in 2012, the italian company glassup was founded by francesco giartosio and gianluigi tregnaghi to develop and market its augmented reality eyewear display. initially, the project started in june 2011, when francesco and his team saw an augmented reality glasses concept video. following it, the team researched the eyewear display market and in september 2011 it sought and hired gianluigi tregnaghi, the biggest field expert in italy, who developed optical systems for airplane pilots' helmets. in the summer of 2012, the team thought it found the solution that would hit the mark, and patented it.