Baidu shows off its Google Glass competitor

The Chinese Baidu has shown a prototype of its ‘smart’ glasses. The Baidu Eye would be a counterpart to Google Glass, but the glasses do not contain an integrated screen. The glasses are mainly intended to collect input for a smartphone with sensors and a camera.

The designers of the Baidu Eye glasses say they purposely did not include a display in the glasses because such a mini-screen would hinder the free view of the glasses wearer too much. A display right in front of the eyes would also cause eyestrain, writes TechInAsia.

The Baidu Eye glasses do have a built-in camera. This can stream images to a smartphone or tablet. According to Baidu, the use of an external display provides a more pleasant user experience and also saves a lot on battery life. The ‘smart’ glasses offer speech recognition with a built-in microphone and the camera can also be used for recognizing gestures. A speaker is also integrated in a glasses leg. It is not yet clear when the Baidu Eyes glasses will be on the market.