Oakley developing Project Glass-style HUD since 1997

[garyopa]

Google is not the pioneer here



Oakley CEO reveals that his company has been working on HUD displays technology for glasses since 1997

Do you believe that Google's Project Glass was the only one of its kind?

You're wrong. Oakley, the famous glasses company has been working on a similar project since 1997.

According to Bloomerg:

Oakley Inc. is developing technology that can project information directly onto lenses, putting the sunglass maker into potential competition with Google Inc.

The technology would let Oakley, a division of Italy’s Luxottica Group SpA (LUX), make hardware that’s comparable with Google’s Project Glass, an experimental effort to build smartphone features into eyewear, Oakley Chief Executive Officer Colin Baden said in an interview.

“As an organization, we’ve been chasing this beast since 1997,” Baden said. “Ultimately, everything happens through your eyes, and the closer we can bring it to your eyes, the quicker the consumer is going to adopt the platform.”

Oakley has been working on technology related to heads-up displays for about 15 years, and has 600 patents, many of which apply to optical specifications, Baden said. The company would consider licensing the patents, he said.

NEWS SOURCE: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ect-glass.html

Our thanks to 'Kaos2K' for this news story!

[msanchez]

Doesn't matter who made it first. The one that will be remembered is the one to make it SUCCESSFUL firts. Who's credited for "inventing" motion controls these days? The fact is that before the wii motion controls had been around for quite a few years; same thing will happen here. Well actually not the same, since at least earlier pioneers in the motion control field released some products, as opposed to Oakley who unless I've been living under a rock have never released HUD equipped glasses.

[billysastard]

Doesn't matter who made it first. The one that will be remembered is the one to make it SUCCESSFUL firts. Who's credited for "inventing" motion controls these days? The fact is that before the wii motion controls had been around for quite a few years; same thing will happen here. Well actually not the same, since at least earlier pioneers in the motion control field released some products, as opposed to Oakley who unless I've been living under a rock have never released HUD equipped glasses.

no, they havent but i did have a set of their bt enabled glasses and they were pretty good.

[msanchez]

no, they havent but i did have a set of their bt enabled glasses and they were pretty good.

Yeah I remember those... same ones on the pic, didn't particularly like em. Then again, never had any luck with Motorola headsets. For some odd reason, they've never played nice with my phones.

[[ACF]Umax]

Doesn't matter who made it first. The one that will be remembered is the one to make it SUCCESSFUL firts. [...]

Definitely true, but since they are sitting on over 600 patents in the field, they are probably going to get a huge piece of the pie either way. That's why google aquired Motorola. The dinosaurs in the business hold so many patents that it's very expensive to pay royalties.