Google Glass? Lenovo offers alternative

M100 smart glasses by Lenovo. [Photo: the Beijing Times]

Chinese company Lenovo has unveiled its own range of smart glasses, hoping to win domestic marketplace with its local language feature.

The company displayed a prototype of the M100 smart glasses at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

Although the wearable device bears a resemblance to Google Glass, Lenovo suggested that the M100's Chinese-language software and applications make them suitable for Chinese users, to a level that other smart glasses cannot reach.

With American company Vuzix providing hardware support, the M100 features voice and gesture recognition, 5-megapixel camera, and a built-in storage of 12 GB. It also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The device will be available for sale in October with a price of 8,000 yuan (about US$1,290). A Google Glass 2 sold in the Chinese mainland costs US$613 more.

Lenovo has said M100's target users will be industrial customers with medical, remote maintenance, and materials management businesses.

Besides the M100, the company is launching a "New Glass" eyewear device for ordinary individuals.

The smart glasses are one of the three products under Lenovo's New Business Development, a platform aiming to discover and develop Internet-based innovation.

New Business Development is also introducing a smart air purifier and a smart wireless router.