6 Glasses With Integrated Displays That You Can Buy Today

While Google’s augmented-reality glasses are receiving immense attention — and scrutiny — they’re certainly not the first pieces of eyewear to include an integrated display.

A company called Vuzix released its first pair of augmented-reality glasses, the iWear VR920, in 2009. The glasses contain two LCD displays that mimic a 62-inch screen sitting nine feet away. An add-on camera routes real-time footage of the real world to the LCDs, overlaying augmented-reality elements powered by LinceoVR software.

The Vuzix glasses were perhaps the first low-cost integrated-display glasses on the market that didn’t outright suck. Nonetheless, that distinction hasn’t translated into mass-market appeal and sales.

The same can be said for the Sony Glasstron personal video headset that was released in 1997. And even the 3-D monochromatic Virtual Boy with its powerhouse Nintendo pedigree couldn’t entice gamers to shove over-sized glasses onto their faces for a more immersive experience.

But none of these stumbles have stopped companies from dipping their toes into the dubious waters of integrated-display eyewear. From augmented-reality glasses to headsets that render movies and games, you can actually purchase a number of integrated-display products — right now, today.

So, while Google leaves us hanging with very little actual information about Project Glass, the following headsets are doing their best to entice us into a world of integrated-display eyewear.

Recon has been in the head-up display (HUD) game since 2010. The company’s first product, the Transcend, was a partnership with Zeal Optics to bring a HUD to the eyes of skiers and snowboarders. The HUD goggles use a rider’s GPS location to display elevation, speed, and time of day in a small screen that sits at the bottom-right of the user’s field of vision — and it’s all in real time. All the cumulative data from a day on the slopes can be downloaded to a computer, and the GPS information can be associated with interactive maps so users can chart their speeds against location.

Recon’s current MOD ($300) and MOD Live ($400) products augment the original Transcend goggles with features that include jump analytics, buddy tracking, music playback, navigation, and smartphone connectivity. The goggles won’t tell you that the subway is running late, but Android connectivity will alert you when you have an incoming call or text.

Of course, you might want to wait until you’ve reached the bottom of that double black diamond before responding.

Project Glass has been a pet project of Google for two years. Meanwhile, Vuzix’s Star 1200 augmented-reality glasses are the company’s third generation of AR headsets — and, at $5,000, they suggest just how difficult augmented reality is to pull off. Starting with the previously mentioned iWear VR920, Vuzix has continued to bring integrated-display glasses to the market with limited success.

Still, Vuzix was selling display glasses when Google with still trying to convince us that Google Wave was an awesome idea.

The Vuzix Star 1200 augmented-reality glasses display 2-D and 3-D visuals on transparent lenses. Two cameras — a lightweight compact camera for general applications, and a 1080p HD camera for applications that require high-definition visuals — record the world at large, and transfer this video to augmented-reality software that identifies objects and environs for interactive use.

But there’s a serious downside to the system: The glasses need to be plugged into a Windows computer or an iPhone in order to work. It’s not the self-contained unit Google is promising, but having an actual product on the market is arguably better than simply sending someone to a party with a possibly working, possibly dummy prototype.