It’s been less than a week since Android-creator Andy Rubin revealed his latest venture and the company’s ambitions and inevitable challenges are quickly becoming clear.
Reports say that Rubin’s company has already set its sights beyond the smartphone and smart home markets and is preparing to launch a bid for a category that even Google couldn’t crack.
As originally reported by Patently Apple, the company’s range may soon be rounded out by a set of smartglasses.
These smartglasses are said to be similar in design to Snapchat’s Spectacles. However, they won’t just come with an incorporated camera but fully-fledged augmented reality features.
The smartglasses are said to include a “dual-mode display,” which would use an inward facing camera to perform eye tracking and display visual overlays to enhance a user’s sight.
A note attributed to Essential engineers suggests that “based on the environment that the user sees, and based on the direction of the user’s gaze, the processor can display an image to augment the environment around the user. For example, if the user is looking at a barcode of an item, the processor can display cheaper purchasing options of the same item.”
However, news also broke that the company may already be facing its first legal battle.
As reported by AndroidPolice, US case and accessory maker Spigen has announced it has sent Essential a cease and desist letter demanding that Rubin’s latest business stop using the “Essential” trademark.
They say Essential’s previous attempts to file trademarks (first for “Essential”, then “Essential Products”) were refused on the basis of likely confusion with Spigen’s own filing.
Spigen argues that the decision by Rubin’s company to go ahead with the name despite these setbacks represents an infringement on their trademark.
Essential says that Spigen’s claims are “without merit” and that they plan to “respond accordingly.”
