Just a few week's removed from Google announcing that it will no longer sell its maligned Google Glass, Sony trumpets the arrival of its own wearable tech. The SmartEyeglass, which is the company's first iteration of augmented reality glasses, is now available for preorder in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Dubbed the SED-E1, the Developer Edition is targeted at developers and will function similarly to Google Glass. How close to the competition's product is the SmartEyeglass? Well, according to Mashable, the wearable device connects running Android 4.4 and above, uses a 419x138-pixel, monochrome green display, and includes a 3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
In addition to that, there is also an accelerometer, gyroscope, speakers, a microphone, a brightness sensor and an electronic compass.
The glasses cover both eyes and look bulkier than the Google Glass, but Sony imagines various uses for its eyewear. From live sports notifications to cross-play with its PlayStation 4 gaming console, Sony believes that a lot of the functionality of the SmartEyeGlass will be created by developers and enterprising customers who purchase the first iteration. Not entirely a new product from Sony, the SmartEyeglass was unveiled to the public in September 2014, and has only had a cabled controller added to make the eyewear lighter.
Meanwhile, Google, which recently shut down its Google Glass Explorer program, has shifted its focus to the next generation of wearable eyewear. Microsoft is also joining the fray with its new HoloLens project, and by the looks of its demo, it is attempting to offer more than Google and Sony put together.
Preorder for Sony's SmartEyeglass is available starting this week and the glasses are priced at about 670 pounds, which is about $840 USD. Sony said that the wearable tech will launch in the U.S. sometime next month.
You can watch the demo of the SmartEyeglass for yourself below:
