Smart Glasses

Hot on the heels of Facebook's Ray-Ban Stories comes a pair of concept smart glasses from Chinese tech firm Xiaomi that don't just push notifications from a smartphone, but also sport some nifty independent functionality.

Facebook is hoping that it can succeed where others have failed, and use its massive global presence to make smart glasses a worldwide hit, partnering with Ray-Ban to launch a pair of photo/video-capturing glasses called Ray-Ban Stories.

Smart specs don't always need to be packed with tech to be useful – like the new NXTWEAR G from TCL, which are powered by a smartphone, tablet, or laptop and act as an external screen for that device, one that can reach a virtual size of 140 inches.

Tech startup Ampere has smartened up the humble sunglasses with Dusk, a pair of shades that change tint on demand via a phone app or a button press. A deluxe model also packs built-in speakers and a microphone for making calls.

If the smart specs already on the market aren't enough to get you excited, why not make your own? That's exactly what electrical engineer and product designer Sam March has done, with the help of a CNC router and some app coding.

California's Dreamglass AR has spent several years developing and iterating its AR video glasses, and we've spent the last two weeks playing with the Dreamglass 4K, which effectively puts a pair of large, 3D-capable 1080p screens before your eyes.

Dreamworld is back with another pair of augmented reality glasses: the DreamGlass 4K. With an improved 4K resolution and 5G connectivity, these could be the perfect at-home entertainment system now that we're all spending more time indoors.

We've already seen electronic glasses that watch the wearer's diet and automatically change focus, among other things. An experimental new pair monitors the user's health, lets them control games, and switch to being sunglasses as needed.

Bosch will hit CES 2020 with a new type of Light Drive smart glass technology that can give you a personal heads-up display while being virtually indistinguishable from a regular pair of glasses, and adding very little weight.

Amazon has stepped into the world of connected eyewear with its first ever pair of smart glasses, with its Alexa voice assistant the star of the show.

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.