SAN FRANCISCO—If French startup Optinvent is right, what we all really want is a bigger screen directly in front of our eyes. Sure, Google Glass may be the best-known example of a heads-up display, but Kayvan Mirza says that Glass simply doesn’t cut it.

Over breakfast at Blue Bottle Coffee on Wednesday, Optinvent’s CEO demonstrated a mockup of the company’s new ORA-S for Ars. Unlike Glass, the ORA-S, as currently designed, is a large and very industrial plastic pair of sunglasses with the viewing prism mounted directly in the field of view. Glass’ prism, by contrast, sits just above the natural line-of-sight and has no other lenses to get in the way.

“It’s much bigger in terms of display size than Google,” Mirza told Ars, noting that the ORS-A has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a field of view of 25 degrees. “It’s got three times the surface area. It’s much brighter and has higher resolution.”

Optinvent is one of a slew of bigger-funded companies believed to be working on similar wearable computing devices (for instance, Microsoft and Samsung are both getting in on the game). The French company, based in the northwestern city of Rennes, has been working on wearable computing since 2007, and it has held related patents for years, long before Google announced Glass.

These days, wearable computing is big business. In 2012, the total value of the market for such tech, ranging from hearing aids to wrist-worn fitness devices, reached nearly $9 billion. According to IHS Global Insights, an industry analysis firm, that is expected to reach at least $19 billion by 2018.

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Shane Walker, an IHS Global Insights analyst, told Ars that his firm is tracking 11 companies (including Google Glass) making a similar type of product.

“Glass will lead the market (and there will be more players before too much longer), but I think there is room for others by targeting certain markets (i.e. Recon’s focus on sports),” he said. “These all utilize similar display technology, except Meta, which introduces embedded vision for gesture recognition. I’d say this is the most unique proposition yet.”

70 grams of awkward

ORA-S’ first developer version, including an SDK, is expected to come out in December 2013 for around $950. The consumer version, set to debut in 2014, will retail for “something like $300,” Mirza added.

If Optinvent can actually hit that price point, Walker noted that "would be on the very low end of current pricing."

For the purposes of our demonstration, Optinvent didn’t have an actual working prototype, but rather a mockup. The 70-gram (2.4 oz) glasses themselves felt like large industrial protective eyewear with a huge case enclosing all the electronics on the right side. Like our brief experience with Glass earlier this year, the whole device was heavier than expected. It felt uncomfortable wearing it even for a few minutes, and I wear glasses normally (those only weigh 13 grams).

Mirza plugged the ORA-S into his computer and essentially ran it as a secondary display, demoing what appears to be a proposed interface. It had an Android-style toolbar on the top and bottom of the screen. Mirza showed a few examples of possible applications, including turn-by-turn directions. He said that ORA-S would eventually run a modified version of Android and use voice control, but it didn't seem obvious exactly how a user would interact with apps unless the company expects you to shout "SCROLL" to the device every two seconds.

Again, this was just a demo and not an actual working device. It was hard to get a definitive feel for what it would be like as a functioning device. There was no “OK, Glass” or whatever ORA-S’ equivalent will be just yet. And, as Mirza noted, “the consumer version will be about half the thickness.”

One neat design choice that Optinvent has is the “Flip-Vu,” a small mechanical hinge that allows the viewscreen (and the front-facing camera) to tilt downward, a clear indicator that it’s no longer directly in the wearer’s field-of-view. Last month, the company showed off its new partnership with Wikitude, an Austrian augmented reality company.

While that’s nice, wearing the ORA-S still felt big and obnoxious. It's hard to currently imagine a cafe where everyone wore something like this. What would it feel like if people were using wearables as easily as we use smartphones?

“The battle is to make this go away,” Mirza said, tapping the bulky eyeglasses frame. “To make this as unobtrusive as possible.”