Skip to footer

'Samsung spectacles' coming to a face near you?

Samsung files a patent for sports-oriented smart glasses in Korea, sparking rumors in the rapidly growing field of wearable tech. 

|
Google
An early Google Glass tester takes the new Google hardware for a spin in downtown San Francisco. Now the tech-savvy could soon be peering through a set of Samsung smart frames.

Google Glass may soon have a new friend – the Samsung spectacle.

Or so we think. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung filed a patent for smart, sports-oriented glasses that could be connected to a smart phone. This comes on the tail end of Samsung making big moves into the wearable tech market, while tech companies scramble to get a chunk of the rapidly expanding industry.

The patent, which was filed with Korean authorities sometime in October, show an electronic device shaped like glasses with translucent frames and a cord that connects in the back and extends to a micro-USB. The device also has earbuds built into the sides, and is categorized under “sports glasses.” According to the patent, the wearer could also answer phone calls using the device.

“This design is of a type [of glasses] with earphones integrated, allowing [users] to take phone calls and listen to music during workouts,” according to a memo that accompanied the mock-up.

The fact that Samsung is pursuing a sports model is key because it would distinguish its smart glasses in two ways. First, Google Glasses do not have earbuds, which takes away a tech standard: the ability to listen to music. Second, many wearable tech watchers are concerned with the heavy battery that has to be attached to Google Glasses and other stand alone wearable tech. The Samsung model includes a mini-USB that can be attached to a smart phone, conceivably using a smart phone's battery over one that would weigh down the frame of the glasses.

Samsung isn’t the only tech company attempting to balance a computer on the bridge of your nose. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Microsoft is testing prototypes for “web-connected eyewear," though there is little information about what its model will offer. Ars Technica reported on a French start-up called Optinvent that is working on a model with a larger screen.

This also comes on the heels of Samsung releasing the Galaxy Gear, a smart watch that connects to the wearer’s smart phone and can be used to take calls and photos.

However, so far all we’ve seen from Samsung is a patent for the glasses, and since tech companies will often file many patents without launching any products, it remains to be seen whether it will come to the market. For now, the Google Glass are the only smart spectacles to be seen.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Samsung spectacles' coming to a face near you?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/1025/Samsung-spectacles-coming-to-a-face-near-you
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe