Sacramento Innovation Lab Developing Smart Glasses

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Sacramento has been picked to be the first area in the country to offer smart eyewear.

It's a technology that was developed in a Downtown Sacramento lab that allows you to track your health simply by putting on your glasses.

"I've never seen this big of a change," said Dr. Palmer Lee.

After more than 40 years as an optometrist, Dr. Lee has seen lighter frames and different lenses – but he calls this new eyewear life changing.

"Being able to put a health tracker into a beautiful pair of glasses kind of seamlessly and not have it interfere with your life at all, but you have all this information, now you can track your health, you can see, you can wear. This is glasses on steroids," Dr. Lee said.

They're called Level Smart Glasses and they were developed in a Downtown Sacramento innovation lab owned by VSP Global, a locally-based vision insurance company.

"It is one of the most perfect real estates for wearable technology it just needed to be put out there," said Jay Sales, co-director of The Shop.

The technology is embedded in the temple of the frame and developers say it allows your glasses to counts your calories, your steps, all your activity.

But the sleek and stylish glasses haven't always been eye catching.

Jay Sales points to a photo of glasses with a large square computer chip board attached to the side. "I wore this for quite a while, we put the full size board on the side of the glasses and I think I looked pretty good in it, but everybody tells me I looked silly."

After several years of development the only way you can tell there's technology in these glasses now, is through the charging port.

Innovators and designers see the glasses as more than just a way to see clearly, but as a tool to keep your health on track.

"If we see through an exam that you have early signs of diabetes we can actually give you a tracker and say, let's make sure you're staying active. So it's an extended conversation into health, it's a health platform," Sales said.

The level frames also allow users to use the points they earn through their activities to be transferred to VSP's Eyes of Hope campaign, with points going toward the donation of free eye care and eyewear to someone in need.