In an industry where the topography is constantly shifting with each new wave and trend, it’s a pretty big deal to have fashion critics claim that your new product will completely change the future of eyewear, which is precisely what they’re saying about Tzurkuri. The Sydney-based business is currently manufacturing a kind of sunglass that can be tracked and located with asimple, mobile app so that they’ll get lost ever again.
At $350 a pair, the Tzurkuri shades aren’t really quite available yet, but the company is taking a limited amount of preorders for $49 each, with a remaining $200 being charged once the shades ship out, which means excited techies/fashionistas can get $100 for being the first of their friends with geo-located sunglasses.
It might seem like a steep price just for a pair of sunglasses–even with the nice discount–but it’s because there’s a lot of work that goes into these sunglasses. There 100 steps involved in assembling one pair, a process that takes three whole weeks.
The first line of frames is best described as classic, as they’re named after people who’ve inspired them like John F. Kennedy, Grace Kelly, and Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird Fame.
“When we started the Sunglass Fix we did a lot of market research and found that loosing sunglasses was the 2nd most common reason for buying a new pair, just behind lens damage,” says Craig of The Sunglass Fix. “I think any cost effective application that can help reduce the chances of loosing your sunglasses has a good chance of being successful, especially if it can be produced in a cost effective manner that allows it to become an industry standard in mid to high range sunglasses.”
What really sets these shades apart though isn’t the high level of craft, it’s what probably caught your interest in the first place–the geo-location technology they possess. It works with a device that has Bluetooth 4.0 technology, and since it uses BLE, it doesn’t even need an Internet connection.
The sunglasses will alert the owner when he or she reaches three different distances away, and when each one is ignored, the app tracks the location of the sunglasses. The same process works in reverse, too.
Such technology naturally poses a few drawbacks. Wouldn’t it get annoying to get notifications constantly when you’re at home? Wouldn’t that also then kill your phone’s battery?
No, and no, actually. The app can recognize when the wearer is at home so it doesn’t annoy them with notifications. Plus, the small battery is solar powered, so it’s easily recharged in no time without ever having to use a plug. Plus, they won’t kill your smartphone’s battery either, since Bluetooth hardly uses any power.