Wearable computing is arguably the next significant step in hardware technology, this why we’re seeing so many companies taking a liking to augmented glasses. The latest come out of the grapevine is an augmented glasses from Japanese carrier, NTT DoCoMo. This little thing is capable of translating text back to the user in several languages, in real-time (or rather, close enough to real-time).

The glasses first came on the scene recently at Ceatec 2013, a consumer electronics show held yearly in Japan.The main purpose of the glasses is to instantly translate words and sentences you read from one language to another. Furthermore, the glasses are able to turn any flat surface into a touchscreen according to the telegraph. The user would need a unique ring to activate animated tags, though it is not sure if these rings will come pre-packed with the glass.

NTT DoCoMo feels the augmented glasses could be a boon for tourists visiting Japan:

“Character recognition technology enables instant language translation for users traveling abroad and reading restaurant menus and other documents.”

The glass is capable of translating between Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean languages. In addition, the prototype hardware takes only 5 seconds to translate text, which means the final hardware build could take less time.

We could see these glasses making a difference at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo if everything goes according to plan. Then again, it might all depend on whether or not Google Glass turns out to be a more popular head mounted augmented device in Japan.

[via Telegraph UK]