Eyewear

Arguably the thing that killed Google Glass was how dorky they looked. Whether or not that’s the real reason AR glasses never took off, it’s the story that other companies always push while marketing new devices that fit smarts into normal-looking frames. And the latest is the new Norm Glasses.

Presbyopia is a common form of age-induced far-sightedness. Now a Stanford team has developed a pair of high-tech specs called autofocals, which use fluid-filled lenses, depth-sensing cameras and eye-tracking technology to make sure whatever a wearer is looking at stays sharp.

​Over the years, we've gotten pretty used to glasses with photochromic lenses, which automatically darken when exposed to bright light. This Wednesday, however, Johnson & Johnson Vision announced the upcoming availability of its self-tinting contact lenses.

​If you're getting bored with your video-recording Snapchat Spectacles, you may soon be able to do something new with them – take them underwater! That's just what the SeaSeeker dive mask is designed to let you do. One catch, though: you'll have to be a guest on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

It can be a hassle, taking your glasses on and off to switch between near and distant vision. That's why scientists from the University of Utah have developed glasses that change focus automatically, depending on what you're looking at.​

​Cyclists already have their pick of several brands of Google Glass-like smart glasses, which display data in riders' peripheral vision. However, what if they already have a pair of "dumb" glasses that they want to keep using? Well, that's where Garmin's Varia Vision add-on comes in.​

Speech-to-text systems already exist, as do augmented-reality displays. Now, a group of tech-savvy teens have combined the two technologies to form the Live Time Closed Captioning System. Once up and running, it could revolutionize the way in which deaf people communicate with the hearing world.

At CEATEC 2015, Japanese electronics manufacturer Murata, in conjunction with the city of Sabae, showed its "Cool Design Smart Glass" concept eyewear. The smart AR​ glasses incorporate the world's smallest micro PS switch module and are designed for controlling domestic appliances.

If you're bursting in and out of shadowy forests, the slow reaction time of photochromic glasses just can't keep up. That's where Uvex's Variotronic glasses come in, which change tint in just a tenth of a second. We recently tried a pair out.

Adlens Adjustables are inexpensive glasses that can be focused by the user to (more or less) match their prescription. We recently gave them a try, and can tell you that they work ... but you probably won't want to use them as your primary glasses.

Electronics company Kopin has developed eyewear that aims to place ride data in a more convenient place, directly in the cyclist's field of vision. The Solos smart glasses display metrics such as heart rate and average speed from connected devices to offer real-time feedback on cycling performance.

For triathletes swimming in lakes or the sea, there are no lane markers to follow. That’s why OnCourse Goggles were created. Using LEDs, they show the wearer how to stay … well, on course.