Are Glasses the New Big-Screen Experience?

If you’ve always wanted a cinema experience in your lounge room, but there’s no space for a big screen, a pair of glasses might just be the solution.

Over the years, television screens have grown in size and come down in cost. Now, one tech company has invented a way of getting a 140-inch TV screen into your lounge room without having to fit it through the front door. In fact, there’s no big screen at all – because you wear it on your face.

Geoff Quattromani from the Technology Uncorked podcast explained how this new tech will work.

“We’re talking about a pair of glasses here that have built-in displays,” Geoff said.

“It’s called a TCL NXTWEAR G, it’s a wearable screen, effectively.”

When you put the glasses on, it feels like you’re effectively sitting metres away from a 140-inch screen, however, you still maintain peripheral vision as you would wearing sunglasses. This opens up options to take the “screen” with you on public transport, out and about, even on flights. But is this value for money, or is it better to stick to a traditional television set?

“You’re looking at $899 for a pair of glasses like this,” Geoff said.

“That’s not cheap for a pair of glasses, but if you compare it to trying to buy a TV of that size, you can almost can’t find one on the market. Even one at 65 inches, you’re looking at the $1500 plus mark.

“It has got a cord at the back – a cable that comes from the back of the glasses and connects to a device, to bring up the picture.”

Often watching television, though, is a shared experience with family and friends. Does a set of individual glasses rob us of that experience?

“It completely does, the reality is this is a one-to-one product,” Geoff said.

“Even if you bought two of them, they still need to be connected to independent devices. So unless you say, press play at the same time, the reality is that once you’re wearing these glasses you’ll feel like it’s your TV screen and nobody else’s.”

Hear more from Geoff Quattromani in the player above.