Flashing LED glasses shed light on future tech applications

Macetech is in the business of coming up with novel uses for LEDs. They were displaying a proof-of-concept pair of LED glasses at Maker Faire last weekend that’s notable for two reasons. The first is that the wearer can see relatively well through the slits in the “glasses”: The LEDs which are so bright to the external viewer are completely blocked by the thin strips they are mounted on. (These prototype glasses are made of sturdy cardboard.)

You push a button on the arduino-based pattern generator to step the LEDs through their flashing sequences.

The other neat thing about them is their use of what is effectively a head-mounted USB-chargeable power source. The opposite side of the glasses has the battery, which is charged through the same USB connection that allows the programming of the microcontroller.

What the heck good is a head-mounted power source?

How about LED-powered eyelashes?

Soomi Park via Make.

Or how about head-mounted augmented reality (AR) glasses, as Google recently demonstrated:

LED glasses and electronic makeup may seem more like novelties than serious applications, and even AR glasses aren’t terribly practical – today. But the general application of power sources and light sources small enough and powerful enough to travel effortlessly with their wearer has possibilities.