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Telepathy unveils new model of smartglasses targeting augmented reality gamers

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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…

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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 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

Japan’s Telepathy finally unveils new smartglass, not vaporware this time

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See the original story in Japanese. Telepathy Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Sunnyvale-based wearable device startup Telepathy, unveiled a new product today called Telepathy Jumper. The company will start accepting pre-orders this month, and begin shipping to corporate users in March 2015 and to consumers in summer of 2015. Telepathy had originally aimed to release the Telepathy One smartglass, but the new product, the Telepathy Jumper, is no more than a shadow of the original concept. It looks like a wearable device rather than a smartglass, and it is connected by a cable to a controller pad. According to Telepathy Japan President and CEO Kenichi Suzuki, Telepathy Jumper is to be worn from the neck, but only when necessary rather than being worn all the time. But for those who want to always wear the device, the company will provide a supplemental head mounting attachment as well as make its 3D data available so that users can create a customized attachment at DMM’s Tokyo 3D Printing Center. See also: Google Glass, you’ve got company! Sekai Camera inventor introduces Telepathy One Japanese Google Glass challenger raises $5 million Telepathy CEO discusses the future of wearable technology at TechCrunch Tokyo Telepathy Jumper…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Telepathy Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Sunnyvale-based wearable device startup Telepathy, unveiled a new product today called Telepathy Jumper. The company will start accepting pre-orders this month, and begin shipping to corporate users in March 2015 and to consumers in summer of 2015.

Telepathy had originally aimed to release the Telepathy One smartglass, but the new product, the Telepathy Jumper, is no more than a shadow of the original concept. It looks like a wearable device rather than a smartglass, and it is connected by a cable to a controller pad.

According to Telepathy Japan President and CEO Kenichi Suzuki, Telepathy Jumper is to be worn from the neck, but only when necessary rather than being worn all the time. But for those who want to always wear the device, the company will provide a supplemental head mounting attachment as well as make its 3D data available so that users can create a customized attachment at DMM’s Tokyo 3D Printing Center.

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Telepathy Jumper runs on Android 4.2 and has Sense-Core Engine, which manages multiple accelerometers and location sensors. So an app running on Telepathy Jumper will not need to receive metrics from multiple sensors respectively, but can receive the ones from the engine in a more contextual way, like whether or not you are standing or the device is in your bag. In this way, developers of apps for the device can decrease development and processing steps.

Telepathy Japan CEO & President Kenichi Suzuki
Telepathy Japan CEO & President Kenichi Suzuki

Based on the concept of co-creation, two apps called Eye Connect and Talent Buzz will be installed in the device as a factory default. Eye Connect allows users to share their visuals via one-click. If a user sets connection privileges to open to the public, a user can share sights with other users upon their connection requests. Talent Buzz is a platform allowing users to share their knowledge, skills, and experiences. It has many business applications such as transferring knowledge about manufacturing processes from skilled workers to trainees, or sharing how to better serve customers at a restaurant.

Regarding opportunities allowing third-party developers to create apps for Telepathy Jumper, the company has decided to disclose an API, but technical specifications like the Android Wear compatibility have not yet been decided.

Our original anticipation for Telepathy’s product was based on the novel design and concept of its hardware mock-up. In other words, the company will be more focused on manufacturing better hardware but rely on community-based activities for app development. Coinciding with the announcement of Telepathy Jumper, the company announced that it aims to provide a total user experience leveraging a combination of hardware, app, and the cloud, which can be highly regarded because they went beyond just developing a hardware product.

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Japanese Google Glass challenger raises $5 million

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See the original story in Japanese. Telepathy is a Japanese startup focused on developing wearable technology. The company is led by serial entrepreneur Takahito Iguchi, the inventor of the pioneering augmented reality app Sekai Camera. Telepathy announced today it has raised $5 million from Silicon Valley-based VC Firsthand Technology Value Fund (NASDAQ:SVVC). The fund is known for having previously invested in prominent tech companies including Facebook and Twitter. The startup unveiled its first product, Telepathy One, last year at SXSW, positioned as a direct competitor to Google Glass. There will be an SDK for app developers this fall, and the company will begin marketing the device in 2014. With these new funds, the company will hire more engineers to work at its headquarters in Silicon Valley.  Iguchi explained: Wearable technology will enable the next wave in social networking, […] and the initial response to our Telepathy One prototype has been astounding. The $5 million funding will enable us to enrich the user experience of Telepathy One, which we expect to bring to market in 2014. If you are a hardware or software engineer interested in working with the company, you can find more details here. The startup also announced today…

telepathy prototype

See the original story in Japanese.

Telepathy is a Japanese startup focused on developing wearable technology. The company is led by serial entrepreneur Takahito Iguchi, the inventor of the pioneering augmented reality app Sekai Camera. Telepathy announced today it has raised $5 million from Silicon Valley-based VC Firsthand Technology Value Fund (NASDAQ:SVVC). The fund is known for having previously invested in prominent tech companies including Facebook and Twitter.

The startup unveiled its first product, Telepathy One, last year at SXSW, positioned as a direct competitor to Google Glass. There will be an SDK for app developers this fall, and the company will begin marketing the device in 2014. With these new funds, the company will hire more engineers to work at its headquarters in Silicon Valley. 

Telepathy's Takahito Iguchi, chief investment officer of Firsthand Kevin Landis
Telepathy’s Takahito Iguchi, chief investment officer of Firsthand Kevin Landis

Iguchi explained:

Wearable technology will enable the next wave in social networking, […] and the initial response to our Telepathy One prototype has been astounding.

The $5 million funding will enable us to enrich the user experience of Telepathy One, which we expect to bring to market in 2014.

If you are a hardware or software engineer interested in working with the company, you can find more details here.

The startup also announced today that Peter Hoddie, the former QucikTime architect at Apple, has joined its advisory board. They plan to bring his experience in digital video technology to the development of their wearable device.

For more infomation on Telepathy One, check out the short news clip below.