Google's new internet glasses may be getting all the news, but rival online eyewear products are making headway.
US-based Vuzix showed off what it billed as the first commercially available "smart glasses", an Android-powered, monocle-style device with a high-resolution camera, at last week's Consumer Electronics Show.
It can be connected to smartphones or wireless internet hot spots and display internet date directly in front of a user's eye.
"We are targeting it toward the industrial space, like people in a warehouse who need to pick up packages," Mike Hallett of Vuzix said.
"The camera on the front could scan bar codes, then tell the person where to find the packages," he continued. "We are in the airline and medical industries with a lot of applications."
Vuzix wants to cross into the consumer market with applications to enable the devices to check email or translate written languages.
"If you are in Japan and don't speak or read Japanese, it can translate the signs for you and help you get around based on GPS co-ordinates, right in front of your eye instead of having to look down at the phone," Hallett said of the eyepiece, which is priced at $US1000 ($A1115).
Vuzix also showed off a new model, which was basically a set of over-the-ear headphones with a visor-like video display that tilted up or down as desired.
"It's a huge, immersive experience," Hallett said. "People on the go who want a big screen on trains or planes, gamers, or even in the office instead of a monitor on your desk."
The eyewear was expected to be priced in the $US500 to $US800 range when Vuzix releases them later in 2014.
"Check out 2002. It looks like you have a buzz-saw on your head," quipped Rhys Filmer of OrCam, an Israel-based company behind the display and a device to provide sight to the visually impaired.
"A lot of it back then was for the army."
In 2007, eyewear looking like upside-down sunglasses made their debut and were used on flights to give first-class passengers immersive movie viewing, according to the timeline on display.
"Our device is more remedial, specifically for people with low vision or legally blind," Filmer said.
The OrCam mini-camera clips to eyeglass frames and has a bone-conduction speaker that presses against a wearer's temple.
It lets a person point to what they want read, whether in a book or newspaper or on a street sign or approaching bus, and then treats that as a starting point to begin speaking the words.
The OrCam device should hit the market in about six months at a price of $2500, according to Filmer.
In December, Google announced updates to the software in its internet-linked Glass eyewear to allow users to snap pictures by winking.
The new feature, which promises to escalate privacy concerns already being voiced about the high-tech gadget, came as one of an array of improvements.
Updates included letting owners lock eyewear so it couldn't be used unless a person knows the right "handshake" of swipes and taps.
Google has not announced a public release date for Google Glass but speculation suggests it will be early in 2014.
