It’s obviously silly to think that wearing glasses will make you smarter, but only because the truth is that all smart people wear glasses. Now, though, Amazon is developing a pair of “smart glasses” that will actually do something interesting beyond making your vision clearer and giving bullies a convenient target. This comes from the Financial Times, which explains that these smart glasses will have a slightly different function than something like Google Glass or Snapchat Spectacles, though.
Apparently, the whole point is that these smart glasses will be tied to Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, and they’ll use “a bone-conduction audio system” to let users hear Alexa without having to put in headphones or use a normal speaker. In other words, it’s like having an AI in your head reading you the day’s Jeopardy! questions or giving you the weather forecast, except the AI is actually just on your face. The Alexa on the glasses will most likely be voice-activated, though, meaning you’ll still look like a crazy person when you call out for Alexa to tell you about the weather. Thankfully you’ll be wearing glasses, so everyone will just assume you’re some quirky genius.
Amazon hasn’t commented on any of this, so it’s possible that the glasses are just some internal experiment that will never come out, but at least this is more interesting than another boring smart watch.