Glasses That Detect The Freshness of Food: How The Future of Eyewear is Shaping Up

As social media becomes increasingly popular and continually births new influencers, these platforms’ use goes from strength to strength. Not only do influencers help brands advertise their products to specific target audiences easily, but their availability to all makes them attractive to users. 

A part of every life today consists of recording and sharing videos and images online. Technology too has evolved to help meet the demands of the consumer. Many smartphone manufacturers solely concentrate on improving camera functionalities and storage capacity due to social media’s popularity, resulting in declining camera sales and an increase in smartphone sales. 

(Image Source: Reddit)

One of the first smart glasses to hit the market purely aimed at making it easier to use their platform is Spectacles. They are created by the popular social media app Snapchat. Spectacles houses two cameras on the front of their frame. The glasses allow the user to record without needing to use their phone and upload the content straight to their app. Many celebrities use Snapchat allowing fans to get an inside glimpse into their personal lives. 

How eyewear is shaping up

Many tech giants are also on their way to developing their very own smart glasses. Their focus is less centered around social media, unlike the Snapchats glasses, but they are more catered for use on a broader scale. 

Google has developed glasses that are helping to transform the working world. Their glasses help increase better workflow in manufacturing settings. Popular audio brand Bose has also seen the potential of glasses integrated with speakers, reducing the need for headphones offering a two in one product. 

(Image Source: Bose frames with integrated speakers on arm)

Measuring metrics through smart glasses in real time may sound impossible, but Apple seems to have found a way. A patent filed by Apple indicates they could be working on an AR electronic device that can help detect food’s freshness. 

The technology involves using sensors that gather a spectrum of light from objects that the smart glasses can analyse. Once done, the information can be relayed back to the user as informative metrics on the freshness of the product in front of them. 

The patent states that images obtained by a camera and other sensors such as infrared spectra can be used to help characterize objects. The sensors could also be used in head-mounted displays, according to the patent. However, there is nothing to suggest it could not be integrated into other types of devices like smart glasses and even smartphones. 

The patent claims the technology can evaluate food based on a range of metrics such as freshness, carbohydrate content, fat content, protein content, the type of food it is, sugar content, spices in the food, the food ripeness, and sweetness. This technology could be prompted for use via voice command while aiming the glasses at an object. 

The future of eyewear 

The future of eyewear is transitioning far beyond prescription eyeglasses, thanks to the rapid increase in technology over the past few years. Technological advances have helped create a new era of eyewear and a seamless fusion between technology and eyewear. New technology can be implemented in glasses to help improve eye health, unlike current glasses. 

Exciting breakthroughs in the development of wearables, more specialty eyeglasses, can help enhance vision, much like the AR glasses discussed above. Glasses currently available on the market do not have the ability to correct or improve vision for those with significantly serious vision trouble such as low vision.

(Image Source: NIH)

Artificial vision devices of the future could help by incorporating cameras in glasses to record or take pictures. It could allow the user to interoperate what they are looking at. A combination of camera and earpiece can help the user understand their environment better by having the camera read what they see and turning the visual information into audio information, which is then fed to the user in a small earpiece. 

Several tech giants are also working on creating cyber contact lenses. Some are being developed to offer AR experiences to users like never before and could potentially be used in gaming. Others are looking at designing contact lenses that help to measure health metrics. These include measuring the eves of glucose in a person who suffers from diabetes tears for glucose levels. 

The possibilities of smart tech in this manner seem almost impossible. However, many years ago, we would have considered the same for smartphones and other everyday technology we use today. Although it’s safe to say smart glasses and contact lens etch still have some time to go before we can see their incorporation into mainstream society, their future does look promising for them, and no doubt, there is a need for them.