Most of you probably don’t remember, but about 4 months ago we published a post about how Baidu might be creating and testing their own pair of smart glasses. And, it turns out that they actually were.

For those of you who didn’t happen to read or see the post that we published a few months back. Here’s a summary of it. Last year on April Fool’s day, Baidu announced a device called “Baidu Eye”, but they claimed it was just your ordinary April Fool’s day joke. Everyone believed them, but then something weird happened. Sometime after April Fool’s day, a photo was uploaded online that showed someone in the Baidu offices wearing a strange device on their face.

Here’s the photo:

As you could imagine, everyone speculated that it was the Baidu Eye. And, the Baidu Eye might actually be the device in the photo. Why do I say this? Well, because the Baidu Eye is being demonstrated and displayed at the company’s Baidu World event. And, it kind of looks like the device that is in the photo. So, yup, what started off as an April Fool’s day joke is now an actual product.

Well, okay. It’s not an actual product yet, it’s only a prototype. Baidu Eye is pretty interesting though. While it is being compared heavily to Google Glass it’s actually a bit different. Unlike Google Glass, Baidu Eye doesn’t have a screen. Instead of having a screen, it has a companion app that allows you to receive and view information on a phone or tablet screen. The company supposedly decided to go the no-screen route to save on battery life, and because browsing on a phone is a better experience overall when compared to browsing on a head-mounted screen.

While the device is a bit different than some smart glasses, it is also quite similar. A lot of the functionality that is found on other smart glasses like Google Glass, the Vuzix M100 and the Epson Moverio BT-200 is also on the Baidu Eye. The Baidu Eye supports voice and gesture commands. It can identify plants, purses and other ecommerce items. And, it can also connect to WiFi and mobile hotspots. Eventually, the device will also be able to take pictures and videos, connect to social networks, and play games.

Besides working on the prototype, Baidu is in the process of creating some resources for developers to help them create apps and services for the Baidu Eye. With that being said, Baidu didn’t mention when said resources will be released.

Overall, I’m interested to see how the Baidu Eye evolves. It definitely sounds like a cool product. Still, it is kind of weird how they said it was a joke at first though.

So, what do you think about the Baidu Eye? How does it look to you? Do you think the no-screen route is going to work? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section down below!

Source: PCWorld