Lenovo Partners With Vuzix For Google Glass Competitor, Launching In September
Until now, Vuzix and its M100 Smart Glasses have been little more than an intriguing potential competitor to Google Glass, but Lenovo has stepped up to back the smart glasses in a co-branding deal as part of Lenovo’s NBD (New Business Development) brand.
Lenovo will do the heavy lifting on the marketing side, selling the specs in China with the ungainly official moniker "Vuzix 100 Smart Glasses powered by Lenovo NBD". Vuzix’ smart glasses have been tailored for the Chinese market, with features such as Chinese language voice recognition, mapping, and “domestic cloud services”, although the pair plan to push into other geographical markets.
M100 with prescription frames
"China is a significant milestone for us and for the wearable industry. Lenovo is world renowned for its high quality products and exceptional engineering, making them the most ideal partner with which to bring our M100 Smart Glasses to China,” said Vuzix CEO Paul Travers in a statement. “Additionally we hope the M100 is just the first in a line of future products the companies may introduce together incorporating Vuzix' video eyewear technology for sale in China and perhaps elsewhere."
The M100 is Android-based, and it offers a WQVGA display and runs on an OMAP4460 (1.2GHz) processor, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of onboard storage with a microSD card slot that supports an additional 32GB.
It also features a three-DOF gesture engine, and ambient light sensor, GPS, and proximity sensor, as well as integrating head tracking. The camera shoots 5MP stills and captures 1080p HD video. It does require a companion Android device, though, and suppot for iOS is currently under development.
The specs currently cost $999 on Vuzix’ website.
Lenovo will do the heavy lifting on the marketing side, selling the specs in China with the ungainly official moniker "Vuzix 100 Smart Glasses powered by Lenovo NBD". Vuzix’ smart glasses have been tailored for the Chinese market, with features such as Chinese language voice recognition, mapping, and “domestic cloud services”, although the pair plan to push into other geographical markets.
M100 with prescription frames
"China is a significant milestone for us and for the wearable industry. Lenovo is world renowned for its high quality products and exceptional engineering, making them the most ideal partner with which to bring our M100 Smart Glasses to China,” said Vuzix CEO Paul Travers in a statement. “Additionally we hope the M100 is just the first in a line of future products the companies may introduce together incorporating Vuzix' video eyewear technology for sale in China and perhaps elsewhere."
The M100 is Android-based, and it offers a WQVGA display and runs on an OMAP4460 (1.2GHz) processor, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of onboard storage with a microSD card slot that supports an additional 32GB.
It also features a three-DOF gesture engine, and ambient light sensor, GPS, and proximity sensor, as well as integrating head tracking. The camera shoots 5MP stills and captures 1080p HD video. It does require a companion Android device, though, and suppot for iOS is currently under development.
The specs currently cost $999 on Vuzix’ website.
