You can now pre-order Sony’s SmartEyeGlass kit for $840
Developers and enthusiasts interested in Sony’s take on augmented reality wearables will be happy to know that the SmartEyeGlass Developer Edition (SED-E1) is now available for pre-sale. The United Kingdom and Germany are the first up to bat and both enjoy a price tag of €670. That’s about $840 in American currency, which is no small amount.
Much like Google Glass’s $1,500 asking price, its high price tag was likely placed to deter casual consumers. You’re paying more for the chance to check it out in its infancy than for a product meant for retail. As such you should note that these are considered experimental devices, and the platform and SDK themselves are also put under the same category.
Sony’s SmartEyeGlass unit isn’t the most fashionable thing we’ve ever seen, though it’s every bit as capable as something like Google Glass. It includes dual high-transparency displays with high brightness for easy readability in daylight.
A separate controller puck will house the battery, a speaker, the microphone, NFC and a touch sensor. Other sensors, such as camera, accelerometer, brightness, and the gyroscope are all fitted inside the wearable unit.
Sony’s seemingly on a fast track to get these things out of the door is that anticipate commercialization will happen as soon as March 2015. That doesn’t leave a ton of room for evolution of the platform between today and whichever day it arrives, but if Sony’s confident enough to set that goal then we can only keep our fingers crossed that they’ve hit all their bases.
[via Sony]