A version of Google Glass that is compatible with prescription glasses has shown up in new pictures posted to the Internet, giving a look at what Google has in mind for its wearable technology project. The images, since taken down, showed up on the Google+ page of a Google employee, and they were picked up by BGR. Google has long said that it plans for Glass to be compatible with prescription eyewear, as a failure to do so would eliminate it as a possibility for a sizable portion of the American populace.
The Glass unit shown in the pictures has a groove along its main component where users could insert the right arm of their prescription glasses. Presumably, this would allow for Glass to be worn with just about any prescription eyewear, much in the same way that one would normally wear glasses. The display unit would rest over part of the right lens.
Google has been working with optometrists and a number of eyewear makers to improve compatibility between its wearable device and commercially available glasses. That initiative may take the form of special Glass fittings taking place in optometrist offices.
More than 110 million Americans wear prescription glasses, and a failure to adapt its wearable initiative to existing glasses would cut Google off from more than one-third of the American populace. In the run-up to releasing Glass as a commercial product, Google has invited existing owners of the device to update their Glass units through a free mail exchange program.
