Samsung doubles down on Apple by donning augmented reality glasses

It’s no secret that Apple has been showing a keen interest in augmented reality for several years. Still waiting for Apple Glass. That’s why the Cupertino company signed a partnership with Valve in November 2019 to accelerate their development. The company that owns Steam has solid experience in virtual reality, especially since the launch of the Steam VR platform and Valve Index VR headset.

And like a nice quote, Samsung has decided to present its first AR glasses prototype at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. There’s no name, price or release date, but it’s a simple show on stage to unleash their potential. To do this, the manufacturer offered viewers to participate in a fitness class in augmented reality.

Exoskeleton, AR glasses and fitness classes

To kill two birds with one stone, the company took advantage of this somewhat special sports session to highlight GEMS (Gait Enhancer and Motivational System), here is an exoskeleton used to analyze the movements of the athlete on stage. A virtual coach, projected onto the screen behind him, commented on his performance and said:Good” or “Keep your balance” sometimes.

At the end of this session, which reminds us of Nintendo’s legendary presentations with Wii Fit, the athlete made the following statement without any warning:And now I’m wearing my augmented reality glasses”. When the glasses are enabled, the virtual coach happens in augmented reality. A few hand gestures are all it takes to choose a training program, and this time you can go to a new session, powered by a virtual coach in AR who can answer simple questions, as noted by our colleagues on the Tom’s guide site.

No technical details were provided, but the Samsung employee connected a cable from the GEMS body to the AR glasses, suggesting that the glasses must be connected to a device (or at least a power source) for them to work. Even if this demo remained simple, Samsung gave the message to its competitors: “We will also do augmented reality”. And maybe sooner than you think. Apple, on the other hand, plans to use an entirely new approach to Apple Glass, a holographic imaging technique.