HTC is becoming a member of Meta and others within the quickly heating smartglasses house with its latest product, the VIVE Eagle. Like different smartglasses, the Eagle lacks any sort of show, being positioned as a substitute as a automobile for AI voice help and media seize.
Smartglasses have been round in a single kind or one other for greater than a decade. However the rise of AI assistants based mostly on giant language fashions has brought about a resurgence of curiosity within the class. At present’s smartglasses symbolize the form-factor that the XR business is finally looking for for the final word XR glasses, however they lack the highly effective immersive options of bulkier headsets. However, right this moment’s XR headsets have most of the immersive options and superior sensing capabilities that the business needs for the final word XR glasses, however they lack the compact and comfy form-factor of correct glasses.
Virtually talking, smartglasses present the business burning the candle on each ends: working from a small form-factor and determining tips on how to add extra capabilities, whihle additionally working from a bigger form-factor with extra options and determining tips on how to shrink the dimensions. In the long run, it seems sure that smartglasses and XR headsets will converge someplace alongside the best way as the perfect stability of form-factor and capabilities is discovered.
So it’s not stunning to see HTC—one of the recognizable gamers within the XR house—bounce on the smartglasses practice with the lately introduced Vive Eagle.
Not like Meta—which has up to now stored its smartglasses separate from its Quest & Horizon manufacturers—HTC is making its smartglasses a part of its Vive model, which has historically been reserved for its immersive headsets.
Weighing in at simply 49 grams, Vive Eagle has a well-recognized set of capabilities in comparison with smartglasses just like the Meta Ray-Bans: a useful AI chatbot and a digital camera for capturing photographs & video; there’s even the identical little button for activating the digital camera, and an LED gentle to indicate observers when the digital camera is in use.
The digital camera is claimed to be 12MP (3,024 × 4,032) and able to taking HDR photographs. Movies are captured at 3MP (1,512 × 2,016) at 30 FPS. The glasses embody 32GB of storage which HTC says can retailer some 3,000 photographs or 50 movies as much as three minutes every.
HTC is asking the chatbot that underpins the headset “Vive AI,” which it says can deal with “on a regular basis instructions like taking a photograph, taking part in music, or launching an app utterly offline.” The corporate says Vive Eagle’s intelligence might be prolonged with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini for extra advanced queries, with “anonymized requests” to take care of privateness.
HTC additionally says Vive Eagle gives “real-time translation of textual content from over 13 languages,” together with photo-based translation, in addition to “voice management for cellphone apps, scheduling occasions, taking part in music, and extra.” Whereas each iOS and Android are mentioned to be supported, it’s doubtless that Android customers will see some further performance due to the extra open nature of the OS.
As for battery life, HTC says Vive Eagle can play music for as much as 4.5 hours. It doesn’t sound just like the included case will double as a charger (a pleasant comfort for the Meta Ray-Bans), however at the very least the Eagle might be juiced up shortly in a pinch, with a claimed 0–50% cost in simply 10 minutes through the included magnetic charger.
The Eagle will probably be outfitted with ZEISS UV400 lenses, which give UV safety with out vital tinting (making them usable each indoors and out). Prescription lenses will even be supplied for these needing imaginative and prescient correction.
Eagle will probably be “out there in Taiwan first” on September 1st, says HTC. Whereas this means it would come to different nations sooner or later, no agency launch date for different areas has been shared. The Taiwan model is priced at NT$15,600 ($520)
