Andy Rubin's Essential Products Might Be Planning On Making Smart Glasses

Essential Products Inc., which recently revealed its first smartphone designed by Android OS co-creator Andy Rubin, might be planning on making a pair of smart glasses. The patent for the Essential Smart Glasses has been discovered, and it seems like a successor to the Google Glass.

The patent for Essential Smart Glasses was first shared online by Patently Apple, a day after the Essential Phone and Home device was revealed to the public. The wearable tech comes with a built-in camera right on its bridge. This would let user take eye-level photos, presumably much in the same manner as Snapchat’s Spectacles.

However, the patent also shows that Essential and Rubin are a bit more ambitious than simply making its own pair of Snapchat Spectacles. Essential’s Smart Glasses would also be able to display digital information right on the lenses, which is very reminiscent to the failed Google Glass. This also includes adding visual overlays onto real-life environments using some sort of augmented reality technology, as pointed out by The Verge.

The patent mentions that the AR tech in the Smart Glasses will be able to provide information on products that it sees with the built-in camera, like providing real-time price matching for products in a store. This seems like a similar feature that’s on Samsung’s Bixby assistant on the Galaxy S8.

“Based on the environment that the user sees, and based on the direction of the user's gaze, the processor can display an image to augment the environment around the user,” the patent filling reads. “For example, if the user is looking at a barcode of an item, the processor can display cheaper purchasing options of the same item.”

The patent also states that the technology that will be used for the Essential Smart Glasses will work on various types of lenses, including prescription lenses, photosensitive lenses and sunglass-lenses. A feature called “dual-mode display” is also mentioned, which adds a user-facing camera to one or both of the lenses.

The patent states that dual-mode display cameras will be able to track the user’s eye movements. Exactly how this will be helpful wasn’t mentioned, but it might be for making the AR technology function better.

As most people already know, a lot of companies file patents on many different, and sometimes, out-of-this-world products. Most of the time, these patents don’t actually end up becoming real products and basically function as a means to secure a technology that might be useful in the near future.

However, Andy Rubin recently commented about the Google Glass and why it failed. Rubin told Wired in an interview that Google Glass failed “because the world wasn’t ready to wear them,” and not because the technology was bad.

Rubin also expressed that he doesn’t want Essential to simply be a smartphone maker, he believes that the company should go push the boundaries of technology, as pointed out by Android Authority. If that’s the case, the Essential Smart Glasses might probably end up being a real product in the near future.