Smart Glasses technology is among the main topics on the Developer Playground. So it’s good news that Mostafa Akbari will be around to share his broad experience and insight in this field. He is a researcher at RWTH (Technical University) Aachen and a founder of Bitstars, a company specialising in developing and implementing Augmented reality services and solutions for enterprises.
Mostafa believes the Smart Glasses market will stay split into two fields: On the one hand highly specialised devices for industrial and scientific use which are still very expensive – 5000 Euros and more. On the other hand he sees – and will speak about – a growing number of devices for private use – from makers such as Google (see left below), Epson, Vuzix, Recon and Optinvent.
Some of the devices in this field, Mostafa believes, will have everything built-in and not even need a smartphone any more to serve as all-purpose communication and Augmented reality devices. He is optimistic that prices will drop to smartphone levels so that there will be a chance for smart glasses to make it into a mass market.
And who’s going to win? Well, Mostafa says, this will depend less on the technical quality of the devices than on the marketing power of their makers.
Not to forget: Aside from the theoretical insights presented by Mostafa there will also be hands-on instructions for developers how to work with smart glasses of several brands, such as Google and Epson. Stay tuned!