These are smart glasses that sacrifice some of the most common features in favor of a very elegant form factor.
Trying to avoid the industry’s seeming cliché of making the buyer feel like a visitor of the future, North it tries to keep its users in the present with a discreet design that does not recall a high-tech appliance, offering with Focals smart glasses for everyday use with an autonomy of up to 15 hours through its 700 mAh battery.
Others have tried and failed to create smart glasses that captivate the public, because they started with functionality in mind and built the product on that. We have done it the other way around, starting from a bold aesthetic that represented the product, but adding what is necessary not to change its everyday appearance, ” he says Stephen Lake, CEO of North.
The characteristics are therefore different from what can be expected when compared to similar products. Among other things, it does not have a touchpad, leaving the controls to a secondary device called Loop, which is composed of a finger ring with a joystick on top. Nor does it present a camera of any kind or the possibility of viewing multimedia contents. At the same time, it does not offer any SDKs for other developers to make use of its specifications.
Focals uses the Wear OS Google to make use of the chip Qualcomm MSM8909w, and connects to our mobile phone via a Bluetooth connection to offer us information about the weather, calendar, send text messages, step-by-step navigation, integration with Amazon Alexa and even applications like Uber, all through the projector that hides inside the pin and a directional speaker. It also includes a microphone that will record voice commands, in addition to proximity sensors, ambient light and a 9-axis inertia meter.
Potential clients of North will have to be able to attend one of its next two events in New York and Toronto, since they are made to measure, being necessary to disburse 100 dollars to secure the reservation, which will be deducted from the 999 total.
The package will include the Focals glasses, the Loop ring, an add-on for sunny days, a cloth to clean the lenses, a USB-C type charger and a case that incorporates a battery with 3 additional charges.
