Smart glasses could generate $1.9 billion in revenues for the micro-optics market by 2019, the industry analyst firm NanoMarkets projects.

Products like Google Glass could emerge as a mass market items with potential for replacing smartphones as the main mobile computing and communications platform over the next decade, the firm said.

Today’s smart glasses often distort or lose light and have overly large and unattractive frames. A trend towards thinner waveguides and smaller components will help smart glasses more closely resemble regular spectacles.

Commercialization of smart glasses may also propel new display technologies, particularly liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS).

In the future, NanoMarkets projects, smart glasses will transition away from the touch and voice control common today to gesture control — especially eye tracking — and eventually brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Current revenues from eye tracking and BCIs in smart glasses are negligible, but combined are expected to reach more than $680 million by 2019.

A report from NanoMarkets examines the outlook for core optical subsystems and components for smart glasses, including curved mirrors; diffractive, holographic and polarized optics; reflective and switchable waveguides; and virtual retinal displays.

For more information, visit www.nanomarkets.net.

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