With augmented and virtual reality wearables altering the way we see and experience the world trending toward mass adoption, industrial design studio Morrama is betting the mainstream will seek mixed reality wearables with a layer of fashionable customization to suit their lifestyle alongside technology embedded to empower their active fitness goals.
Morrama’s Issé smart glasses concept envisions a mixed reality wearable with two customizable bio-materials constructed frames allowing the wearer to easily switch out frame elements from a more fashionably-focused appearance to one optimized for fitness tracking, and vice-versa.
Morrama’s two frame approach – one softer and more lifestyle-led; the other, more sports oriented – allows wearers to swap out their frames according to their activity, whether it be commuting to work or while hiking a trail.
“We see the future of tech as less about data and more about expression,” says Jo Barnard, Founder and Creative Director at Morrama. “Sophisticated data can be turned into beautiful user interfaces, removing information overload and focusing more on experience.”
With 95% of the electronics concentrated in the lenses, the frames would remain low-tech and therefore easy to disassemble in case more advanced sensors become available. Additionally, due to their shorter life-span, frames could be manufactured from bio-materials that are digested by bacteria or that simply break down more quickly.
Issé’s lenses are envisioned to project augmented reality notifications about daily health stats and biofeedback throughout the day. Many of us already wear a smart watch daily, and the smart eyewear will only magnify attention toward personal bio-data tracking with even greater visibility, and the Issé is engineered to help motivate improvement by projecting our digital selves while doing activities like running.
The studio believes advancements in micro-LED displays, retinal projection, and solid state batteries promise to significantly reduce the size of smart eyewear in the next five to ten years to bring the mixed reality world not only into the mainstream, but out in the open as fashionable eyewear.
Morrama’s timescale may be even be a bit conservative, noting Ray-Ban x Meta’s new smart sunglasses and similar eyewear designs are already coming to market, offering designs both comfortable and more adaptably fashionable and acceptable to be seen out in public.
Ben Melvin, Design Lead at Morrama, notes we’ll soon be comparing ourselves against our digital twins to help motivate ourselves during an exercise, or what our bodies might look like if we stuck to a particular diet or training program. Whether this sounds like a promising motivational tool or the makings of dystopian trend toward dysmorphia is up for debate.
