The Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation Sony launched this year its Research and Development (R&D) initiative called Sony Future Lab. Dedicated to shaping the future of gadgets, this company arm is set to design and produce prototypes of their future technologies.
The first star of the Sony Future Lab initiative is Concept N – a wearable device that acts as a headset while freeing the “ears, hands and eyes” of those who wear it.
The Sony Future Lab Program
Although the program’s presentation page is rather cryptic and invites the interested entities to find out more by subscribing to their newsletter via email, other sources mention how the FL initiative launched on 3 March in Tokyo and announced its first prototype showcase for 12 March in Austin, Texas, at the 23rd edition of the SXSW Interactive Festival, an event known as “an incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity”.
Sony’s strategy breaks the habits of consumer electronics as the others tech giants have set it in what new devices are concerned, announcing that it will actually show off its prototypes. After having missed the mobile revolution, the company attempts a bold marketing move via this initiative – provided their projects will be cutting-edge and successful.
Their presence at this year’s SXSW centered on the concept of pioneering future User Interfaces (UI), so that Internet users could benefit from a greater degree of freedom, autonomy and flexibility in what their access terminals are concerned. The company’s Facebook Future Lab program page is all about empowering, adaptive technology that frees its users’ senses.
*This may be a good moment to remember how flexible, innovative peripherals and terminals were one of the 2016’s predicted tech trends – which would put Sony’s desideratum right on the current technological track.
Sony Concept N
As with any technology still in its early stages, there is not much one can add into the Concept N description and viability predictions, besides reviewing the details already made public by various sources.
With this in mind, let’s see in summary what Concept N consists of.
We are looking at an audio interface in a form that has been seen before in LG’s Tone headsets. The “Arc’, as it was previously dubbed because of its shape, or Sony Concept N, is a sturdy piece of technology that goes around the user’s neck.
The wearable device has open speakers, a built-in camera that opens up only on voice command, optional specially shaped earbuds and various features.
The audio function comes with two options. The user can either listen to sound via the open earbuds (endowed with the Clear Phase and XLOUD audio signal processing technologies), or use just the neckband that acts like a localized speaker. Both options allow a mix of private audio with the outside noises – a mix controlled by the user. Also defined as “an Amazon Echo you wear around your neck”, the headset holds well to its announced capabilities, as this source describes, after having tested both the speakers and the earbuds function.
The included voice assistant reacts to voice commands and is able to connect to the user’s phone GPS in order to deliver location-based data; it also acts like a virtual DJ and searches and provides various location info (weather status or restaurants and locals in the area); furthermore it is the trigger for opening the camera whenever the user desires to take pictures.
The Sony team underlines how the user has no need to look at any screen in order to give his commands and receive the answers – thus targeting the active, always-on-the-go people that do not want technology to slow down their actions or hinder their other ongoing activities.
Considering the main features of Sony’s futuristic audio gear, others have named it “Google Glass for the ears”, while its commercial and (possible) work environment applications are making Concept N a possible Google Glass competitor, especially with Google postponing to deliver its new and improved gadget version.
If you see yourself benefiting from a hands-free, voice-commanded audio and informational technology, offering the extra feature of audio-command triggered camera, then keep an eye on Concept N’s future development and availability.
Other Sony Future Lab Program prototypes
- The Japanese company also amazed its public with a projector-like technology. A black box mounted above the tabletop turns the previously tech-neutral surface into a touchscreen. The same technology allows depth calculation and interactions with non-tech elements. The Endgadget reporter qualified this prototype as impressive, with future hands-on applications that remain to be seen.
- Another innovative projector prototype involved controlling the direction of the audio stream that accompanied the projected images; the user directed the images via a wand-like device and the sound followed the images – and the above-mentioned source remarked that the purpose of such features is yet unclear, although the demonstration raised the interest of the participants.
- Matching the tagline of “weird technology” already inserted by the Endgadget showcase report, another featured technology was an advanced haptic controller with amazing feedback capabilities. Mimicking the sense of touching real objects, the controller allowed the tester to have the sensation of bouncing a rubber or a metal ball, depending on the chosen settings – maybe in a preview of how the next-generation game controllers would look and feel like.
