After a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign last year, Glyph Mediawear has now been made available to buy. It is the world's first personal theater designed with lightweight portability, rich audio and amazingly precise video. Stop watching. Start seeing ...
In a world where virtual reality headsets are becoming more common place the Avegant Glyph headset is something a little different. At first glance it bares some resemblance to Beats headphones, and you can use it to listen to music, however in addition to using it as a normal headset, you can use the Glyph to watch videos, movies and TV shows thanks to the two lenses attached to the headband.
Now for all we mentioned it in the paragraph above the guys at the Redwood, California-based company are keen to point out though that this is not actually a VR headset. It does not create an entirely immersive experience that leaves you completely blind to your real environment, but rather places a thick band across your field of vision, with a screen hovering in front of you that is about the equivalent of watching a 50-inch TV in your darkened living room. The major advantage of the Glyph is that the user retains some situational awareness of their surroundings.
The Glyph also recreates natural sight—there’s no screen. Avegant’s patented Retinal Imaging Technology uses advanced optics and microscopic mirrors to project images directly to the eyes. It’s more like seeing than watching, and this should help eliminate eye strain.
And the transition from viewing to listening is fairly seamless. You just have to cover the eyepieces so that they don't dig into your head, and also remove the interchangeable nose piece (it comes with 4 ones of different shapes and sizes).
As with many great ideas over the past few years the startup company tested the waters in the form of a Kickstarter campaign. If it was a sink or swim moment then they most definitely floated as they demolished their funding goal of $250,000 raising a whopping $1.5 million. A second campaign raised a staggering $24 million from backers in the tech community, and the Glyph went into production.
The Glyph also won an Editors’ Choice Award at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016, in Las Vegas.
To make a purchase or for more information please see their website here.