North’ a smart glass producing start-up was recently acquired by the tech giant Google. It was founded in 2012 by three students from the University of Waterloo. It started with its research and development directed towards inventing the first-ever wearable gesture and motion-control device (Myo). They then shifted their focus to Glasses, basically everyday smart glasses with features like direct retinal projection and prescription compatibility.
Google’s acquisition of this smart glass producing start-up could mean that it could be gearing up to produce a New Pair of smart glasses. The takeover saw North cancel the release of their Second generation Focals augmented reality glasses.
Google’s entry into the market was with its first pair of glasses which released in 2013, which cost $1500 at that time. Owing to its steep price and limited pros, the google glass lost momentum and eventually disappeared after a brief flutter of interest. However, Google did not shut down its smart glasses division and continued to try and master the art of. They released a sequel to the Google glass in 2019 called the Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2. Unlike the previous version, the glasses cater to only businesses and healthcare sectors and are not being sold for everyday use. For e.g., Surgeons and engineers can use the Augmented Reality content to view checklists or send inspection videos.
If Google is doing well enough with the service side of the smart glasses, then what’s the point in acquiring North?
The Focal 1.0 created by North came with a rather simple design resembling normal day to day glasses but with fat arms. The chunkier arms were owned by a tiny laser projector fitted in it which displays messages, directions etc.
At the end of 2019, North leaked a few details about its next release- the Focal 2.0. It was said to be much better equipped than the first, with a 10-fold increase in its pixel count resulting in a resolution of 950×950 making the text look much sharper as compared to the predecessor this version is claimed to be 40% smaller which was a big hurdle for all companies producing smart glasses.
Therefore, acquisition of North before the release of its new flagship will allow Google to take all the credit for the developments made by them. The start-up is more than happy to share its R&D with the tech giant at its office in Kitchener, Ontario, where the employees of the former will be working.
This does not necessarily mean that Google will be releasing a successor to its Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, but it certainly suggests that they are working towards something in a similar direction.
Source : Glasses From Google Soon?
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