If you’ve ever wanted to be the life of the party (all the time), then there is a new gadget that might just catch your eye. GloSpex is a new set of high-tech glasses currently running an IndieGoGo campaign for funding and they are literally illuminated glasses. While these sound like they’d only be useful for party situations, they’re also useable as sunglasses, so you can wear your light up shades pretty much anywhere. What’s the catch? You’ll look a bit odd, but who cares right? After all, they do light up.
What Are GloSpex
GloSpex are quite literally illuminated sunglasses. At the moment, there are two different models known as the Unoh and the Visah. Unah is a uni-glass with no divider, while Visah looks more like a set of safety glasses. Each set of glasses can project light in red, blue, and green, and the glasses themselves come in black and white. The lenses are interchangeable, allowing owners to exchange the basic ones for colored glass, or glass with a printed logo (for advertising purposes). The glasses cost between $36 and $70 each and should ship in March of 2014. However, the final retail price is set at $100, so if you want them, you should get them now.
How Do They Work?
While mostly useless in the world of practical technology, the GloSpex sunglasses use a couple of unique technologies to create their illuminated effect. The illumination process includes one-way light emitting through clear plastic, which sends light through the glasses, without sending it everywhere else. In addition, the light had to be designed to project in such a way that it would not interfere with the wearer’s vision, which called for more technology in the form of pixel size control. Finally, in order to make all of this possible, GloSpex are made using a new screen printing technology that creates a high-clarity lens with a nearly imperceptible light blocking mesh. The result is that, for the most part, the wearer is completely unaware of the light on their glasses, meaning that they can go about their lives while wearing them. While some light is visible to the wearer in the dark, there is a dimming button on the glasses, so that it is possible to tone it down so that the light is no longer visible.
GloSpex Beat
For anyone who likes to party, GloSpex has you covered with the GloSpex beat, a device that plugs into your computer or Android/iOS and projects a flashing light show to your glasses (hopefully in time with the music being played). The app features a number of very cool functions including a 75 foot range, stop/start/dim/ functions, and flash rate function, essentially allowing the owner to create a one-man (or woman) rave show. The GloSpex Beat costs $65 so it isn’t cheap, but is very cool for a DJ or anyone else who just likes to dance in style.
While the GloSpex offer some very cool technology, especially to anyone who likes to go clubbing, they aren’t extremely practical. Sure they can be used as sunglasses, but other than that, they’re just a bit of fun. For that reason, most people aren’t going to be willing to pay the final price for them, especially not since you can actually purchase a number of other technologies for that price. What do you think? Would you wear these illuminated glasses?
