If smart glasses are the future, does it mean the future is now?

Tech companies are starting to place big bets on smart glasses hoping that consumers will buy yet another tech accessory After more than a decade of trying are they completely right Related stories From cybersecurity to AI Fairfax Co schools unveils plan for new courses Social media ban for children under starts in Australia DC tech classes help seniors stay alert ahead of holiday shopping season Ray-Ban Metas sold more than two million pairs of smart glasses in the first half showing the system may have in the end arrived But an expert tells WTOP this innovation of the future might not be a huge success yet What s thought-provoking about them is how much they can do but there s a lot of stuff they can t do too mentioned Scott Stein an editor at large with CNET He compares them to smart watches in the years right before smart watches took off In this affair like a lot of smart watches originally they re missing one big component phone compatibility We already have so much flowing through our phones that I think not having the glasses flow through the phones we use and making them easy to understand is a real drawback Stein announced Companies like Apple and Google appear to be nearing smartphone connectivity with smart glasses in the next year or so according to Stein But right now most of brands rely on Bluetooth or they re wired into something Stein explained while a lot of different companies are making smart glasses they do different things and are activated in a variety of solutions It totally varies he commented Sometimes there s a little touch pad or a little thing you have to remember to press on the side of your glasses Other glasses use voice activation and various use a wrist activator It could also be a ring or for example Meta has this neural band for its high-end pair of glasses that uses hand gestures he stated Stein revealed it s confusing to remember how to activate the glasses and doing so also brings safety concerns with it especially if you re driving Battery life is also an issue with the majority glasses only running for a sparse hours before needing a charge Largest part brands won t last the whole day on one charge But Stein doesn t think these flaws should render the glasses useless I think the stimulating thing for me is assistive tech I have a friend whose dad already uses this with his vision impairment and now he can describe things around him that it can recognize with the cameras revealed Stein Already there are specific hearing aid technologies Stein announced he saw a Google demo of smart glasses that could do live translations with the ability to recognize different languages A lot of times now you have to download a particular language pack but if it could start recognizing things on the fly when you re going around or if it could be used to read something when you re traveling and then translate I feel like that s fascinating he added Stein also saw demos of Project Aura glasses expected to come out in from Xreal and Google The Android glasses feature an in-lens virtual reality screen display You could also use it to connect wirelessly with your PC he declared You could create as numerous windows as you want floating around places to basically create a workspace But you also have to be willing to wear them and Stein mentioned that a few smart glasses won t work with his own prescription lenses which poses a functionality issue And if you don t wear glasses at all will you be missing out I think the answer is maybe not Stein explained That s the challenge because you might say to yourself OK well why do I want to put something on my face In which episode I feel like companies are trying to split their bets to say Well maybe you just get headphones and your watch or you just use your phone or use a tablet or whatever combination of things Source