Where Dreams & Reality Cross Paths...

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Remember those wicked holographic augmented reality glasses that DARPA was so hot to build? They’re almost here. Hiding out at Vuzix’s CES booth we found a functional prototype for its Smart Glasses industrial class monocular display — a special lens attached to a proprietary display driver that produces a bright, 1.4mm holographic picture for one of your peepers. Vuzix told us the lenses were the fruit of a DARPA project, and could allow soldiers involved in air-to-surface operations to track jets, check their ordinance and mark targets for destruction. The military / industrial monocle will go on sale in Q3 of 2012 for somewhere between $2500-3000.

Want to look a little more, well, normal while you’re augmenting your reality? You’re covered — or at least you will be in 2013. Not only will Vuzix’s consumer facing smart glasses offer you the same holographic heads-up technology that’ll power its military bound brother, it’ll cost you a bundle less, too: between $350-600. The unit we saw wasn’t final, but were told the final unit will be able to accept connections over HDMI, and may even be capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D content — you know, in case the real world wasn’t real enough. Hopefully, we’ll be able to tell you those fit next year. Ready to see how you’ll be gussying up reality in the future? Hit the break for our hands-on video coverage.

Vuzix augmented reality Smart Glasses prototype hands-on (video) | Tablet PC Comparison.

Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.