By air, by sea, by workout trails, augmented reality headsets have just got more interesting with Laster Technologies' SeeThru eyewear. Laster recently launched its SeeThru campaign on Kickstarter, introducing this wireless augmented reality glasses device. Standing apart from competitors, according to its creators, SeeThru is distinctive in a number of ways. Those ways include its large vision field, image definition, and the way contextual information is overlaid directly onto the object you're looking at. Also, just as device manufacturers promote "plug and play," Laster is promoting its device as wear and play AR, whereby the creators say there is no need to adjust the eyewear for head size or distance. The SeeThru AR headset does not require the user to look up or down at tiny screens in the corner of the glasses. The device lacks a camera but instead uses integrated sensors: gyroscopes, accelerometers and compasses.
As natural vision is directly overlaid with digital context-sensitive information, the user gets information about the landscape in front of the user in realtime. "If you're looking at a mountain chain, information about each peak can pop up alongside the landscape as you take it in. This kind of contextual information gives you a better awareness of your surroundings," according to the company.
The team announced on its Kickstarter page that they are developing several applications to accompany the first round of manufacturing and these will be designed to support users in outdoor activities. The SeeThru is designed to be a useful device which can serve a range of activities, as its capabilities can be leveraged by pilots and sports people who can use it to see speed and position.
The wireless eyewear device is just under two ounces; the user gets eight hours of battery life. SeeThru connects via Bluetooth with a smartphone. which acts as the SeeThru processor.
Since 2005, said Zile Liu, CEO, the team of experts have been developing professional augmented reality products for enterprise-scale industries including aerospace. They have have been working to unite optronics with information technology for end results in augmented reality eyewear. Now, he said, the company is launching a device for the consumer market.
"Our dream was always to democratize AR technology and create the next generation of wearable computers with capabilities like voice recognition, artificial intelligence, gesture command and even brain interface for a broad range of people at an accessible price," Liu and his team said on Kickstarter. "As we were developing what would become the SeeThru glass, we built and designed more than one hundred prototypes of AR eyewear devices to make sure we were offering consumers a superior product."
The Laster See-Thru timetable includes a launch of production and assembly lines followed by. mainstream production and delivery later this year. Pledges range from $349 to $399 and higher, depending on the pledge category; shipping dates range from April to June depending on the pledge.
