Will Sunglasses Become Electronic?

Several new types of sunglasses, incorporating either LEDs or lasers, have recently become popular, giving rise to the question of whether glasses will become the latest apparel accessory to become electronic and/or “smart,” joining the ranks of the watch and the pen.

From purely an aesthetic point of view, adding visible forms of light to glasses transforms them into objects that look like they’re straight out of the future. Small batteries are able to power LEDs, lasers, or both, allowing the wearer of such designs to be both a beacon and a symbol of the digital age, when even the most common of objects will become electronic and join the “Internet of Things” (IoT) that’s being built currently.

Apple’s highly anticipated Vision Pro goggles will combine virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to permit wearers to access information and interact with objects in new ways as they navigate the physical world. Already, companies like Alphabet have developed products like Google Glass, which have placed such technologies within the realm of glasses, rather than goggles.

Costly computing screens aside, merely the addition of technologies such as LEDs and lasers has the ability to transform the way glasses are both viewed and used. In dark or indoor settings, wearers of such glasses can be spotted at much greater distances than people sporting normal glasses. Such glasses can thus transcend their traditionally utilitarian aesthetic and application and greatly enhance both a person’s appearance and visibility.

But what varieties of these glasses are currently for sale, and how much do they cost? As it turns out, all three of the LED-equipped glasses displayed on this page — among others — are for sale from Opto Zone at affordable prices. On the one hand, there are glasses that utilize a matrix of LEDs to create scrolling or blinking patterns or messages on their faces, while other models use LEDs to illuminate the transparent lens of the glasses, allowing the wearer to change the resulting neon-like colors with the press of a button.

Laser-equipped glasses, such as those sold by Opto Zone, allow their wearer to emit multiple laser beams that will project for hundreds of feet and point in correspondence with the wearer’s head movements.

In the future, it’s not hard to envision much more sophisticated electronic glasses that will illuminate and transmit light in an unfathomable number of ways. The electronics inside such glasses will continue to be increasingly miniaturized, permitting more and more sophisticated uses and displays of light. In the meantime, Opto Zone is fully committed to stocking the latest and greatest electronic sunglasses at reasonable prices for all interested consumers.