North, the company behind the
Focals AR glasses, has acquired the technology portfolio behind another set of
AR glasses, the cancelled Intel Vaunt glasses. The company wouldn’t disclose
the terms of the deal, but Intel Capital is a major investor in North and led
its last financing round in 2016. Both Focals and Vaunt had the same basic
idea: use a tiny laser embedded in the stem of your glasses to project a
reflected image directly into your retina. Unlike other AR and VR efforts, the
goal is to create a pair of glasses you’d actually want to wear, something that
looks relatively normal and doesn’t weigh too much.
Intel struggled to get its
glasses out of the lab and on a path to actually becoming available to
consumers. Like so many Intel prototypes, it failed to find the right partner
to bring the technology to market. Except, well, it just sort of did, in
North’s Focals. Focals have the same basic idea as Vaunt but are actually set
to ship to consumers fairly soon. The Canadian company already has a couple of
stores where you can select the right style of glasses. But more importantly,
you need to get them fitted, North says, because aligning the projector so you
can see the image requires that the glasses be adjusted for your face.
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