I'm sitting here, writing this on my laptop, music playing through my glasses. I ask my glasses about the weather and a green text display appears, floats in front of my eyes.
These are smart glasses, sure, but they aren't Meta's new Ray-Ban Display Glasses, which I've also been wearing for the past week. Instead they're made by a company named Rokid. Available via Kickstarter right now for $479 (less than the $599 they'll go on sale for when they ship later this fall), they offer a lot of the same features. The price is expected to go up when the glasses hit a full retail price of Unlike Meta's glasses, however, these actually have prescription lens inserts that work with my eyes. With Ray-Ban Displays, I have to wear contacts for now. I don't have to do that with Rokid.
Why don't more glasses take an approach like this, I wonder?
Rokid Glasses with my prescription lens inserts added. You can't tell they're in there. Scott Stein/CNET
Rokid's clever magnetic lens solution
It's early days for smart glasses, and very early days for glasses with displays -- which float in your vision and overlay your world -- built into them. Besides the obvious question of whether you'd even want to wear a pair of AI-enabled, augmented reality camera/audio glasses on your face all day, there's the question of whether they'll even work with your eyes.
It depends on the strength of your prescription. The Meta Ray-Ban Displays glasses only support prescription ranges from minus 4 to positive 4, something my minus-8 level eyes won't work with. But Rokid solves for prescriptions like mine with magnetic lens inserts. I've been wearing them around my neighborhood, and I appreciate that I can actually wear them while working, reading and doing normal activities. When I use Meta's display glasses, I need to wear contacts.
Dropping the magnetic lens inserts into the glasses is pretty easy. Scott Stein/CNET
Rokid's lenses, which match both my high prescription and need for progressives for reading, have small magnets on the edge. When I bring them to the inside of the glasses, they snap in relatively easily. And when I look at the glasses, I can't make out that these inserts are there.
Side charging is smart, too
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