Chris Davies, Slash Gear

The augmented reality scene is hotting up, with the promise of full computer-mediated vision for the mainstream and another hint that�Google won't have the Glass market all to itself thanks to an incoming headset from startup Meta. The wearable project actually goes one step further than Project Glass, putting a full twin-display digital environment - controlled by two hand 3D tracking - in front of the user, rather than floating notifications and prompts in the corner of their eye as Google's system does.

The prototype headset is a clunky beast, admittedly, consisting of an Epson Moverio BT-100�with a low-latency 3D camera mounted on top. According to�Noah Zerkin�- who you might remember from his run-in with Google's Sergey Brin�a week ago, and who had the chance to play with a Meta dev-kit -�both components feed into custom electronics in a separate box, and which can currently track individual fingertips and overlay glowing dots over them in real-time, similar to what's shown in Meta's concept video.

Meta isn't just using off-the-shelf Moverio headsets, either. The company has inked a deal with Epson [pdf link] to collaborate on augmented reality technologies, with the pair promising applications in media, retail, gaming, productivity, and more.

The initial promo video, however, takes an altogether consumer-friendly approach, positioning Meta as an ideal accessory for the web-obsessed social media user. That includes overlaying digital graphics - in this case Facebook - over elements of the real-world, and then using gestures to interact with them; for instance, a physical "thumbs-up" motion "Likes" a Facebook post, while news articles can be browsed by sweeping through, and then grabbing, preview bubbles floating in mid-air.