Google Glasses are a fantastic piece of kit that almost seem as if they’ve been sent to us from the future. Their sci-fi applications allow the wearer to do all sorts of gadgety things on the go and hands free. The problem was that, up until now, it wasn’t possible to wear them as regular prescription glasses, nor as sunglasses. On top of that, even the biggest fans of Google Glasses couldn’t have said they were particularly fashionable. However, recently the Google team have begun to redress these issues, designing new models and focusing more on fashion. After years of development they say that they’re “finally at the beginning point of letting people wear what they want to wear”. The results of their efforts are pretty cool. Take a look:
They’re moving into the realms of making Glasses with more variety and functions including designing sunglasses and frames suitable for prescription lenses. Bringing a brilliantly analytic approach to the world of fashion, Google have said that having done masses of research they’ve discovered that there are really only about eight different styles of glasses frame in the world. From these eight they picked four designs for Google glasses frames which could hold prescription lenses.
In addition to the prescription frames, they’ve also developed two trendy new frames for sunglasses. It’s good to see so many stylish new frames being designed and also that they’ve recognised the need to make the Google Glass element detachable so that people can use the frames as regular (sun)glasses. The frames will cost $225 on top of the cost of the Glass’ hi-tech element. People will then be able to clip on the element if they want to use it or take it off and leave it somewhere safe when they don’t need it.
Goggle Glasses are of particular interest to the less physically able because they can help make life easier for them in a good many ways. Glass users can send texts, read email, take photos and gain directions from the small screen that sits in front of the right eye. These functions are activated by the user tapping the glasses legs or saying out loud “OK Glass”. They can then toggle through functions using the voice-activated operating system. These seem like functions which could be tailored to aid people with all sorts of disabilities and because of this, we’ve been following the developments of Google Glass quite closely. Hearing that they’re branching out and bringing some more style to their design is like music to our ears.
In other extraordinary Google Glass news, they have also begun to develop contact lenses that will be able to monitor glucose levels, for people with diabetes. The lenses would detect the blood sugar level every second based on readings taken using a tiny microchip. The lenses could also incorporate an antenna thinner than a human hair that would communicate with apps so patients or doctors could view the measurements on a smartphone, tablet or computer.
It sounds extremely high-tech and the development of these lenses is very much in a fledgling stage. It would presumably be preferable to having to draw a small amount of blood, several times a day, to check your blood sugar level. Although, having said that, we know that a lot of people are equally squeamish about having to touch their eyes too! We’ll have to wait and see.
Watch this space, to find out more about the development of the whole Google Glass range.
