I recently tried a pair of prototype smart glasses from Avegant that gave me a glimpse of a future where we may be able to watch videos, get directions, see notifications and more, all through a pair of traditional-looking shades.

Big Tech companies will need smart glasses to look normal if they're to have any chance at success.

Avegant doesn't make smart glasses, but it put together a prototype pair to demonstrate the capabilities of a new LED augmented-reality light engine that the company unveiled to the public this fall. And I was impressed.

The light engine could enable some companies that don't have huge in-house hardware engineering teams to build glasses that are as stylish and small as a pair of Ray-Bans but offer the visual capabilities dreamed up in science fiction films like "Terminator.".

I demoed the light engine in October when Tang handed me the prototype glasses his team built.

The prototype is intended to demonstrate just how small a hardware manufacturer can make a pair of glasses using Avegant's light engine.

The Avegant light engine offers a 30-degree field of view and appeared like a rectangle in the middle of my line of sight.

I handed the pair of glasses back to Tang, who put them on and began watching the demo.

Manufacturers who use the Avegant light engine will have to determine how much battery life they want their smart glasses to have.

Components like Avegant's may help some tech companies develop smart glasses people will want to wear.

It envisions a business model in which it will sell the component to companies that can build it into their smart glasses