There is one rule that our parents always say to us – we shouldn’t sit too close when watching a TV set. We know the drill, “you could get cross-eyed”, “those cartoons will ruin your eyesight” and the all-time favorite, “you will go blind!”. Soon, warning the children get when they sit much too close to the TV will be irrelevant as a new device will attack their good eyesight more viciously. Yes, the impressive Google Glass will soon be available in many stores. Like many other tech companies, Google is working hard to make sure that its new product won’t ridiculously short shelf life. It will be a great niche or novelty product that Google could unleash confidently on the market.
The Mountain View-based company also needs to ship millions of the device to consumers to gather enough money to cover the expensive R&D and brings us other new products. The company has recently formed a partnership with the VSP Global which produces various lenses and frames. Not only that, Google is also planning to work with optometrists so they can integrate the impressive device with prescription lenses.
There are concerns that Google Glass would do bad things to our eyesight, the way Apple iPod have ruined our hearing. iPod and other MP3 players send music right into our ear canal and they are the reason why many teens and other young consumers are experiencing hearing degradation at the same rate with the elderly. With the iPod, teenagers have acquired some sense of freedom. Gone are the days when parents could warn them about consequences of listening to music at full volume.
Studies have shown us that in some communities up to 20 percent of teenagers suffer symptoms of hearing loss and this will continue to increase in coming years. The Journal of Pediatrics also reported than about 12.5 percent children and teenagers between the ages of 6 and 19 said that they suffered varying degree of hearing loss. The figures have really cropped up since the iPod and MP3 players became all the rage. The effects of the Walkman are less significant there are fewer songs inside a CD or cassette, so there were more intervals between the audio assaults on our ears.
Now, what a small screen placed less than an inch from our eyes could do?
There will always an issue of eye strain and Google Glass could have the potential of doing bad things to our eyesight like the way Apple iPod could to our hearing if they are cranked up all day to full volume. Very few experts touch on the possibility that wearing Google Glass may cause serious eyesight problems.
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