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Google has sent its Glass smart eyewear back to the drawing board, while Apple is adament that the wrist is the right place for a wearable computer - but it appears Sony didn't get the message.

The firm today released it's take on Google Glass - a set of thick, black glasses complete with a black control cable.

The developer version is available for $840  - far less than the $1500 Google charged for its ill fated Google Glass Explorer edition.  

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The glasses are larger and bulkier than Google's Glass explorer edition.

Sony says they uses 'holographic wavelength technology', to superimpose information onto the wearer's field of view—'without any half mirrors that may obstruct the user's vision,' the company boasted.

It also comes with a built-in 3-megapixel CMOS image sensor, accelerometer, gyro, electronic compass, and brightness sensor, behind the 3-millimeter lenses.

'Imagine true augmented reality,' Sony boasts.

'Imagine a world of knowledge in front of your eyes. Imagine never not knowing, always having your hands free. Imagine SmartEyeglass.'

The SED-E1 transparent-lens headset will go on sale in eight more countries—Japan, the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden—next month. 

Sony hopes app developers will create hundreds of apps for it.  

'Developers can combine the SmartEyeglass sensors and camera with the powerful features of the smartphone to create unique hands-free use cases. 

'Whether you're watching a live game, concert, touring a new city or carrying out a job, SmartEyeglass helps you stay focussed and involved, whilst supporting and empowering you with extra data, help and information.' 

In an email to PCWorld, a Sony spokesperson said they chose to release the developer's version now because 'as a hands-free device, SmartEyeglass can be a promising product with many practical uses.'

'But since we recognize the need to explore applications at this stage, we're releasing this developer edition,' the spokesperson said. 

Developers can access the official version of the SmartEyeglass SDK today.

Take a look at Sony's SmartEyeglass high-tech specs

A separate (but wired) circular controller that clips onto your jacket or shirt collar houses the battery, speaker, microphone, NFC, and touch sensor.

A separate (but wired) circular controller that clips onto your jacket or shirt collar houses the battery, speaker, microphone, NFC, and touch sensor.

Early application concepts include a step-by-step guide on how to assemble an engine, scrolling in front of the mechanic's eyes as they work. 

Sony also suggested an app to share player stats while watching a sports game, or to display sightseeing information while visiting a tourist attraction. 

Early developers will have access to a handful of SmartEyeglass apps—available in the Google Play store—which enable access to Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, RSS, calendar, and voice control. 

Sony hopes to release its SmartEyeglass headset to consumers sometime next year.

THE RISE OF THE GLASSHOLE

 Google dubbed the first set of several thousand Glass users as 'Explorers.' 

But as the Explorers hit the streets, they drew stares and jokes. 

Some people viewed the device, capable of surreptitious video recording, as an obnoxious privacy intrusion, deriding the once-proud Explorers as 'Glassholes.'

'It looks super nerdy,' said Shevetank Shah, a Washington, DC-based consultant, whose Google Glass now gathers dust in a drawer. 'I'm a card carrying nerd, but this was one card too many.'

Glass now sells on eBay for as little as half list price.

Google told the BBC it will focus on 'future versions of Glass'.

The Explorer programme, gave software developers the chance to buy Glass for $1,500 (£990), and was launched in the United States in 2013, and the UK last summer. 

From next week, the search firm will stop taking orders for the product but it says it will continue to support companies that are using Glass.

The firm had already been thought to be developing a new version with chips made by Intel to go on sale later this year.  

The Glass team is also expected to now move out of the Google X division which engages in 'blue sky' research, and become a separate undertaking, under its current manager Ivy Ross.

After an initial burst of enthusiasm, signs that consumers are giving up on Glass have been building.Some developers recently have felt unsupported by investorsand, at times, Google itself.

She and the Glass team will report to Tony Fadell, the chief executive of the home automation business Nest, acquired by Google a year ago, the BBC says.

He said the project had 'broken ground and allowed us to learn what's important to consumers and enterprises alike' and he was excited to be working with the team 'to integrate those learnings into future products'.

Google says it is committed to working on the future of the product, but gave no timescale for the launch of an improved product. 

'It's hard to believe that Glass started as little more than a scuba mask attached to a laptop,' the Glass team said in a post on Google+. 

'We kept on it, and when it started to come together, we began the Glass Explorer Program as a kind of "open beta" to hear what people had to say.' 

'Glass was in its infancy, and you took those very first steps and taught us how to walk. 

'Well, we still have some work to do, but now we're ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run.'

SEE how Google Glass actually FEELS to use