Prescription Google Glass pictured in the wild gives us our best look at the eyewear yet
Up until now, we haven't gotten a real good look at Google's plans for prescription eyewearers looking to outfit themselves with Google Glass. Sure there was the scruffy looking fella from months ago …
Context & Ripple Effects
Project Glass has been visible since early 2012, when reports confirmed the HUD glasses were real and a first video sample showed what the headset could capture. What has been missing is how the device works for people who actually need corrective lenses — the bulk of prospective buyers.
That gap started closing on November 22, when the Wall Street Journal reported Google was in talks over prescription lenses and frame designs for Glass. Today's sighting of a prescription variant in the wild, picked up by Mashable, SlashGear, 9to5Google and others, gives the first photographic evidence that those plans have moved past negotiation into hardware.
First-order effects
- Spectacle-wearers considering Glass get their first concrete look at a prescription configuration, addressing the single most obvious barrier for anyone whose vision rules out the standard headset.
Second-order effects
- The traditional eyewear supply chain — frame designers and optometrists — becomes a distribution and fitting channel for computing hardware, validating the partnership track the Wall Street Journal reported Google was pursuing.
Third-order effects
- If prescription compatibility proves necessary rather than optional, head-worn devices stop being gadget accessories and enter the corrective-eyewear market, where fashion and lens-fitting competence decide adoption as much as specs do.
The trend: Wearable computing is being pulled from prototype novelty toward the ordinary eyewear market, with optical partnerships becoming the gate between early adopters and everyday wearers.