Epson's Moverio BT-300 borrows the best TV tech to create improved smart glasses

Smart glasses using augmented reality are a weird, evolving territory. But the floating displays most augmented-reality smart glasses need could start feeling like they're melting into the real world soon. Pop-up heads-up displays for your every waking moment? Maybe, thanks to OLED.

The most interesting part of Epson's new Moverio BT-300 smart glasses, announced in Barcelona at this year's Mobile World Congress, is their OLED display technology. I used an early prototype pair, and the effect is pretty impressive. Epson had a pair of smart glasses for years -- the Moverio BT-200s. Those made floating screens appear in front of your eyes, but the screen's borders were always visible. When the screen was "dark," it still glowed ever-so-faintly, like nearly all LCD screens. I could tell a screen was in front of my eyes.

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Epson plans to sell the Moverio BT-300 smart glasses late in 2016 and is looking at everyday people as a target audience, as opposed to the enterprise-targeted nature of previous Epson glasses. That's a tall order for a weird-looking pair of smart glasses with their own wired controller and Android-powered base unit. But OLEDs in transparent smart glasses are a great idea. They're discreet, and they look better. Now, smart glasses just need to tackle everything else.

Other features:

• 20 percent lighter than older BT-200 glasses
• quad-core Intel Atom X5 processor
• Android 5.1
• 5-megapixel front-facing camera
• Si-OLED projection system in glasses