Epson’s new augmented reality glasses can plug into your phone | The Verge

For more details, see Epson Announces New Moverio BT-30C Smart Glasses Delivering Immersive USB-C Tethered AR Viewing Experience at Sub $500 Price | Epson

"Epson Moverio product manager Eric Mizufuka doesn’t see AR as a mass-market industry just yet — and Epson isn’t banking on mainstream adoption within the next three to five years. Like many AR manufacturers, it sells a lot of its glasses to businesses, which use them as hands-free computing devices for workers. But it’s pushed to reach a broader audience as well. Its glasses are popular with drone enthusiasts, who use them to see a point-of-view video feed for flying. The National Theatre in London lets patrons with hearing loss reserve a pair of Epson Moverio glasses, projecting subtitles for plays. Even if people don’t personally buy glasses, they might encounter them in a theater or a guided museum tour.

Now, Mizufuka says Epson wants to “get our foot in the door” of consumer markets with the BT-30C glasses. It’s pitching them to people who want a portable, private screen that runs off a familiar phone or PC. And it’s offering them at a cheaper price than existing products like the BT-300, which costs $699. That still doesn’t make the BT-30C glasses a mainstream product, but it could definitely make them a little more appealing to the average person. It could also provide a preview of how other companies will approach consumer AR — a field that Apple, Google, Facebook, and many other tech giants see as the future of computing."

Epson’s new augmented reality glasses can plug into your phone | The Verge