Sony’s smartglasses are now up for pre-order

Mere weeks after Google stopped selling Google Glass, Sony jumped on the smart eyewear bandwagon. Its SmartEyeglass Developer Edition, a pair of augmented reality glasses, are available for pre-order in the UK and Germany for $840 (£540 or €670), starting Tuesday. SmartEyeglass, which connects to host devices running Android 4.4 and above, uses a 419×138-pixel, monochrome green display projected onto the lenses. It includes a 3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, speaker, microphone and a host of various sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, brightness sensor and an electronic compass. In a promotional video, Sony shows how the glasses can be used to communicate, get directions and share photos. The concept, however, looks like a step back from Google Glass as it requires a pretty large, round, cabled accessory that serves as a microphone and a touchpad. As for the device’s looks, well, let’s just say that to our eyes they look slightly awkward even in the promotional stills and video.