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"Many thought that Baidu's announcement\u00A0of Eye, its Google Glass-like wearable, in early April 2013 was a well-timed April Fools' joke, but today the Chinese tech giant demonstrated\u00A0the device for the first time. Most notably, Baidu's product doesn't include a screen.\r\n\r\nThe headset was put on display at Baidu World, the company's annual showcase event in Beijing, today.\u00A0Baidu Director of International Communications Kaiser Kuo told TNW that the device is still a prototype, but there are plans to make it available for consumers some time in the future. (Baidu previously stressed that Eye was an experiment, so things are progressing on that front.)\r\n\r\nKuo explained that there is no screen on the device because &amp;quot;we\u00A0found that screens impair vision and tire your eyes easily.&amp;quot; Instead,\u00A0the device pairs with a smartphone or tablet to provide the kind of functionality that you'd get from a screen. Not including a screen saves on\u00A0energy which makes\u00A0the battery last a lot longer, Kuo said, while he also claimed that\u00A0it helps keep the design light and easy to wear.\r\n\r\n[caption id=&amp;quot;attachment_795563&amp;quot; align=&amp;quot;aligncenter&amp;quot; width=&amp;quot;730&amp;quot;] A rear view of Baidu Eye[/caption]\r\n\r\nHere's what Baidu Eye looks like from a front perspective:\r\nWho are the Baidu Eye Explorers? Reax? MT @ PDChina #Baidu on Wed launched &amp;quot;Baidu Eye&amp;quot;, similar to @googleglass pic.twitter.com/9x2DunS0TJ\r\n\r\n\u2014 Kristie Lu Stout CNN (@klustout) September 3, 2014\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Baidu Eye prototype does support voice- and gesture-based commands. It connects to the internet via a\u00A0WiFi connection\u00A0or mobile hotspot rather than independently like Google Glass.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSo what can it be used for? Kuo gave us a basic outline for the prototype at this point:\r\nBasically Baidu Eye allows the user to analyze images and provide information or services related to your current field of vision or a specific item. You can use voice commands, or gesture commands (like expanding to zoom, or circling an object in your field of view with your finger). You can identify plants, or find products (so far, handbags and articles of clothing) on e-commerce sites. The use case scenarios for now are limited, but we've got an enormous data set of clothes, bags, and flora right now.\r\nBaidu is planning to integrate Eye with social networks and gaming, as well as hands-free activities like taking photos and videos or answering calls. But, at this point, Kuo says that these features are not included in the demo version of the product.\r\n\r\nThere are plans to introduce resources to let developers create apps and supported services for Eye, but Baidu hasn't said when they will be released.\r\n\r\nThe initial announcement of Baidu Eye made for inevitable 'Google Glass clone' comments -- particularly given the similarities between Google and Baidu's businesses in general -- but there are certainly marked differences between Eye and Glass.\r\n\r\nBaidu is stressing that Eye is still in development, but while Google has found 'Explorers' who have paid to essentially be guinea pigs as Google Glass is developed, the Chinese firm\u00A0is\u00A0taking a distinctly more private route.\r\n\r\nImages via Baidu"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2014/09/03/baidu-eye/>