Chamelo, which has former NBA player Stephon Marbury as brand ambassador, has launched two types of lenses – Dusk, which switches through various levels of tints on command, and Prismatic, which can change colors. Both can be controlled by hand, or by using an app linked to the smart shades.
Dusk, which Chamelo has used for its Wayfarer-like retro frames, can darken in just 0.1 seconds, or 1,800 times faster than photochromic glasses. When you need to avoid someone's gaze fast, you'll appreciate the speed of this transition. You can also settle on a tint gradient, giving you flexibility in how you want your sunglasses to look.
The tint comes by way of a liquid crystal lens layer, which can be – from an observer's perspective – more or less transparent, depending on an electrical current. However, the tint also allows for the wearer to adjust to a range of light conditions, limiting tint when indoors, and maximizing it while outside in bright daylight. A tap on the glasses' arm touch band adjusts the tint as required.
The wrap-around Music Shield smart glasses might look like a pair of ski goggles that can't find their way home, but they do have the advantage of total eye protection, and with a decent audio output and sweat resistance, they're ideal workout shades.
As for the colour-changing, next month Chamelo will ship a limited run of 1970s-inspired Euphoria frames, which feature lenses that transition through warm clear, yellow, orange and pink. At US$385, they're not exactly budget sunnies, but think of them more like four in one. And for the same price, the more understated rimless Aura shades offer a different spectrum of colors – cool clear, blue, purple and ruby.
As to whether the lens novelty would wear off fast, maybe, – but now we know these exist our static sunglasses do seem rather dull... And if this tech scales without costing as much as it does on these sunnies (US$300-375 for the tinting Dusk glasses and US$580 for the color-changing Aura shades), we'd love to see it roll through to car windows, home windows, glass partitions and other spots where the effect could be just as neat.
Source: Chamelo
