• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, January 23, 2019

Smart glasses are getting there.

While not yet fine-tuned enough for masses of consumers to run out and get a pair, smart glasses technology is on the way.

At CES, I checked out the Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses, which use augmented reality, sport a high-resolution camera and look like a somewhat normal pair of sunglasses.

The Blade is really a wearable smart display and is like having a computer screen at eye level, although you can still see everything in the physical world.

This is what the future of augmented reality is starting to look like.

Personalized alerts come to the glasses screen with a built-in high definition camera to record what you may be looking at.

The AR smart glasses use an Android operating system.

The idea is that a person wearing the smart glasses could use them to make an appointment, check reviews via Yelp, find a coffee shop or book a reservation while on the go.

Vuzix has a partnership with AccuWeather, so expect personalized AR weather forecasts to be coming to the glasses. Other functions, such as interacting with Amazon Alexa or ordering an Uber ride, are detailed in a company video.

At $1,000, the glasses are not necessarily ready for a mass consumer market, but they sure show where AR glasses are heading.