Mini augments ride with X-ray specs

SAN FRANCISCO — Talk about bucking tech trends.

Google’s once auspicious wearable computer project, Glass, has just gone back to the drawing board. And all most automakers and some tech companies want to talk about of late are self-driving cars.

Yet Mini has just teamed with Qualcomm to make a prototype pair of augmented reality glasses that serve mainly to let drivers get more enjoyment from piloting their own vehicle.

“There’s lots of talk now about autonomous cars, but people who buy our cars are young and tech-savvy and love to drive,” says Pat McKenna, manager of product planning of Mini USA, a BMW-owned brand that in 2000 took the storied if stagnant British nameplate and energized it with hip marketing and German engineering. “These glasses would just keep our drivers focused on the road.”

Dubbed Mini Augmented Vision, the goggles have no consumer release date. While they have an unmistakably cartoonish look, their capability is far from a joke. Sketched out by the Osterhout Design Group, the glasses pack two stereoscopic HD displays that, using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, overlay virtual information over the real world — something many tech observers consider the Holy Grail of augmented reality.

 Source: USA TODAY