Luxottica Working on Google Glass

Italian eyewear company Luxottica—one of the world’s largest eyewear makers—is apparently working on a new version of Glass in collaboration with Google, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The news comes by way of Luxottica CEO Massimo Vian, who made the announcement during a general meeting at the company, says the report.

There are many, many details missing from this news, like whether or not this Luxottica-made version of Glass has anything to do with the work being done by Nest’s Tony Faddell, who earlier in 2015 was charged with making Glass “user ready.”

Said Vian:

“In Google, there are some second thoughts on how to interpret version 3 [of the eyewar.] What you saw was version 1. We’re now working on version 2, which is in preparation.”

I interpret two different meanings from Vian’s comments. Luxottica could be taking Glass’s existing hardware—the iteration of the device that was deployed during the multi-year “Explorer program”—and putting it into a new product, whereas Faddell’s team may actually be redesigning the whole thing.

Or, and this is just as likely based on the ambiguity of the comments, Faddell’s team and Vian’s firm are working together on the new version of Glass, with a third version being discussed as well.

Either one is just as likely or unlikely. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess as to what form Glass will take when it appears once more. Hopefully, though, Glass will be less garish and stupid looking, and perhaps more useful as a device. The world is just now trying to figure out how to justify the existence of the smartwatch. With Apple Watch’s starting to appear on excited fans’ wrists, the path of the device may finally become clear despite having already existed from other companies for the past few years.

It may not be out of the question, then, to imagine that a wearable face computer like Glass may not come into its own until Apple takes a whack at it. Apple may not be everyone’s favorite, but one thing is clear: they’re good at making slick devices that people want, whether they’re actually useful or necessary or not. The iPad is proof enough of that.

It may not matter what Faddell’s team or Luxottica does with Glass if it stays the course that was set before Google shut down the Explorer program. Someone get Jony Ive over here to fix this thing.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]