Tag Archives: Glasses

These special eyeglasses by a Japanese startup can cure myopia or nearsightedness

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Myopia or nearsightedness is an extremely common vision condition that afflitcs a lot of people, including me. Essentially what this means is that we can focus on objects that are close, with ease, but struggle with items that are placed further away. These items seem blurred or unclear to us. This usually occurs when a person spends too much time focusing on nearby items, causing our eyeballs to actually change in shape over time, making it too long front-to-back. And with people spending most of their day interacting with screens, it isn’t a shocker how widespread this condition is. In fact, this common condition is growing so rapidly, that it is predicted that by 2050, half of the world’s population will be affected by it. This is where Japanese pharmaceutical startup Kubota decided to step in. They’ve designed special eyeglasses that can improve or even cure Myopia!

Designer: Kubota Glass

Kubota’s wearable design has been amped with an array of nano projectors, which project light at the wearer’s retina in a specific pattern, to cause blurring at short distances, in turn forcing them to look further away. This helps the eyeball to morph back into its original shape and allows one’s vision to return to normal. You’re supposed to wear the glasses for a couple of hours a day, usually when you’re simply relaxing or unwinding in the comfort of your home. With the help of AR tech, the glasses create, “an image environment that makes you feel as if you are looking far away even when you are at home.”

“Projection of a blurred image onto the peripheral part of the retina (myopic defocus stimulation) resulted in a reduction in the axial length of the eye (the length from the cornea to the retina) compared to the target eye — proof of concept has been confirmed.”, said Kubota, after conducting multiple tests in May and August 2020, using various devices.

At the moment only 20 pairs have been produced and gone on sale in Japan. Each eyeglass costs $5700 and comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee – basically a complete refund if they don’t work. We can’t wait for the glasses to be launched globally, and witness how they could actually help people with Myopia…who knows maybe I could be one of the early bird shoppers!

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Lenovo Glasses T1 bring a private big screen into your pocket

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Apple’s mixed reality headset is slated for a 2023 release, and the race for a winning pair of smart glasses is getting enticing. Lenovo has just announced a very practical set of glasses that act as a secondary display for your Windows PC, Mac, or even a phone.

A very unique product in its own rights, the Lenovo Glasses T1 is a personal mobile display solution that works when connected to another device. The primary motivation behind the design of the glasses is to bring a private viewing display when you want to work on sensitive data from prying eyes, especially out in public spaces.

Designer: Lenovo

Revealed at the IFA 2022 and the brand’s virtual showcase, this is Lenovo’s progression from the ThinkReality A3 glasses, which are majorly targeted for custom enterprise solutions. The Glasses T1 are a toned-down version of the expensive A3 glasses and are meant for everyday, practical usage. There are full HD micro-OLED screens in each lens which creates a second virtual display only you can view.

Unlike the ThinkReality A3, these glasses don’t have any sensors or other hardware which makes them ergonomically comfortable to wear. The Type-C cable powers the thing when plugged into a PC or phone. Lenovo has even given the option to use them with prescription glasses courtesy of the in-box attached frame. Everything from the nose clips and bridges to the temple arms are customizable to the user’s liking.

The glasses should not be confused with the more advanced AR versions, as they only overlay the view of the display in front of the eyes. The only similarity is that they maintain the view of the world without disrupting anything, just like AR glasses. Talking of the specifications, the Glasses T1 has a high contrast ratio of 10,000:1, 1920×1080 resolution per eye, and 60Hz refresh rate. To enhance the viewing experience and reduce eye fatigue, they also have the TUV Low Blue Light and Flicker Reduced certifications.

Lenovo has fitted the glasses with speakers, too, so you won’t need a pair of headphones unless you want to completely shut out disturbing ambient noises. Overall, the glasses make complete sense for the current tech-infused world without being too gimmicky. Lenovo has not let out any word about the pricing, but they’ve hinted at a late 2022 launch in China and then later in other markets in 2023.

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This eyewear concept keeps your eyes from drying up after hours in front of a computer

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There are plenty of ways to keep our eyes moist, but if you’re wearing glasses already, this could be a better option.

With almost everyone using something with a screen these days, our eyes are bound to get more easily exhausted than ever before. Even if you’re not always looking at a computer or a phone, however, your work or living environment would put a strain on your eyes that results in them getting dry too often. Our bodies have their own natural way of creating moisture for the eyes, but these are no longer enough, thanks to present-day lifestyles. Unsurprisingly, there’s a market for accessories and medicine to help keep eyeballs moist, but this new idea tries to combine both artificial and natural means in eyewear that looks almost stylish without trying to be.

Designer: Xinyu Ye

It is a biological imperative that our eyes remain moist; otherwise, they start to get irritated and feel painful. Our body’s natural mechanism is to blink to lubricate the front of the eyes, but that isn’t enough anymore because of how we live these days. Whether it’s because we’ve been staring at screens all day long or there is air blowing directly in front of us, or there’s really just more heat than usual around us, our eyes need all the help they can get, even from external sources.

Humans have also developed ways to moisturize our eyes when necessary, mostly using eyedrops. There are, however, also accessories like glasses that try to prevent eyes from drying up too much. Finally, there is also the more expensive but more permanent solution of surgical treatment, but that’s almost always just a last resort if nothing else worked. Unsurprisingly, it also carries the biggest risk, too.

Top-down Glasses is an attempt at rethinking and redesigning one of those long-lasting but affordable solutions. Wet room glasses, as they are called, are like goggles that try to trap and slow down the evaporation of tears and moisture that lubricate our eyes. At the same time, they try to maintain moisture around the eyes by creating space that is both well-ventilated and moist. Unfortunately, typical wet room glasses rate quite low on the comfort scale, which is what this design is trying to solve with an almost simple fix.

The trick was apparently to have the glasses tilt minus 30 degrees downward when worn while working on a desk. At this angle, the water from the rear of the temples is able to flow naturally to the top and front of the frame to create that much-needed moist space around the eyes. At the same time, however, the glasses don’t simply rely on external means to keep the eye moist. It uses pulses to remind the wearer to blink their eyes more often, creating the natural lubrication that their eyes need.

Curiously, the Top-Down Glasses weren’t designed with fashion in mind, but they still ended up looking quite fashionable. In a way, this would encourage wearing these glasses more regularly since people won’t look awkward or out of place. The design also seems to work with prescription lenses, so the wearer won’t have to trade one comfort for another just to keep their eyes moist.

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This evolved glasses case pulls double duty as a power bank for your phone

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Some things have remained unchanged for decades, but that doesn’t mean there’s no more room for improvement.

The number of items we put inside our bags seems to be growing every year to the point that some people are looking for ways to either get rid of some of them or at least combine them. Some things, however, are just indispensable, like the charging case for your earbuds, your emergency power bank for your gadgets, and, if you wear glasses, a protective case for your spectacles. Along with paper notebooks that might also be found inside those bags, those glasses cases haven’t exactly seen any significant improvement in both design and purpose. In fact, most of them are designed to break easily and be thrown away just as easily. One designer, however, realized it’s high time to give this protective accessory an upgrade by merging it with one of the most essential accessories people need these days.

Designer: Khaled Mohamed

Some ideas come like a flash of lightning, while others take a long time to percolate. Still, others tend to take detours, as in the case of this mashup of two important things inside many people’s bags. The first attempt to modernize the glasses case ended up putting an external SSD aimed at workers on the go. It turned out, however, that there was more demand for a more common mobile accessory that could be useful to almost anyone, which is how the Glasses Case Battery Bank plan was finally put into motion.

As the name so clearly states, this product combines a case for glasses with a battery bank. That is indeed more useful for almost everyone because everyone has a phone these days. And while you might not have prescription glasses, there might always be a time when you have to bring sunglasses with you, even the rather expensive kind. Sadly, almost all but the most expensive eyewear have cases that are designed with quality and longevity in mind.

In contrast, this combo aims for both with an added touch of modern convenience. The case will be covered by Italian calfskin leather, prized for its durability and its softness. On the inside, Japanese Ultrasuede will keep your glasses safe and clean while also protecting the power bank with a soft interior. As for that battery pack, it is planned to bear a 4,000 mAh capacity, enough to juice up most phones these days at least once.

If you think that combining a glasses case and a battery bank will create a rather bulky structure, then you’re half right. The design of this accessory seems to be partly inspired by origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. When acting as a glasses case, it takes the form of a prism with the battery bank serving as the solid base. Without the glasses, however, the sides of the case can unfold and wrap around the power bank, creating a more compact form.

The Glasses Case Battery Bank doesn’t exist yet in a form you can buy, though. It will be hitting crowdfunding soon and lures a tempting $99 price tag for early believers of that vision. The product will also be manufactured in the US and Canada, which should at least help reduce the carbon footprint and costs when shipping to backers in North America.

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Apple has previewed its AR/VR glasses to its board of directors, hinting at a near-future launch

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The Apple AR/VR headset may be just around the corner. Can we expect a 2022 announcement this fall??

A report last week by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has revealed that Apple has internally begun demonstrating its secret AR/VR headset concept. “Apple Inc. executives previewed its upcoming mixed-reality headset to the company’s board last week, indicating that development of the device has reached an advanced stage”, Gurman mentioned in the Bloomberg article. The company’s board, comprising of 8 directors and Apple CEO Tim Cook, meets at least four times each year to evaluate the Silicon Valley giant’s progress. This time, the board members were made privy to what seems like a final version of Apple’s augmented reality headset prototype that the world has been referring to as Apple Glass.

Apple Glass concept by Antonio De Rosa

This marks an important milestone in Apple’s roadmap, hinting at the fact that the AR glasses are in their most advanced stage. It also would be Apple’s FIRST new product (not including the AirPods Max) to be announced without the company’s legendary former designer Jony Ive. The Apple Watch was announced back in 2014 when Ive was the Chief Design Officer.

Here’s a look at a concept pair of Apple AR glasses created by Antonio De Rosa, designed to resemble the iconic spectacles Steve Jobs wore. De Rosa’s Apple Glass concept comes equipped with 6 cameras that perform environment-mapping, eye tracking, and hand + gesture recognition. Everything sits in a frame that’s incredibly slim, looking less like hardware and more like a fashion accessory – an approach that’s important Apple’s fashion-friendly ethos. The Apple Glass concept even comes along with a rather wide charging case, styled to look like an elongated version of the company’s AirPods case.

In recent weeks, Apple has also ramped up the development of a new native OS for its rumored headset, codenamed rOS, or reality operating system. That progress, coupled with the board presentation, hints at the fact that we could be a few mere months away from Tim Cook announcing the new product. Chances are, however, that we’ll see production leaks to get a better idea of the AR headset’s design once Apple begins reaching out to manufacturers with a concrete production-ready prototype.

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LAYER Design’s lifestyle-focused Viture One smart glasses have form, function and ergonomic comfort in perfect sync

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The Viture One smart glasses carry minimalism at their core, keeping in mind the latest trends and not sacrificing technology inclusion for a great user experience without all the discomfort or bulkiness that’s akin to VR headsets.

As we look forward to roaming in the metaverse (and who knows spending our complete life in VR) in the near future, the tools are going to be as important as the whole experience. Take VR headsets and smart glasses for example. While the former has a big issue with long-term use fatigue and lack of overall practical usage, the latter is the only hope if the masses have to be lured in. Layer Design wants to strike gold with its Viture smart glasses to make you ditch smart TVs, laptops, and even the smartphone for good.

Designer: Layer Design

This fashionable set of sunglasses is as good as any other high-tech pair of shades on the market. The frames by the design house weigh just 78 grams, shedding most of the extra fluff and managing to achieve an ultra-slim form factor. Something that you would want to wear every day, just like your normal glasses. These ones, however, give you the freedom to jump right into your favorite movies, games (even from consoles like PlayStation 5), or action series anywhere, anytime.

The lenses in front of the eyes display a cinematic 120-inch virtual screen (at 60fps and 55 pixels per degree) even on the brightest of days. The virtual screen gets 400 pixels per inch on a retina display which is very impressive considering we are talking about thin glass lenses here. The glasses are paired to a collar-like neckband housing the powerful CPU, GPU, battery pack, and intuitive controls. So, we are talking about fully immersive gaming and media streaming capabilities here. And yes, if you thought, what about the audio experience? Well, the smart glasses have ear-facing speakers located around the temple area.

Keeping ergonomics in mind, the lightweight eyewear comes with an interchangeable nose bridge to fit any facial structure like a charm. Even better, the display can be toggled to adjust the position for people with short-sighted vision. Viture One manages to achieve a very good balance between style and tech which will ultimately translate into an increased userbase. As per Layer Design founder Benjamin Hubert, “In creating Viture One, we wanted to deliver the antithesis of this trend. The result is a product that is more lifestyle led, akin to the traditional eyewear you would wear proudly as part of your fashion expression.”

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Swap trendy sunglass frames every day to go with the mood + match styling

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The idea of swapping the boring sunglasses with something that can be changed with a new look every day sounds captivating. These customizable sunglasses do exactly that in style!

A pair of glasses adds to your style quotient and most importantly saves you from the burning sun rays or direct glares from surfaces during the daytime. Glasses from trustable brands don’t come cheap, and unless you are a rich brat, you’ll have to stick with one, or at most two sunglasses for a couple of years. That keeps you craving glasses having different tints or frame colors. But then you have no choice but to stick to what you have right now, or go for cheaper knock-offs which can affect your eyesight. That’s a trade-off I’m not willing to make, atleast.

Designer: Nikhil Kapoor and Sujay Samant

The Swap glasses take care of this limitation – giving you the option to sport the sunglasses you want for a particular day or occasion. This goes perfectly with the progressive trends and the dynamically changing preferences of the fast-paced world. The option to customize your look by having a pair of glasses that suit your mood, fit your style and uplift the status quo is the USP of this viable concept. So, basically, we’re talking about a new you every other day without having to burn loads of money on buying differently styled sunglasses that are safe to wear for a longer duration of time.

The idea of this product is quite simple, yet very intriguing for generation Z since it clings on to the notion of “New Frame, New You” each day. The Swap sunglasses come with a simple click-in click-out interaction to make the swap as easy as changing your clothes. The upper and lower half of the sunglass frames can be hooked on to each other in any combination to create custom looks. So can the tinted lenses, depending on the mood.

The package consists of different colored frames, each separated into two halves. So, you could create a sunglass style with two different frame colors or even different colored lenses – who’s stopping you. Pair a translucent lower half of the frame with a matte black upper, and pair them with tinted blue lenses for that dapper look. Or you could go for a classier, all-black frame with a wine hue. For that weekend party, steal the show with patterned multi-color glasses. Boy… I feel sexy already!

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These über-funky solid metal glasses were designed to increase your ‘specs-appeal’

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With an edgy, one-of-a-kind aesthetic and a machined metal body that Tesla Cybertruck enthusiasts will absolutely love.

The birth of the EXOvault Kingsland Frames are, coincidentally, quite similar to the birth of the Cybertruck. Just the way the Cybertruck was created because Elon Musk was tired of how boringly similar all trucks looked (and performed), Jonathan Schipper retired to his metal workshop to create the EXOvault Kingsland spectacle frames after being thoroughly disappointed with all the different (yet similar) frames on the market… and just like that, the EXOvault Kingsland Frames were birthed, to challenge the notion that spectacles should look a certain way, adhere to a certain personality, and be made with a certain material.

Designer: Jonathan Schipper of EXOvault

Click Here to Buy Now: $225 $450 (50% off). Hurry, 14/50 left!

Cut from solid 6061 aluminum.

Every one of EXOvault Kingsland’s frames come machined from solid billets of aluminum. Styled to look quite like wayfarers, but made out of shimmering metal, the EXOvault Kingsland frames have an incredibly bold personality and are often the first thing you’ll notice about a person. The frames come either in plain metal or with an anodized/plated finish, and are all designed to have a machined finish that looks great from afar because of its reflectivity, and up-close too, because of the microtexture created by the CNC machining. That texture acts almost like a blue tick that indicates how unique the EXOvault Kingsland frames are in their design and manufacturing, given that almost every other frame is either stamped out of metal and formed, or made using injection molding.

Machined from solid billet 6061 aluminum.

Making frames out of metal has its benefits and complexities, although Schipper’s spent a lot of time working out the kinks. The Kingsland frames use multiple parts with precisely engineered tolerances and assemblies, making them incredibly durable and long-lasting. You could accidentally sit on them and chances are your acetate frames would snap in two, but never the EXOvault Kingsland. Drop them, sit on them, bury them in the ground, the frames can tolerate any kind of abuse (although the glasses within might not).

Flexible temple and nose pads.

Given that metal is pretty famously inflexible, the EXOvault Kingsland frames come with bendable silicone temple-stems and comfortable silicon nose-pads (because you don’t want metal rubbing against the bridge of your nose (especially in the summers). I wonder whether wearing solid metal spectacles in the summers is a wise idea to begin with… although I imagine it feels about the same as wearing metal watches, earrings, necklaces, or piercings.

The EXOvault Kingsland frames come in 4 variants featuring a metallic silver (for those true-blue Cybertruck enthusiasts), an anodized black, and if you’re looking to really flaunt your spectacles, 24k gold plated frames, or rhodium-plated frames (the most expensive metal in the world, in case you were planning on asking Siri). The frames come with tinted grey lenses although they’re also designed to fit all kinds of prescription lenses too… and along with the lenses, the EXOvault Kingsland frames weigh a respectable 60 grams or 2.1 ounces, weighing marginally more than your acetate RayBan Wayfarers).

Silver anodized aluminum with grey lenses.

Black anodized aluminum with grey lenses.

24k gold-plated aluminum with grey lenses.

Rhodium-plated aluminum with grey lenses.

Ultimately, Schipper wanted to build frames that capture his personality, sense of style, and values. Referring to the EXOvault Kingsland as a “spaceship for your face”, Schipper believes that they’re quite unlike anything on the market… and he’s right. The glasses are wonderfully chunky, with the added bonus of being reflective, and exude an elevated level of hipster class that the monocle probably had when it was invented in the 1700s. Each EXOvault Kingsland frame comes in a classy black paper box with a metal screwdriver (so you can tighten/repair your frames), although you can upgrade to extremely steampunk mahogany cases too. The EXOvault Kingsland frames are up on Kickstarter for a discounted price ranging between $225 for the silver or black, and $360 for the gold or rhodium. Given the nature of CNC machining, and that each pair of spectacles will be painstakingly made from scratch using solid metal billets, the EXOvault Kingsland frames begin shipping in February 2022.

Click Here to Buy Now: $225 $450 (50% off). Hurry, 14/50 left! Raised over $30,000.

These ergonomic AR glasses are designed with a minimal interface to seamlessly blend into your life

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A pair of intelligent AR Warp smart glasses created with the mindful intent of simplifying the user’s life without any strings attached.

Apple’s ambitious AR glasses could hit us anytime soon, Facebook just released their smart wayfarer glasses and Xiaomi dropped a surprise bomb in the form of smart glasses that are making waves on the internet. Logical wisdom tells me, augmented reality and virtual reality glasses are the exciting future everyone is going to follow and excel at. Just like the smartphone tsunami revolutionized the tech space. AR glasses are not everyone’s ball game as far as design and function go – they are darn hard to create for the commercial market!

While we brace for the towering wave of AR glasses to change the complexion of our everyday world, it’s time for a concept that will bear fruit in the coming future.  The cool creation is ideated by Fountain Studio, a design studio excelling in stirring us every time they muster up a cool creation. The augmented reality glasses are ergonomically designed keeping in mind the wearer’s desire for comfort, freedom and a non-intrusive interface.

Unlike other AR smart glasses, the AR Warp is designed to be worn on the forehead when not in use. The adjustable legs can be rotated according to the need, giving them usability for all situations. The glasses, therefore, sit at a slight distance from the face, not touching the nose bridge. Of course, they need to be lightweight so that the user can use these glasses for a longer duration of time – and that’s what they actually are.

The mixed reality HUD interface can beam information based on the time of the day and the user’s schedule. For example, in the morning he glasses put up weather alerts, text messages, important reminders and all the little telemetry like the battery level. By the evening, when it is time for physical activity, they send reminders of workout schedules and the screen is partly filled with illustrations motivating the user to get off their ass. After that, the glasses could shift to the relaxing mode, playing soothing music to calm down the mind and body.

The AR function of the smart glasses is actuated by the on-board camera and the UX is aided by the speakers which combine the visual stimuli with the audio input. Just like any other gadget, these smart AR glasses have their own storage case that wirelessly charges them up. This is a well-thought concept that gives us a glimpse of the things to come with the exponentially rising popularity of AR glasses.

Designer: Fountain Studio

Automated Glasses Cleaning Machine: I Can See Clearly Now, the Smudge is Gone

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Glasses: they’re always getting fingerprints and oily smudges on them, and, at least in my case, ice cream. You know the old adage: you eat with your eyes first? It’s actually harder than it sounds. Enter the LensHD cleaning system currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. It’s an automated optical and sunglass cleaning solution that wipes lenses with microfiber-covered sponges. Think of it like one of those massage chairs, but for cleaning glasses.

$89 will secure a LensHD system at early bird pricing, with units expected to ship in November. The system, powered by a USB type C cord, takes about a minute to clean glasses, wiping them in an off-center rotation pattern to simulate “the comprehensive cleaning of a human.” See? I always knew my cleaning was comprehensive! Somebody call my parents so they can be proud of me.

Alternatively, use the bottom of your shirt to wipe your glasses like I always have. It’s worked fine for years, plus I don’t have to worry that my glasses are dirty, but my automated cleaner is at home because I’m already wearing it! And if I’m not, well, my wife is sure to let me know before I ever get in the car to leave.

[via DudeIWantThat]