Mad Gaze Joins China's Consumer Smartglasses Gold Rush with Glow Wearable

It appears that the floodgates of consumer-grade augmented reality smartglasses from China are now open, with Mad Gaze being the latest company to rush its product through.

The Hong Kong-based wearables maker posted a trio of new videos on Thursday featuring its Glow new smartglasses.

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Weighing just 75 grams (roughly the same as a pair of North Focals), Glow comes in six colors, from the standard black and white to the more adventurous pink, lime green, purple, and teal.

Mad Gaze/YouTube

The smartglasses house a combined lightguide capable of 53 degrees field of view, tether via USB-C to smartphones in order to deliver content, and are capable of SLAM for tracking AR content in physical space.

However, the company's promotional text detailing the AR tech tells one story, while one of the demo videos tells another. With the smartglasses plugged into a smartphone playing a video, the camera pans toward one of the displays embedded in the wearable, where the video from the smartphone continues to play. This gives the appearance that the optics act more as a pass-through video display rather than a transparent display that overlays 3D content into physical space.

This isn't Mad Gaze's first attempt at AR wearables, as its portfolio includes the Ares and the X5, both of which follow the design originated by Google Glass, and Vader wearables, which resemble AR headsets from the now-defunct ODG and ThirdEye.

The company also has its own platform for generating AR apps called AR+ Cloud (not to be confused with the broader concept of the AR cloud) and an app store with some independent titles and third-party clones of apps like WeChat and Facebook.

Mad Glow's latest offering, though, appears to follow in the footsteps of the Nreal Light and Shadow Technologies Action Air.

The company is planning to launch a crowdfunding effort for the device via Kickstarter in two weeks. At this rate, smartglasses from China will be about as unique as mid-tier Android smartphones.

Cover image via Mad Gaze/YouTube