Baidu, China's number one search engine, has confirmed that the Baidu Eye, which many thought was an April Fool's Day prank, is in fact a real life prototype competitor to Google Glass.
The company confirmed to The Next Web that there is a prototype in the works, but it's not necessarily going to make it to the shops any time soon - or, indeed, at all.
"It is true that we are working on something," Kaiser Kuo, Baidu's director if international communications said. "But it is not necessarily for release in the market."
Eye-ballin'
He described the Glass-alike as "one of many internal experiments", with not many staff members even aware of the project until the 'prank' leaked on April 1.
As such, there are sparse details on the thing, and nothing as major as a timeline nor pricing for the headset.
But the rumours peg an ultra-small liquid crystal display, voice control, image recognition and an open API platform as all in the works for the Baidu Eye.
It makes sense that major search engines get in on the wearable tech game because you can bet your bottom dollar that Google sees serious money-making potential in it - it could prove especially lucrative for Baidu given that Google isn't exactly accessible in China.
