Epson America this morning announced that it's now shipping the Android-powered Moverio BT-100 wearable display. Yes. Android-powered grandma glasses. On your melon.
last fall in January. They pretty much feel how you'd think they feel -- a bit bulky. Get over that, and having the equivalent of an 80-inch display projected in front of your peepers is a pretty cool, if not entirely practical, idea.
With the glasses and earbuds over and in their respective orifices, you hold in your hand a controller (about the size of an old-school, original iPod) that connects to the glasses via a wire. The top half of the controller is a trackpad, for moving a cursor around the heads-up display. There are the usual Android buttons as well, and a directional-pad if that's how you prefer to navigate the menus. There's also a button to toggle between 2D and 3D modes.
So how'd it work? Look, it's a novelty, to be sure. But it's also one that was a bit surprising. It takes a minute to get used to the idea of video that close to your eyes. But even the 3D video we watched caused less strain than when we've tried it on smartphones. Another cool effect of the glasses is that you can remove the opaque lenses and actually see through the UI. Not that you're going to want to be walking and playing anytime soon, but the idea is that you lose some of the claustrophobia. The world is still the world.
The user interface we saw back in January October was very much in prototype mode, so it was a bit janky, a mix of stock Android and something custom. But it also was very familiar and easy to find our way around.
Do you want one of these? It's certainly a fun idea, but you're going to need to have some cash burning a hole in your pocket, as it's going for a suggested retail price of $699. But think of the possibilities. Temple Run. At 80 inches. Angry Birds IN YOUR FACE. Or, you know, (warning: Shameless plug ahead) the all new Android Central Forums app.
We've got more pics and video after the break.
Edit: Oh, how time blends together. Saw this guy in January, not October. Carry on.
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