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Telepathy unveils new model of smartglasses targeting augmented reality gamers

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Telepathy Japan, Japanese subsidiary of Sunnyvale-based wearable device startup Telepathy, unveiled a new product called Telepathy Walker at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas this week. The company plans to start selling it for $699 from summer, but they will accept pre-orders at crowdfunding sites for consumers in Japan, the US and Canada. Almost a year ago the company announced Telepathy Jumper, a smartglasses product primarily intended for business use leveraging the cloud feature. However, Telepathy Walker, the new product, is being marketed to feature use of location-based augmented reality (LBS-AR), which indicates that they are shifting business focus to daily and entertainment use for individuals. Telepathy was founded by Takahito Iguchi, who became global with his Sekai Camera app but is running a robotic startup now called Doki Doki. If we don’t count Telepathy One as their product because it didn’t come to market, Telepathy Walker is the second product for the company following Telepathy Jumper. Our readers may have a strange feeling that Telepathy Walker emphasizes its LBS-AR use which the Sekai Camera app had been pursuing from before. Telepathy Japan is hosting a booth at CES in association with Osaka-based…

telepathy-walker_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Telepathy Japan, Japanese subsidiary of Sunnyvale-based wearable device startup Telepathy, unveiled a new product called Telepathy Walker at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas this week. The company plans to start selling it for $699 from summer, but they will accept pre-orders at crowdfunding sites for consumers in Japan, the US and Canada.

Almost a year ago the company announced Telepathy Jumper, a smartglasses product primarily intended for business use leveraging the cloud feature. However, Telepathy Walker, the new product, is being marketed to feature use of location-based augmented reality (LBS-AR), which indicates that they are shifting business focus to daily and entertainment use for individuals.

Telepathy was founded by Takahito Iguchi, who became global with his Sekai Camera app but is running a robotic startup now called Doki Doki. If we don’t count Telepathy One as their product because it didn’t come to market, Telepathy Walker is the second product for the company following Telepathy Jumper. Our readers may have a strange feeling that Telepathy Walker emphasizes its LBS-AR use which the Sekai Camera app had been pursuing from before.

Telepathy Japan is hosting a booth at CES in association with Osaka-based Brilliant Service, the developer of the Mirama gesture controllable smartglasses. Commemorating this collaboration, the two companies showed the world that Telepathy Walker or Mirama wants to realize a concept movie developed by Japanese popular anime studio Production I.G (see below). It will be interesting to see how they will attract many backers from among anime and game freaks worldwide with the upcoming crowdfunding campaign.

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Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s wearable startup LogBar unveils ‘ili’ translator pendant at CES 2016

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. The creator of the Ring wearable device, Silicon Valley- / Tokyo-based startup LogBar, has just unveiled a new product called ‘iLi‘ at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The iLi is a pendant worn around the neck that will translate between English, Japanese, and Chinese. Thanks to a built-in engine for speech recognition/synthesis and translation, Wi-Fi or other Internet connections are not needed to use iLi. The device has a button on its surface, which looks like the fingerprint sensor design on the iPhone. Users have to push it before speaking so that the device can recognize their speech and synthesize its translated result. The product price has not been announced, but it is said to be “affordable” as it opens up for pre-orders in March or April. The second version of iLi will handle French, Thai, and Korean, and the third version will add Spanish, Italian, and Arabic options. In addition to product sales, LogBar is exploring establishing a business network leveraging the device as a business model. The company may partner with travel agencies, hotels, transport operators, and car rental services, which cater to tourists and business travelers. Since the device specs have…

ili_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

The creator of the Ring wearable device, Silicon Valley- / Tokyo-based startup LogBar, has just unveiled a new product called ‘iLi‘ at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The iLi is a pendant worn around the neck that will translate between English, Japanese, and Chinese. Thanks to a built-in engine for speech recognition/synthesis and translation, Wi-Fi or other Internet connections are not needed to use iLi.

The device has a button on its surface, which looks like the fingerprint sensor design on the iPhone. Users have to push it before speaking so that the device can recognize their speech and synthesize its translated result. The product price has not been announced, but it is said to be “affordable” as it opens up for pre-orders in March or April. The second version of iLi will handle French, Thai, and Korean, and the third version will add Spanish, Italian, and Arabic options. In addition to product sales, LogBar is exploring establishing a business network leveraging the device as a business model. The company may partner with travel agencies, hotels, transport operators, and car rental services, which cater to tourists and business travelers.

Since the device specs have yet to be unveiled, it is uncertain whether or not the device is technically possible, or just vaporware. However, this is definitely the thing that turns ‘Honyaku Konyaku’ or translation jelly, a popular Sci-Fi gadget seen in the Doraemon Japanese comic series, into a reality. Following Jeplan which has recently developed the real De Lorean dream car from the Back to the Future movie, we are looking forward to the success of a Japanese startup attempting to turn Sci-Fi gadgets into a reality.

Edited by Kurt Hanson

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