Meet the Fun’iki, a pair of smart glasses that put notifications from your phone right in front of your eyes. They don’t have a screen, and instead use a series of flashing lights to alert you of what’s happening on your phone. Rather than fit-inducing strobes, or a technicolor assault like the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a subtle glow spreads across the lens, thanks to a set of LED bulbs fitted inside the rim.
Once the Fun’iki glasses (the name, presumably, is adapted from the Japanese word for atmosphere) are connected to a phone, they’ll let you know when a message, call, or email comes in, along with custom alerts for the weather or stock prices. Wearers can customize the alert color — blue for email, red for a call, and so on — using a specially made app, making it unnecessary to check your phone all the time.
In the accompanying video, the LED lights look very bright, so it’s unlikely you’ll miss any incoming messages. We doubt anyone standing around you will miss them either. Other features include the chance to use the smart glasses as a timer, a face worn metronome, or even set the lights to flash in time to music, which sounds incredibly distracting, and looks hilarious in the video.
There’s also a built-in speaker for audio alerts, and an ambient light sensor for adjusting the brightness of the LEDs depending on surrounding conditions. They connect using Bluetooth 4.0, and because there’s no screen, the batteries are small and light, meaning the Fun’iki smart glasses only weigh 38 grams. By comparison, Google Glass weighs in at around 50 grams. The arms can also fold back, so they’re easy to store, and the lenses can be changed for prescription lenses.
Now that they’re successfully funded on Japanese crowd funding website makuake.com, the Fun’iki glasses are expected to retail for the equivalent of $225, and should go on sale at the end of this year.
Related: Six other wearable devices which make Google Glass look completely normal
