Sure, Tony Stark was able to build the original Iron Man suit in a cave with a box of scraps, but can the average do-it-yourselfer replicate the EDITH smartglasses from Spider-Man: Far From Home in a similar fashion?
Evidently, the answer is yes, as YouTuber Jake Laser, whose channel boasts about 936,000 subscribers and more than 125 million total views, has cobbled together a pair of the fictional smartglasses seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And soon, according to Laser, he may even have a manufacturing partner to bring his creation to Marvel fans and mainstream consumers.
For the uninitiated, the EDITH smartglasses debuted in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, enabling Tony Stark to interact remotely with his AI assistant Friday. In limited action, the audience learns that the smartglasses have some computer vision capabilities beyond what is currently available on the market.
The billionaire playboy philanthropist bequeathed the smartglasses under the name EDITH (Even Dead I'm The Hero) to his protege Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Far From Home. In that movie, we learned that the fictional smartglasses were capable of facial recognition, network infiltration, and even had the ability to order drone strikes.
In the real world, Laser is able to approximate some of these capabilities with his DIY edition of EDITH. The first version involved a dumb replica of the EDITH frames with a see-through display attached to one lens and tethered to a laptop and a web camera running an Open CV machine learning program. Unfortunately, it was not very portable, requiring a backpack to carry the laptop, with the camera affixed to one of the straps.
For the second version of the DIY smartglasses, Laser ditched the laptop and web camera in favor of a Raspberry Pi module connected to a lithium battery and a head-mounted camera and replaced the see-through display with a near-eye display. Laser also used a cloud-based program to analyze the camera feed.
While neither version is capable of advanced espionage, the computer vision capabilities approach the level of utility that mainstream consumers get from apps like Google Lens. For example, in a live test, the smartglasses were able to identify a stop sign.
At the tail-end of the second video, Laser disclosed that he is working with an AI smartglasses company to turn the prototype into a finished version. While he did not reveal a name, potential candidates include Vuzix and Rokid, both represented on the NR30 for 2019, and Nreal from the NR30 Up & Coming Founders list.
After putting EDITH in the hands of fanboys, perhaps Laser can proceed with Mysterio's projector drones next?
Cover image via Jake Laser/YouTube
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