‘I wouldn’t wear Google Glass’, says man tasked with developing designs

The founder of Italian eyewear giant Luxottica, which is developing new Google Glass models, says he would not wear the product in its current form.

Google Glass

Source: Erica Joy

Luxottica owns brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley and earlier this year signed a deal with Google to create new Glass models under these brands.

However Leonardo Del Veccio, the 79-year-old founder and executive chairman of Luxottica, told the Financial Times he would not wear the device in its current form.

‘I have not used Google Glass’, he said, ‘It would embarrass me going around with that on my face. It would be OK in the disco, but I no longer go to the disco.’

Del Vecchio added that the potential success of Google Glass depended on the ‘bravura’ of Google to give the technology mass-market appeal. He added that if Google ‘managed to do 50 per cent of what they had done with mobile phones we will be able to sell millions’.

The partnership between Google and Luxottica will see them set up a team to design, develop, engineer and release new Google Glass models.

This team will see fashion and eyewear designers matched up with developers. Google and Luxottica say their first collection will ‘combine high-end technology with avant-garde design’.

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  • Martin Rayala November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Early adapters have always faced public derision. The first automobile owners were thought to be pompous and the first cell phone users were thought to be impolite. As a design direction, having a computing and communication device close to one’s ears and eyes seems reasonable. Until neural and retinal implants are perfected I think Google Glass has tried to be as minimally intrusive and aesthetically pleasing as our current state of technology allows.

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