Optinvent ORA-1 Augmented Reality Smart Glasses Developer Kit

Not as advertised over heat really quickly. Battery life was a mere half hour

this product is in its infancy, and i hope you keep developing this for real people. android was a bad choice, because you need the internet to do just about anything with it. i returned this after only a few days, because my eyes could not focus on the screen and be focused on the real world at the same time. the premiss was that you have a type of augmented reality, but what you have is a very expensive tablet you wear on your face. you have no preloaded software to show off the capabilities, and a very unresponsive touch pad on the glasses. if you had charged $300 for this i would have kept it and figured out something to make this work, but at $1000 dollars its easy to nit pick about the quality of the product.my diagnosis, if you put a micro sd slot in, have a wireless hdmi receiver, and a switch to choose between hdmi, android, or movie mode you would have a much more usable product and are justified to charge $1000

I feel horrible doing this, but there is no other rating I can give to these other than a single star. The company (from its videos) appears to be pretty smart, and dedicated to their product, but what they released is quite simply not ready for prime time. In the cheap copies piece of manual included, they make it quite clear that these are not for consumers, and only for developers, but that should not permit the manufacturer to release something of really questionable quality.Let's walk through some of the issues:ComfortPut simply, these things are unwearable. They are so extremely uncomfortable that after about 4 minutes I couldn't bear wearing them any longer. They are extremely tight and quite heavy, so the combination makes them downright useless. They are also massive.The nose bridge is very uncomfortable, and there is a weird piece of plastic above it which is held on by 2 weak magnets, and appears that it will be lost int he first week.ControlsAgain, poorly designed here. The buttons are integrated into the slightly sticky black rubber housing, and there is zero tactile feedback, so you don't know when you actually power them on. You also need to press really hard on volume and the trackpad button on the bottom.The trackpad is no better, and controlling the cursor is really tough. I also couldn't get two-finger scrolling to work, which means it is virtually impossible to scroll though Android lists of options.OSThe unit comes with Android 4.4 KitKat - and that too is unacceptable in this day and age. Almost 30% of all Android devices have been upgraded to Android 5 Lollipop, so releasing 4.4 in 2015 just won't cut it.AppsThis may be sold as a developer edition, but there are no sample apps anywhere to be found. The company also makes regular mention of augmented reality, but they clearly didn't bother creating any demo apps to show off these capabilities. The only non-stock app installed is a sensor readout interface.To get the most out of the unit, you need to push Teamviewer to it using ADB, which will then allow you to open a remote desktop connection to it. This also makes it pretty clear that doing any real work on the unit is too painful to complete.DisplayThe company makes a lot of claims about their "Flip-Vu" folding display, but in reality all it does is move up and down - you can set it for see-through (like in the Epson Moverio or glance (like in Google Glass). They claim the display offers 33 pixels per degree of vision, on a 640x480 display. Sadly, even with this, getting the unit aligned for a good image requires a lot of fiddling. The standard angles of the flip-vu are not sufficient for a good picture, and you end up having to move the whole thing higher or lower on your nose. When you wear them, you also see too much of the frame surrounding the display unit projected on the optics.Value for moneyThe number one way to know that this product is doomed is that the manufacturer didn't even bother including a MicroUSB cable. These usually retail for $3, so not including one with a $1000 pair of augmented reality glasses is pretty weak. They also feel pretty crappy - definitely not $1000 specs. There is no case, no replacement frames, no headphones and no AC adapter. Most AR / HMD products I've tested come with a variety of accessories. Again, I'm fully aware that this is a developer unit, but other similar products are also sold strictly as development platforms, but do come with a good variety of accessories.There are several decent competitors out there, including Google Glass, which of course relies on your phone connection to use. The Epson Moverio BT-200 is another excellent option - which is half the price of the ORA-1, and offers DUAL displays. They are a bit heavier, but the display quality is much better, and it has a small external Android controller with integrated trackpad (and support for 2-finger scrolling). The Moverio also offers a built in custom app store and several pre-installed demo apps.All in all, this is a beta version of something that may become something good at some point, but is nowhere near close enough for retail sales, or even for developers. The SDK from Optinvent is impossible to find. On the Optinvent site, there are two videos showcasing the product - one shows a non-existent version of the ORA-1 with a much smaller frame, the other is a bit more realistic, showing the Android app drawer and a basic compass. There are no videos showing the ORA-1 with a truly well built augmented reality app, and the only options out there appear to be the same ones anyone can download from the app store (like Google Sky Map).Again, I apologize to the Optinvent team for such a brutal review, but charging $1000 for something this weak is only something Google can get away with, and their beta product was far more polished than the ORA-1.

When I was first trying to set these up, a friend told me I was like James Bond wearing these. Well, I said, maybe Poindexter Bond - these are bulky and kindof nerdy. But so much funl.First off, to clear up a couple misconceptions: I really would not call them "developers" glasses. You don't need to be a developer to use them! It comes with Android pre-installed. You install your own apps. Just like most tablets, most phones. You'll probably want to familiarize yoursef with something like APKPure (install apps directly to the glasses through your PC).And secondly, there is no "augmented reality" built into these. As I said, it's an Android tablet on your face. That's all. There's a small projection of the Android screen onto the glasses, that's it. That said, I'm sure there are some really cool possibilities with augmented reality (that's where the "developer" part comes in). But most of us are just going to install normal games & apps on it.Ok, I could talk about these for hours, let me just hit some of the highlights for me. What I love:• Camere and mic are *awesome*, Preinstalled app. Record as you go! Noise cancellation mic works great. Use the glasses to answer your phone, talk in a normal voice.• Pair with any device. Leave your phone or tablet in your bag, do what you need on the glasses. Even remotely, from 1,000 miles away, log into your computer back home. Lots of possibilities.• Wifi works great (a little outdated, only b/g/n)• I see some complaints about the screen. For me, it's perfect. You can adjust it, I like it high, and I see the screen just fine even in daylight. Once I was bored at a meeting and pulled up a movie to watch. No sound, but cool nonetheless.• Battery life is very impressive.• The lenses are color changing, very cool touchOk, I love playing with these, my favorite new toy. But here are the three big deal killers for me:(1) Android 4.4 Kitkat. Too outdated. We're on 6 now. 5 is bare minimum, some apps that you need won't run on 4.4(2) The glasses are way to small on my face. I'm a big guy, so keep that in mind. But they hurt, gives me a headache pretty quickly. I might try to disassemble it & put it on my own frame. The temples aren't long enough either.(3) They're bulky & heavy. I do feel silly wearing them in public. And they slip down your nose, and have fallen off a few times. (They seem to be durable, though)And, some other problems:• The touchpad is really hard to use. I have big fingers. My friends are better at it. I really need to connect a mouse or other input device, or just use the recommended Teamviewer type program• All the controls are difficult. The volume buttons are hard to find, hard to push. I often have to take them off to find the right buttons.Bottom Line: I would recommend these to someone with money to burn, who loves toying with things like this. And I would *really* like to see some developers put together some real augmented reality apps for me to install.However, what I actully love is the concept & potential, while the device itself has a lot of challenges to overcome.