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With the explosion of wearable technology, Google GlassTM* is the cutting edge of smart eyewear. Created to let you stay connected to the world around you, Google Glass is now available with trendsetting design in frames from DVF, in partnership with VSP.

We are proud to say that we have partnered with VSP to become a VSP Glass preferred provider.

This means that we are specially trained to fit Google Glass with prescription lenses.

To find out more about fitting your Google Glass with prescription lenses, please contact us. See here for more information about the VSP Glass programme

*Glass is a trademark of Google Inc. 

The London Marathon Store has superb facilities at their NEW London Marathon Store on Bishopsgate

The Store has a basement club called #adidas26rs – this is available to all of Eye Contact customers for FREE, whereby everyone can come and get involved in the scheduled six runs each week to enhance their training and get fitter.

Register for free today

London Marathon Store has FREE lockers, FREE showers, FREE changing facilities, and rewards runners for participation – complete 10 runs and get a FREE ADIDAS TECHNICAL T-SHIRT!

London Marathon Store are also offering Eye Contact Patients 20% OFF running kit until 31st August 2014.

Terms & Conditions apply, ask in store for details, mention Eye Contact on purchase

Getting secret information to specific people, like the location of the nearest nuclear power plant, in a way that doesn’t draw attention from outside is a classic spy problem. Another one is giving agents the ability to match names to faces in the real world, at blackjack tables and fancy soirees and other places spies frequent.The Defense Department is buying some new spy specs to give spooks in the field an intelligence edge over everybody else

The glasses, called simply the X6, are from San Francisco-based Osterhout Design Group. They look like the lovechild of Google Glass and the Oculus Rift, providing more information to the wearer than the small window on Google’s  headset but not obstructing vision like the Oculus Rift. (Admittedly, for spy glasses, they lack a certain subtlety.

At a recent innovation symposium at Defense Intelligence Agency headquarters in Washington, DC, Bobby King, vice president of special projects for Osterhout, demonstrated how the headset provides situational intelligence.  Defense One looked through the glasses at a static, two-dimensional map and suddenly structures appeared in three dimensions related to objects of interest.

King confirmed that the map was just a regular print of a satellite photograph. With that particular app, the glasses send information to a server that then processes the image against others to determine the location depicted. The glasses then present data from the database visually in the form of structures, special instructions, clues, etc. The view was smarter and more useful than what you would see with Google Glass, but didn’t get in the way of the user’s ability to actually see, like a clunky virtual reality headset.

 For designer spectacles and sunglasses, or for more specialised products, please contact us

The eyes are the window to your soul? Maybe, but new research is highlighting how the colour of your eyes could hold clues to your health.

The curious links between eye colour and health have fascinated scientists for years, leading to a body of research that suggests the colour affects how much you feel pain, your chance of getting diabetes, how quick your mind is – and even how well you can throw a Frisbee or handle your drink.

The latest piece of evidence in this scientific jigsaw has been added by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh. They found Caucasian women with light-coloured eyes – blue or green – appear to tolerate pain and distress better than those with brown or hazel eyes.

Inna Belfer, a professor of anaesthesiology at Pittsburgh University, says the study of 58 pregnant women found those with light-coloured eyes seemed to experience less pain while giving birth.

Furthermore, the women with lighter eyes suffered less anxiety after the birth, lower rates of depression and fewer negative thoughts, Professor Belfer told the annual scientific meeting of the American Pain Society.

While more work is needed to find the reasons for this difference, the researchers said a genetic link seemed likely.

1. Magnets, not screws. Hinges on specs are always liable to snap or come loose, necessitating holding them in place with sticking tape or a plaster in the style of  Coronation street’s Jack Duckworth played by the late Bill Tarmey. Japanese company Nendo has developed glasses which use disc-shaped magnets in the arms and on either side of the frame – thus “making them harder to break”.

2. Anti-fog coating. Having one’s spectacles mist over is a frequent annoyance for eyeglass-wearers. But in 2013 a patent for an anti-fogging solution was obtained by US corporation Kimberly-Clark. It would involve running an electric current through the graphene-based coating to heat the surface of the glass and prevent condensation.

3. D-shaped lenses. Benjamin Franklin’s invention of the bifocals  lives on to this day. Less celebrated are railway spectacles. In 1797 John Richardson patented four-lens glasses which rotated in from the sides. They became popular in the 19th Century when train travellers sought to protect their eyes from wind, smoke and sparks from the track.

4. Illuminated spectacle frames. In 1970 inventor Joachim Tatje filed a patent for  illuminating spectacles when working in the dark. Batteries were concealed in the frames. Variations on this innovation remain popular with the likes of theatre stage managers, people who enjoy reading in bed and brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll, better known as the ambient techno duo Orbital.

Dutch electronics retailer Capi The Travellers Electronics Company is displaying the new Google Glass spectacles in its airside stores at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. The new Google Glass spectacles have only recently been released to developers who can now create the software for these innovative products. Google Glass has been made available in the US to developers and early adopters who test glass and provide Google with feedback.

Google Glass displays information and videos, responding to voice commands and can be integrated with virtual reality applications as an extension of smartphones. While content for applications is currently being developed, the hardware edition, Explorer, is now already available with Capi. Passengers travelling through Schiphol airport will be able to see the high-tech glasses up close for the first time.

Royal Capi-Lux managing director Peter Wiggers said: “People all over the world are eagerly waiting to see a glass up close and try it on. We are very proud to be one of the first in the Netherlands to be able to make that possible.”

Former Gael flame and aspiring lingerie model Natalie Portman dons some extra nerdy frames while filming in Los Angeles. We’d also be peeved if we had to do that awkward sitting-in-a-skirt-crossed-ankles thing.

The computerized, Internet-connected goggles don’t actually come with lenses in its frame. Starting Tuesday, Google is offering an optional attachment for prescription lenses and new styles of detachable sunglasses.

The move comes as Google Inc. prepares to make Glass available to the general population later this year. Currently, Glass is available only to the tens of thousands of people who are testing and creating apps for it.

Glass is basically a small computer, with a camera and a display screen above the wearer’s right eye. The device sits roughly at eyebrow level, higher than where eyeglasses would go.

It lets wearers surf the Web, ask for directions and take photos or videos. Akin to wearing a smartphone without having to hold it in your hands, Glass also lets people read their email, share photos on Twitter and Facebook, translate phrases while travelling or partake in video chats. Glass follows some basic voice commands, spoken after the words “OK, Glass.”

The gadget itself is not changing with this announcement. Rather, Google plans to make various attachments available for people who wear glasses or sunglasses.

The Mountain View, Calif., company is now offering four styles of frames for prescription lenses. It’s also offering two new types of shades, in addition to the one previously available. The frames cost $225 and the shades, $150. That’s on top of the $1,500 price of Glass.