Sunglasses

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.

Bose launched a new audio product in late 2018, in the shape of two pairs of sunglasses equipped with tiny speakers and a microphone. And clearly the company has had some success with them as three more flavors have now joined the Frames lineup.

Although we've seen devices such as wrist bands that warn of UV exposure, users still have to, you know … look at the things. Glatus sunglasses instead verbally notify you, plus they'll reportedly let you know if you're too drowsy to drive.

With an array of tiny speakers and a microphone built into the arms, Bose hopes its Frames sunglasses will begin life as a personal audio device, but soon start augmenting realities by layering useful snippets of sound over what the wearer sees in front of them.

In a world bombarded by screens constantly blasting ads and visual noise, a team of artists and designers wondered if glasses could be created that can black out all those invasive messages. After a year of research and prototyping the IRL Glasses are now launching on Kickstarter.

​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.

​Some serious cyclists have taken to using breathing strips or even stents to hold their nostrils open, in order to increase the amount of air that they're able to take in through their nose. Well, a new set of cycling glasses does the same thing, but using magnets.

​If you're using the sun to power a mobile device, it only makes sense to put the solar cells on something you're wearing that will be receiving a lot of sunlight. With that in mind, researchers have created a pair of sunglasses that generate electricity via solar cells that double as their lenses.

Intel and Luxottica have teamed up to put a fitness tracker front and center on your face, stashing the various biometric sensors and a voice-activated AI coach into a stylish, custom-designed pair of Oakley shades.

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.

In less than a year, electrochromic sunglasses have gone from being experimental to an actual product, with Ctrl announcing its Ctrl One cycling glasses just this month. Should you prefer multi-use electronically-tinting sunglasses, however, you might want to get yourself a pair of Skugga shades.

Some hobbyists might already be familiar with micarta, a solid material made from layers of denim that have been bonded together with resin. UK startup Mosevic is using a micarta-like substance to make blue jeany-looking sunglasses.