This AR Company Wants to Make Everything Around You Clickable

In a Consumer Electronics Show saturated with wearables and their accompanying apps, one such company has a very different approach––replacing your phone altogether.

Japanese company Mirama displayed its newest smart-glasses model this week, a light headset that turns your world into a clickable augmented reality interface. Mirama has been developing prototypes since its original model in 2013, but the Mirama One is the first product from the company to be marketed to the general public.

The lightweight glasses let you do everything your phone does using only your hands. Want to take a photo? Open the app by gesturing in the air and miming a rectangle with your hands––extend your fingers to snap a picture. It recognizes different gestures––a thumbs up

could correlate

with "liking" a Facebook page, for example, and could be used to translate text in real time.

Unlike Google Glass and other smart-glasses, Mirama does not sync with your phone, but aims to replace it completely. It works with camera sensors on the device itself and an accompanying operating system on a laptop.

It is targeted for work use in settings like hospitals and maintenance work, adding a clickable, semi-transparent screen to your line of vision. The device also has optional sensors, including infrared, that can be used to create augmented-reality thermal imaging in real time, which the company said can be used for activities like automotive repair and other work.

According to its website, Mirama is looking for hardware manufacturers to help it slim down its model and remove the cables that connect it to the accompanying laptop. Pending these developments, the product is scheduled to hit the market in 2017.