Being a technology guru often does not look so cool. One word: Geek.

But one mobile company thinks it has the answer when it comes to wearables. In the fourth quarter of 2015 Vuzix Corp., a manufacturer of smartglasses, says it will roll out smartglasses that look just like conventional eyewear.

“People do not want to look like geeks,” says Dan Cui, vice president of business development at Vuzix. He says wearing web-connected eyeglasses is like having a computer mounted to your head—but it doesn’t have to look like that.

Earlier this month, Intel Corp. made a $24.8 million investment in Vuzix. The funds will help Vuzix accelerate the pace of bringing fashionable smartglasses to market.

Unlike Vuzix’s initial product, which had a smartphone screen in front of one eye, the new smartglasses will look like regular, clear frames over both eyes.

“You won’t have to worry about looking like a geek,” Cui says. “You just put them on and do your work.”

Vuzix wants to ensure the product is attractive to consumers and is working with an undisclosed company on the fit and form of the eyewear. The smartglasses will cost between $1,500 and $2,000.

To incorporate Internet technology into the smartglasses, the company puts what is known as a wave guide into the lens. A wave guide guides light as it enters the glass, interprets that light (what the person is seeing) and projects information, such as text or a picture, into that person’s field of vision.

The smartglasses can be used in a wide variety of ways. For example, if the toilet of a consumer who owns the smartglasses breaks, the consumer could put the glasses on, run a home improvement software app he has downloaded to his glasses, and instructions with images would appear, walking the consumer through the repair process. Or, Cui says, warehouse workers wearing the smartglasses could look at a box and the glasses could interpret the label and show the worker what is inside the box, such as 20 fragile vases. The worker would know to proceed cautiously, without having to slow down to figure out the label. In another scenario a shopper at a grocery store reading a food label could get information about the ingredients in the product, pull up health facts about it or see a suggestion of a different store that sells the same product for less.

Consumers tell the smartglasses what to do either using voice recognition, gesture recognition (movements of the head or hands), wirelessly linking them to a smartphone, or using buttons on the glasses. The smartglasses can run apps specially made for the hardware, and some apps, such as Skype, that normally run on other Vuzix smartglasses.

Consumers can choose if they want information to show up on the left side or the right side of the glasses. If a consumer wants data to be displayed on both sides she can choose  the same or different information to appear simultaneously. She also can choose where within her view, such as the upper left corner, she wants the information to appear.

Follow mobile business journalist April Dahlquist, associate editor, mobile, at Internet Retailer, at @MobileInsiderAD.

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