Ask HN: Where can I obtain Google Glass(-like) devices for development purposes?

[oflannabhra]

As others have said, lots of manufacturers have far surpassed Google Glasses by now. The leaders, at least in the industrial space are (in no particular order):

1. Microsoft HoloLens - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/buy

2. Vuzix Blade (also m300) - https://www.vuzix.com/products/blade-smart-glasses

3. ODG R7 - https://www.osterhoutgroup.com/r-7-smartglasses

4. Google Glass EE - https://www.x.company/glass/contact/

5. DAQRI - https://shop.daqri.com

[IshKebab]

I don't know about the others, but you can't really say that HoloLens has "surpassed" Glass, because they're very different products.

Still, HoloLens works much much better than Glass.

[sk1pper]

HoloLens 2 is supposed to release sometime this year, and they’re saying it’ll be way cheaper than the current version.

[douglaswlance]

Google Glass is just a tiny notification window. It's not what 99% of people think it is. I'm not sure where the communication broke down, but it seems a ton of people heard about Google Glass and thought it was going to be an AR headset that they'd wear all the time. It's just not that useful. It's worse than mounting an Apple Watch to your head.

[ceejayoz]

Google's marketing videos showed things like a full Google Map for directions (example: https://youtu.be/ErpNpR3XYUw?t=45s). I'm not surprised people got confused.

[lordCarbonFiber]

Glass is the logical zenith of the smart watch. Having to give up a hand to look at your wrist almost defeats the purpose of having the mirrored notifications. It's not the AR revolution the media hyped it up to be, but I'd bet money that's where wearables go as the tech gets better and people forget about the whole affair.

[crypto-jeronimo]

Thanks for your reply. I believe it must've been from their promo video. I'm happy that the question came across correctly and the people who have responded so far took this into consideration and glossed over what you've pointed out (if it's indeed the case).

[ransom1538]

"Google Glass is just a tiny notification window."

Birth control for your face. I think is where it broke down.

Edit: I know, I know.... you worked on the project and you need to down vote.

[deepeshpandey]

I have been doing some development on smart glasses. You have many choices like Ora which you can buy from there portal, vuzix. Especially, google glass can be bought from https://www.streye.com/.

[cmsimike]

I have been putting together my own google glass as a side project at home for a while now. At the time, I didn't look much into AR displays, but I did order a VuFine: https://www.vufine.com/ - a head mounted 720p screen. This is coupled to a raspberry pi + pijuice UPS

This, coupled with a raspi night vision camera attached to my head, fakes "AR" since I can see in the vufine what the camera sees (though AR was not really the goal for this version, but eventually). I am using SDL to render items on top of the video feed (for instance, using opencv to find and put boxes around faces).

Additionally, I want to get a range sensor and place that looking behind me, and render something in the display to give me an idea of what items are behind me, and how close. I am thinking about rendering a circle from metal gear solid 4 [0] to give me an impression of where things are behind me, and how close they are (greater amplitude to indicate how close something is)

I definitely want to get an AR setup, as I feel like that would be best. I will check out what options are link in this thread.

[0] https://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/52/51310/ps3_mgs4_118...

[cmsimike]

I have also considered building OpenSimpleLidar [0] and putting that on top of my head (I also use snips.ai on my ar build to control things by voice, so i have [1] this headset, which allows me to attach things to the top of it) so that I can generate real time images of my environment, and have it display a map, like in a video game, with my location. I haven't got to that part yet - too many other projects :(

[0] https://github.com/iliasam/OpenSimpleLidar/ [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CQ8CB8W/ref=oh_aui_sear...

[_pmf_]

TI Pico DLP[0] is a nice platform for projectors at small scale.

[0] http://www.ti.com/dlp-chip/display-and-projection/pico-chips...

[jesse_m]

I've been looking at this too bit where do you source the wave guides?

[kolencherry]

I used to run a startup in this space. There's a whole bunch of devices out on the market, from Vuzix Blade and M300 to the ODG R7/8/9 to the Realwear HMT-1. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. What's your use case for them?

[crypto-jeronimo]

No particular use case in mind yet, aside from exploratory development.

[whywhywhywhy]

If you're thinking AR (Glass wasn't AR really) then Leap are apparently open sourcing their development rig http://blog.leapmotion.com/north-star-open-source/

Can't vouch for it because I haven't dug in yet.

[cmsimike]

I have been waiting for them to release this!

[nickthegreek]

I have a pair of Google Glass that I am willing to sell if you are interested.

[didip]

What you really want is something like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bnfwClgheF0

Too bad Intel shut that department down.

[m0ther]

I picked up a Brother AirScouter 300C for similar purposes (assuming you're looking for a display that goes on your face). BHPhoto sells them. HDMI, 720P, USB powered, effective birth control.

[netsec_burn]

Look into getting a Vuzix Blade. It ships in 4-6 weeks for a devkit.

[greggman]

you can make a cheap Pepper's ghost periscope setup for any smartphone. example

http://ibelieveinghost.com/

[zeeed]

the pre-order link leads to a dead indiegogo project: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ghost-best-affordable-aug...

do you have other examples or references to news about the ghost project?

[Schumer]

Hololens, talk to ms