These smart glasses are sleek and stylish unlike the clunky Google Glass. (via Zeiss)
When the almighty Google announced Google Glass, tech enthusiasts believed it would be the next big thing. A miniature computer that you can wear on your face? Who wouldn't want one! But since it's release the glasses have been shelved away due to the inconvenient design. Rather than looking sleek and inconspicuous, it's pretty clear you're not wearing a regular pair of glasses. Even worse it had the tendency to make you look pretentious if you wore them seriously. German company Carl Zeiss is looking to fix this issue with its own brand of smart glasses.
Instead of trying to implement software or hardware into the glasses, the company has figured out how to include a heads-up display onto a curved lens. This means the glasses will actually look like something you would find at your local optical store. There are some differences between these frames and a regular pair of glasses, but when compared to Google Glass they're very minor.
So, where does all the hardware go? The processor, battery, and other internal workings are built into the arm of the glasses. There's also a small OLED display near where the arm meets the glass lens meaning images are projected through a polycarbonate mirror light path attached to the edge of the lens, which appears onto a fresnel structure that reflects light in your eye.
Not only do the curved lenses make the glasses more practical, it also means the lenses can be manufactured for prescription. It all sounds promising but the company isn't quite there yet. The current prototype is chunky, weighs more than the average pair of glasses, and currently needs to be hooked up to a battery pack to work. It may not be ready, but it's a step in the right direction to getting some normal looking smart glasses.
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