Lenovo unveils Google Glass competitor in Internet of Things push

Chinese manufacturer is also looking for hardware partners to make new products

The world's biggest PC manufacturer, Lenovo, has revealed its own wearable technology prototype, which it hopes will compete with Google Glass.

It looks very similar to Google Glass, and seems to work in a similar way; a virtual screen is projected onto a prism in front of the user's right eye.

The key difference with the device is its battery. The Lenovo device comes with a large power pack that sits on a user's neck, and is connected to the main device with a short blue wire. Google Glass places its battery nearer to the ear.

Lenovo is to release further details on the device in October, according to PC World.

The new smart glasses are just one of a range of products that Lenovo hopes to produce as part of its NBD platform. It has already produced smartphone-controlled air purifiers with German electronics manufacturer Luftmed, and it hopes that its platform will encourage other hardware companies to partner with it to make new products.

The products are all part of a larger Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon, and Chen Xudong, Lenovo's senior vice president, encouraged more companies to get involved.

"Right now there are too many kinds of devices you can develop for the IoT. It's too rich. Not one company can do it all," he told PC World.

Research firm IDC suggests there will be approximately 212 billion "things" within IoT by 2020. This is expected to include 30.1 billion installed "connected (autonomous) things".