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  • - What if smart glasses didn't make you look

  • like a techno cyborg jerk?

  • That's exactly what Intel is making.

  • These smart glasses are called Vaunt

  • and they're completely different from what you're expecting.

  • What's amazing about these glasses

  • is they look normal

  • and they feel really light on my head.

  • They only weigh about 50 grams.

  • They're designed to do just one thing,

  • show you simple, basic information in one of your eyes.

  • It has this little red monochrome projector

  • that shines an image on a holographic mirror thing

  • which then bounces it directly into my eyeball

  • so I don't have to focus on it,

  • it's just sort of down there.

  • But the best part is that

  • if you're not looking just slightly down at the display,

  • it completely disappears so it's not distracting you.

  • The other thing is, you're not gonna be tapping

  • and swiping and doing whatever you might do

  • like you did with Google Glass.

  • There's no camera here,

  • it's meant to be non-intrusive,

  • not annoying in social situations.

  • But, you can do little subtle things

  • like if a notification comes in and you wanna read it,

  • you can just kinda look over and it'll slide in

  • or you can dismiss it like that.

  • Vaunt glasses are a prototype project

  • from Intel's new devices group

  • and later this year developers are gonna be able

  • to start using them.

  • Now, they do need to be fitted to your eyes'

  • interpupillary distance so that the display can actually

  • line up to your eyeball.

  • So we went up to Intel's lab in San Francisco

  • to try them out.

  • - Take a look, tell me what you see.

  • - I, whoa, I see a red,

  • I see an incoming call from CEO Brian Krzanich, ah!

  • - You gotta take that.

  • - It fits on your face and it's basically,

  • it's a heads up display,

  • it's just displaying some red text here

  • that I'm just seeing right below my standard line of vision.

  • How on earth is this thing showing me a heads up display?

  • Because I don't see it on the glasses,

  • in fact, I don't even, oh, right there,

  • I can finally see.

  • This thing is projecting into my eye?

  • - That's right.

  • - How is it?

  • Is it a laser, what's the story there?

  • - It is a VCSEL.

  • - A VCSEL?

  • What is a VCSEL?

  • - Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser.

  • - Is this a safe thing to have?

  • - Absolutely.

  • It's so low power, it's at the very bottom end

  • of a class one laser.

  • (upbeat music)

  • - We had to integrate very, very power-efficient

  • light sources, mims devices for actually painting an image.

  • We use a holographic grating embedded in the lens

  • to reflect the correct wavelengths back to your eye.

  • The image is called retinal projection.

  • So the image is actually painted

  • into the back of your retina.

  • If you wear prescription glasses,

  • the prescription is used for looking at the world

  • but not for the image we send you.

  • You can have terrible vision and still see

  • bright, sharp, clear image that looks like

  • it comes from Infinity.

  • - I know what you're thinking.

  • A thing that shows notifications in my eyeball all the time

  • is awful and Intel is very aware that you think that's awful

  • so they're trying to be really smart

  • about the stuff that it shows you.

  • It's trying to only show you

  • really contextually important information.

  • When these things are available to buy,

  • what is it gonna do?

  • Like what sort of things is it gonna enable?

  • Or is it just gonna be all my Twitter mentions

  • rolling in my eye all the time?

  • Because that sounds awful.

  • - It's not.

  • As you're walking around and standing where you are,

  • that restaurant or that restaurant,

  • which one has a better Yelp review?

  • As I'm leaving my car getting instructions

  • to where I was actually going,

  • not where I parked.

  • Simple things like that.

  • You're in the kitchen, you're cooking,

  • you go, "Alexa, I need that recipe for cookies,"

  • and it just appears on your glasses.

  • We are providing a level of behavioral A.I.

  • to our system that allows us to figure out

  • what to show you when.

  • - Why would I feel like I need a pair of smart glasses,

  • especially if I could also get like a smart watch

  • that can also show me notifications all the time?

  • - When I saw the first smartphone,

  • I didn't go and say,

  • "Wow, ride sharing, that's gonna happen."

  • But the fact is ride sharing

  • would have never happened without smartphones.

  • We're excited about this because it enables new use cases

  • for developers to come up with.

  • - To try to figure out what all those use cases could be,

  • later this year, Intel will open an early access program

  • so developers can get units and start making stuff

  • that works with the Vaunt.

  • By the way, it should work with both Android and iPhones.

  • And throughout this whole process,

  • Intel will continue to develop its own companion app

  • and A.I. and it will release more prototypes

  • with different eyeglass styles.

  • But then what happens?

  • Why is Intel making smart eyeglasses?

  • - These are incredibly difficult to make.

  • The electronics in here are incredibly compact.

  • The A6 that we have included are of our own design,

  • the apps processor is our own as well.

  • Just, the whole thing is custom

  • in order to fit in this package.

  • - So, you're Intel, you can do that crazy stuff.

  • But just 'cause you can--

  • - Doesn't mean you should.

  • - So why?

  • - Yes, I think B.K.'s been quoted to say

  • data's the new oil.

  • I think other people say somewhat similar things.

  • The point is, you have to consume that data somehow.

  • So not only do we wanna manage the data

  • and help you compute in the data center

  • with Intel servers and all that other stuff,

  • we also wanna be part of presenting that data to you

  • in a way that you can consume.

  • So that's why we do it.

  • - Right, so I just wanna be clear,

  • when you say that Intel thinks of data like oil,

  • this thing isn't about like

  • collecting a whole bunch of biometrics from you, right?

  • It's about taking all the data,

  • it's all actually part of the story of

  • there's a million pieces of data that might be useful to me

  • and Intel wants to be in that flow of the data

  • in a way that it hasn't been before.

  • So here's the bet with Vaunt,

  • you want smart glasses, maybe you don't, who knows,

  • but you definitely don't want glasses that are big

  • and ugly and techy and so you have to get over that hump

  • of are you willing to put technology on your face.

  • And the magic here is they've made that hump

  • that you need to get over,

  • do you want tech on your face,

  • totally easy, like this is fine.

  • This is not a thing that I'm worried about wearing.

  • And once you get past that issue of,

  • is this a thing that I would be willing to wear,

  • then it's possible that there could be a whole bunch

  • of emergent ideas that could come.

  • - These will hook you because of what they provide you

  • because how they can win over those constraints

  • that other heavier screens can't

  • or they ask you for too much.

  • Arriving at the grocery store,

  • both hands on the cart,