Here’s Baidu Eye, the Google Glass rival from China’s top search engine

Chinese search engine titan Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) has just teased a working prototype of its upcoming Google Glass rival that’s called Baidu Eye. As seen in the photo below, provided to Tech in Asia by Baidu, the wearable device is more like an augmented camera than a pair of glasses. Indeed, Baidu Eye has no screen (unlike Google Glass), and instead focuses on analyzing information around you and beaming that to your smartphone:

Baidu’s director of international communications, Kaiser Kuo, says:

Basically, Baidu Eye allows the user to analyze images and provide information or services related to your current field of vision or a specific item. You can use voice commands, or gesture commands – like expanding to zoom, or circling an object in your field of view with your finger. You can identify plants, or find products – so far, handbags and articles of clothing – on ecommerce sites. The use case scenarios for now are limited, but we’ve got an enormous data set of clothes, bags, and flora right now.

Up front, beside the wearer’s temple, is a camera, but there’s no screen at all. So why no screen for Baidu Eye? Kuo explains, “We found that screens impair vision and tire your eyes easily. Instead, we tether it to a smartphone app, so you can receive information on your phone screen (or your tablet, or another device) which is larger and easier to browse on than a small, head-mounted screen. It also uses much less energy, and the battery lasts much longer. Its design is very light in the front, and of course people who wear eyeglasses can use it easily.”

(Updated 24 hours after publishing: Added in the image below, showing a close-up of the module that houses the camera).

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Word first leaked on Baidu Eye back in April last year.

Kuo adds that Baidu is “planning on syncing [Baidu Eye] up with different social gaming and social networks” and other functions like hands-free phone use and picture/video taking will later be included. An SDK for developers is in the works in order to encourage third-party apps to integrate with the gadget.

This unit is a working prototype, not the final version, and no price or release date is yet available.