META SpaceGlasses - Wearable Computer

Pretty soon wearing goofy glasses and making erratic hand gestures while walking down the street won't necessarily mean you're mentally unstable or impaired. HUD facial apparatuses are very quickly gaining in both popularity and possibility, evidenced most obviously by Google's play to get in on the glasses game, and more quietly--though no less impressively--by wearable computer systems such as GlassUp smartphone eyeglasses, and now Meron Gribetz's META SpaceGlasses.

META.01, currently available for pre-order, with initial deliveries anticipated for November 2013, designate themselves "the most advanced augmented reality interface available." They cover the wearer's eyes with a transparent viewing screen, over which lie dual HD RGB and IR Time-of-Flight cameras with depth sensors and stereo audio, and stereoscopic, semi-transparent projector displays with LED backlighting. Interactive functionality--everything from playing a game of virtual chess, to building a 3D model--lies in the user's own hands, which collaborate with the SpaceGlasses' "9 degrees of freedom sensor", a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, and 3-axis compass.

The moral of the story is: put on a pair of METAs and become a walking computer. Trekkies, you can be Data. Star Wars die hards, you can be C3PO. Scientologists and very short men, you can be Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

Software for the augmented reality 3D glasses will include chess, a 3D Sculpt + Print tool, Laser Tag, Voxel Editor, and MetaCraft (a MineCraft simulator). In addition, developers will have access to Unity 3D SDK to enhance their META.01 purchases with capabilities such as:

• Unity 3D Surface Tracking for markers, features, and featureless surfaces.
• Unity 3D Hand Tracking including hand meshes, skeleton, and gestures.
• Depth map and RGB feed fully accessible for custom computer vision work.
• Example applications from the above as open source code for a work basis.

SpaceGlasses buyers will need to own or purchase separately a Windows-based PC and Unity 3D (if developing) to use the system. I think they will also need to possess very strong--like physically strong--facial features, as METAs look pretty heavy, and appear to be crushing the ear cartilage of the lady in the above video.

Muchas danke to Chris N. for the Dude Product Tip.

July 2014 Update: META is currently accepting pre-orders for both the META.01 Developer Edition ($667; described above) and the newer, more refined META Pro glasses ($3,650). The company anticipates shipping orders placed now beginning in January 2015.