Yesterday we picked up on a rumor that Baidu, China’s premier search engine, was developing a rival for Google Glass and internally this product was being referred to as the Baidu Eye. There was no comment from Baidu until today, their spokesperson confirms that the company is indeed developing digital eyewear that is similar to the Google Glass. Also confirmed was the moniker, although it was said that Baidu is internally testing the product and they can’t say for sure whether the product will actually be commercialized, ever.
Kaiser Kuo, the Baidu spokesperson, revealed that Baidu Eye will be headset mounted and will have a small LCD screen. Primariy functions were described as making voice and image searches and conducting facial recognition. Saying that it is premature to compare Baidu Eye to Google Glass as they don’t know if they’re going to commercialize it, Kuo said that the company experiments with technology that can be related to search in any way. Google on the other hand will very much commercialize Glass, they’ve already opened up the Google Glass Explorer program for those who want to among the first to try it.
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