Amazon Could Be Readying A Wearable Smart Glass

Amazon may be preparing to take on Snapchat and Google in the wearable glass market according to a report by the Financial Times. But unlike Snap’s Spectacles and Google smart glasses, you won’t be able to take pictures or videos for that matter rather you will be able to converse with Amazon’s Alexa instead.

Amazon may have learned something from the privacy backlash that Google received by launching a wearable that allows people watch and read stuff as they walk on the streets. Google has since replaced the original idea with an enterprise one that would allow workers interact with the device for more resources on tasks.

With an emphasis on audio, Amazon would rather you interact without visuals using a technology called “bone-conduction audio.” This technology allows for sound transmission through the jaw or cheek bones thereby bypassing the usual airwaves. This also means rather than collecting sound waves through the regular ear channels and finally hitting the eardrums, the bones will take up the job by transporting sound into the inner ear. This is designed to reduce noise pollution chances and damage to the ear drums.

But Google glass also used the technology which has been used in some hearing aids for years now. It is expected that the sound vibration will travel through the frames to the bones of the wearer. As for aesthetics, we don’t know what designers they may be partnering before bringing the device to the market.

That said, it looks like Amazon is bringing its home Echo device idea to mobile wearables.

Facebook is also looking to enter the smart glass wearables soon even though we don’t know when but we know that the market is growing and  that it’s going to be worth as much as $34b by 2020 when it is expected that there will be over 400 million wearable devices in circulation.