Nobody was more excited than me that Meta had chosen to put some sincere effort into targeting the largest chunk of the population with their latest Ray-Ban smart glasses. I am of course referring to the bespectacled masses, those of us who are burdened with the requirement of prescription lenses to experience the world in focus.
David Heaney
For years I have been preaching the requirement of accommodating visual impairments in VR and smart glasses – the need for technology companies to make sure their offerings can be utilized by the general masses, the majority of the population. As so many of my optically challenged colleagues will attest, the immediate burden of early virtual reality headsets was the complete lack of ability to adjust for your prescription glasses. The Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 attempted to accommodate with several swappable lenses, but this generalized “one size fits most” solution would never work for someone like me who has such an atypical prescription. This led me to no alternative but to jam an old scratched pair of prescription “Harry Potter” style glasses into whatever headset I was using at the time.
Eventually, the industry coalesced around a solution: prescription lens inserts as a paid accessory, every one a unique size to fit each headset’s specific lens dimensions. Imagine my horror when my prescription changed after my third set of custom headset lenses. Prescription lens inserts, in my opinion, are only a stop gap until headset manufacturers figure out a better solution, such as tunable lenses.
Then smart glasses entered the ring. Immediately I was excited for the aspect of a lens-first technology. It’s a pair of glasses, so obviously the focus would be on comfort and style rather than prioritizing packing them with bulky tech. Some companies focused on comfort, some focused on style, and some focused on bulk tech. Nobody seems to have gotten the recipe quite right yet.
David Heaney
I was disappointed that the Meta Ray-Ban Display has a limitation in its prescription support, which is handled at manufacturing time to support the waveguide, of +/-4.00. My own prescription is -4.25 in both eyes, so that fun new product just wasn’t for me. I am the poster child of the target audience, and I cannot use them. Bummer.
This month, Meta launched new styles of its displayless Ray-Ban smart glasses that it says are "optimized for prescriptions". That includes overextension hinges that open 10 degrees wider than standard, for less pressure on the side of your head, interchangeable nose pads to suit various nose shapes and sizes, and optician-adjustable temple tips that Meta says "can be shaped to a perfect fit".
I was a proud owner of the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers, both Gen 1 and currently Gen 2. My Ray-Ban Meta Blayzers are on their way, and I am looking forward to assessing whether Meta truly is focusing on the right things to capture that over 50% of bespectacled individuals who would love to have a seamless transition from their tried and true prescription glasses to the smart glasses future that Meta is promising. Stay tuned for my review.
