Could the Next Generation of Cameras Actually Be Ones That We Wear on Our Faces?
Alibaba has unveiled its new line of wearable Qwen Glasses, which feature 50MP sensors and are becoming quite capable. But are they the future of content?
Alibaba Qwen Glasses
You hear that? That tiny crunching noise is Mark Zuckerberg stomping on his Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, one after another, after he saw this announcement from China: Alibaba has unveiled its latest lineup of smart wearable glasses, the Qwen Glasses N1 and Qwen Glasses N1 Pro.
Are they much better than Meta Ray-Bans? It sure looks that way. Are they set to replace our digital photo and video cameras anytime soon? Perhaps not right away, but they’re catching up very quickly.
Let’s look at these new smart glasses, still novelty,, most likely, and what their next-gen sensor power might indicate about the future.
Smart Glasses are Getting Much Better
The real headline here maybe shouldn’t be that the next-gen cameras we wear are coming soon, but if you want to try it out and record footage that looks decent, that future is fast approaching.
The Chinese company Alibaba has unveiled its new lineup of Qwen Glasses, including the N1 and N1 Pro models, as well as its first AI earbuds, the Qwen Clip.
The Qwen Glasses are particularly notable, though, because they feature first-person HD capture with a 50MP sensor that should blow the Ray-Ban Meta glasses out of the water, since those only feature 12MP sensors for now.
The new Qwen Glasses N1 Pro model takes things a step further, featuring new eye-tracking technology that enables new visual interactions, including object recognition and a futuristic iris-based payment system.
Will We Get a Glasses-Shot Short Film?
The answer to the above is most likely yes, if one hasn’t been done already. Filmmakers are always looking to try new creative approaches or gimmicks.
Still, while this might be a bit of a joke for now, smart glasses are another frontier that is rapidly developing, with improvements that should rival where smartphone cameras were just a few years ago, and will likely catch up to where DSLRs and mirrorless cameras were a few years before that.
We’ll keep tabs on this developing new technology as it continues to evolve, but for now you’re likely still safe to keep shooting films and projects on your favorite digital cameras and with your usual non-wearable workflows.
