Come January, listen to music with Bose's AR sunglasses Frames

Wednesday December 05, 2018 , 2 min Read

With Bose Frames, users can stream music, receive and make voice calls, and interact with Siri and Google Assistant, "while keeping playlists, entertainment and conversations private.”

Imagine immersing yourself in rich, quality audio while wearing just a pair of sunglasses! This and more new-age tech-savvy features are being brought to life by Bose, who recently announced the launch of their augmented reality sunglasses, aptly called Frames.

But before you jump into pre-order your first pair of Bose Frames – yes, pre-orders for the glasses are already live – take note that these work on the principle of audio augmented reality. This means that despite the sunglass-form system, the pair won’t allow for heads-up display, as might be the case with traditional video-based AR devices.

Instead, Frames features a pair of built-in micro-speakers and open-ear headphones – rather than earbuds – allowing an immersive audio quality. While the hardware might lack the quality of usual Bose headphones, the wearer would still be aware of ambient noise, which means aware of the surrounding.

Users will also be able to stream music, receive and make voice calls, and interact with Siri and Google Assistant using Frames, "while keeping playlists, entertainment and conversations private,” reports CNET.

Although the company may have announced the commercial release now, news of such a design being in development was reported way back in March. Having already dabbled in this technology, the US-based company next plans on introducing an augmented reality platform for apps, according to The Verge.

While there’s still time to that, Bose Frames are currently making use of the GPS location from your Android or iOS devices and a nine-axis head motion sensor to detect your location and direction to deliver audio experiences accordingly.

Priced at a rather steep $199, the AR sunglasses are expected to arrive in American stores by January 2019 and in other markets by spring. The device weighs like any other typical sunglass and would be available in two classic styles, as per an official Twitter announcement.