone up above while in a combat (or paintball) scenario)

    1. mike 32
      Mushroom

      "Video feed from a drone up above while in a combat (or paintball) scenario)"

      My wallet REALLY wouldn't want to see that!

      1. Andrew James

        Re: "Video feed from a drone up above while in a combat (or paintball) scenario)"

        I was thinking Parrot AR drone more than military spec unmanned helicopter armed to the teeth. But i see your point.

        tbh my wallet would like the idea of buying a £1 app to go with the glasses at the moment.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't forget

      - Remote control so that kids in Russia can force hipsters in Hoxton to walk straight into lamp posts

  2. Thomas 18
    FAIL

    "Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer we can bring it..."

    Are you high? light travels at the speed of light, there's nothing faster. Except maybe light that rolled a critical on its sprint test.

    It doesn't matter how far away the thing your seeing is. I wouldn't care if the device projected the overlay onto things around me instead of glasses or wrote it's messages on the clouds.

    Also according Colin Baden nothing ever happens to blind people. I think he did one too many lines at the last marketing meeting.

    1. handle

      Re: "Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer we can bring it..."

      I had the same reaction when I read that - how insulting to people with visual impairments.

  3. frank ly

    The frames!!

    You aim for retro, push for art-deco, then overshoot to fugly.

    Why does it have an earpiece if "everything happens through your eyes"?

    1. Andrew James

      Re: The frames!!

      I think those pictured are actually the old ones with the built in mp3 player.

  4. Mint Sauce
    Angel

    Yeuch!

    Zaphod wouldn't be seen dead wearing those abominations.. even for tax reasons.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yeuch!

      Well, to be fair, Oakley is the brand for people who engage in pointless, sweaty, outdoor exertion while wearing garish polyester clothes (I believe this is what's referred to as 'sport').

      1. miknik
        Thumb Down

        Re: Yeuch!

        'sport' or exercise as some people call it, but obviously not you Fats...

        1. Danny 14
          Stop

          Re: Yeuch!

          Personally I prefer smith optics. Much cheaper than the oakley equivalents and just as good.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Yeuch!

          Jealousy doesn't become you. I'll have you know I once participated in a weight-lifting event. True, it was at a pork-pie factory, and I had to be wheeled out, but nevertheless my svelte figure is often admired by the ladeez (perhaps when taking shelter from the rain under my majestically overhanging bellies). In fact, just the other day a young slip of a girl teasingly called me 'a big fat ugly hairy pastie-munching bastard'.

          All this and more could be yours if you renounce the twin evils of physical activity and moderate consumption.

  5. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    But are they peril sensitive?

    Well, are they?

  6. mark 63 Silver badge
    Alien

    Hideous!

    looks like something from that weitrd cronenberg movie with the gun made of flesh

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great...

    So in addition to dealing with people yammering on their cell phones while driving I now have to contend with some #$%^&* who tries to beat his Angry Birds high score on the commute home.

    (sarcasm)

    Yay...

    (/sarcasm)

  8. james 68

    ROFLCOPERS

    "and feature Siri-like voice commands........"

    ok so it'll only take commands in certain american states, and then only to direct you to the nearest old folks home when you ask it where the nearest chinese restraunt is located?

    colour me excited

  9. Dan 10

    Halting State, anyone?

    Charles Stross has this nailed right down. Location-specific software overlays that turn a street from a dismal grey concrete jungle to a busy urban landscape, advertising the exclusive merchanise within each building only to the target audience. Welcome to the world of private dimensions.

    I don't want to think what the Facebook overlay will look like, showing crap status updates over every person on the street- or, more accurately, over their mobile device.

  10. hugo tyson

    They're called "Glades"

    ...ISTR in some other Stross novel, "Accelerando" I think.

    1. TakeTheSkyRoad

      Re: They're called "Glades"

      Not sure about Stross but "Glades" are mentioned in some Ken MacLeod novels.... The Star Fraction for example. However those are not transparent but fake it with an outer coating of nano scale cameras feeding the inner display... with processing in between of course.

      1. Rodrigo Rollan
        Terminator

        Re: They're called "Glades"

        Stross has them coinedas as a custom rig that our hero uses on a daily basis, hooked up to his personal cloud (his exocortex, an extension of his own brain) and enables him to do oh so many things. If I could get my hands on such a custom rig, not depending on any particular company to provide the service, overlya ads and most importantly , sell my life to the highest bidder, I´d pay top Dolar / Euro / Peso for it.

        T-800 because i want to be one

        1. Danny 14
          Joke

          Re: They're called "Glades"

          that is until you hit your "unlimted data" cap connecting to the cloud then you become a drooling idiot for the rest of the month.

  11. Camilla Smythe

    Bollicks

    The Human Head is a major source of crufty crap that will rapidly shit all over that one, and others.

    'Hi, thanks for taking the time. In my presentation I am going to demonstrate how we via; POP, FMCG, RTO, NPV, CLOUD, SaaS, Paas, NCP, RTI, NFC, SQL, PHP, JAVA and other important technologies will maximise return on "your" investment...

    Click

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    ...Oh. Sorry My PowerPoint Presentation appears to be having problems. Errrrrm

    Click

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    Click'

    'That's OK. Obviously not your fault for running Windows Cruftware on a Nice Shiny Unibody. Perhaps I should mention that we are in a FaradApple Cage.'

    'Oh, ERM 'K Justin Bieber Man Glasses Then?'

  12. Ian Michael Gumby
    Devil

    Wow...

    Now you can text and drive using these glasses to read the texts and Siri to take dictation.

    I wonder if I can patent that idea... oops too late!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    crap again

    so where is all the same crap that google got for their non anouncement,no-one at google mentioned time to market, or have oakley so why shit on google. and not oakley.

    this is now at least 4th "story" that has given impression that someone will bring to market soon, 4 times so far companies have not mentioned dates but bloody idiot bloggers have invented dates.

    i just uninstalled all links, apps etc for gizmodo because of their habit of inventing/inflateing stories.

    may have to do same to a few others soon.

  14. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Oakley...

    ... Thump?

    Wasn't that from The Goodies?

  15. JustNiz

    Subtle classic design please

    Whatever they come up with, I hope it doesn't look as ghetto or as ugly as the Thump, especially the pair in the photo.

  16. Joc

    Oakley vs google

    Give me Oakley anyday !

    Googles version would be like "They live" in reverse - and I'm all out of chewing gum...

  17. DF118

    Oakley

    Final proof that their products are for those with more money than sense. There are more capable offerings in every niche from tons of different manufacturers, but still people buy Oakley's overpriced, fugly cack.

  18. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    How are these things going to work?

    Are we talking really tiny screens, or HUD projected onto the lens? Or is there some sort of technology to project the image into your eye somehow?

    After all, if you want to have Terminator style informational text scrolling across your vision, the letters are either going to have to be so small that you can't read them, or if big enough to read, it's probably going to be a couple of words, obscuring your entire visual field.

    I'm interested myself, as someone with extremely poor eyesight, as given the right technology this sort of thing could be incredibly useful. My sight is to bad that I don't wear glasses (except for reading), because there's nothing that magnifies enough to make a difference, that isn't massively distorting. Basically 2 x bugger-all, is still bugger-all.

    So if there's something out there that can put more than a couple of words/icons on a mini screen then I'm very interested - otherwise it's just shiny tech I can't use. Or I'd have to wear my reading glasses to read the text displayed on my sunglasses...

  19. Captain Underpants

    Isn't the Oakley stuff just the same idea as the Vuzix range, but with a heftier pricetag and pseudo-designer bollocks attached for no good reason?

  20. A new version of lemmings?
    Thumb Down

    GPS saga all over again

    We've all heard of people driving off cliffs blindly following the GPS..... surely this will dumb down the senses.

  21. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    Oakleys may be expensive, but in my opinion they are worth it.

    Some years back they pioneered a wrap-around focal lens which was photo-reactive and anti-glare etc. which was perfect for keeping peripheral vision in focus when riding my motorbike.

    This would have been enough, but they saved my eyesight from a falling rake that fell out of the garden shed (say around 2 feet of movement at the rake-head to give you some idea of the forces involved).

    A rake point hit me in the eye and would almost certainly have blinded me had I not been wearing them. The damage to the lens? A small scratch about 6 mm long and they are still being used right now. (They cost me £300 in 2006)

    If they make a HUD that has the same kind of lens, then I'm buying.

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