Google Glass high-tech specs get a rival in Olympus MEG4.0

The opposite sex may not like specs, but it seems that technology companies just love 'em. Hot on the heels of Google Glass comes the Olympus MEG4.0, more gadget-packed goggles.

The high-tech specs show a 320x240-pixel augmented reality display in front of your eyes, with Bluetooth built-in. Unlike Google's Glass face-mounted device -- and odd considering it's made by camerameisters Olympus -- the MEG4.0 doesn't have a camera.

As a glasses-wearer for most of my life and recent convert to seeing where you're going when you get up in the night, thanks to laser eye surgery, I'm not keen to burden my face with plastic again. But then again, a head-up display is pretty cool...

Google has brought fancy spectacles back into the news with a spec-tacular skydiving reveal of the Google Glass Explorer Edition, the first commercially available version of the Big G's AR and camera-equipped glasses. Android app developers attending a recent Google get-together can buy a pair for a whopping £1,000. 

On a side note, what do you call glasses round your way? I went to a school on Merseyside where everyone called them 'gigs', for some reason (as in, "Give us a go on your gigs -- woah, you must be blind!"). And I seem to recall an 80s episode of Dramarama where Leslie Grantham was a thief searching for an incriminating set of specs, running around the place growling "Where are my bins?" which is probably short for binoculars.

But I digress. Would you wear high-tech specs? Why are tech companies so keen on making a spectacle of themselves? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.