Most of us remember Google Glass, although what we probably remember is that these smart glasses didn’t stick. They weren’t very cool looking, they weren’t very functional, and with a steep pricetag of $1,500, there weren’t too many people willing to shell out to get in on the ground level of what could have been a revolution in wearable tech… if only they looked good, were useful, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. 

Now, nearly a decade later, you might be wondering where the big grand future we were promised is. Sure, there are electric cars buzzing down the streets, but Back to the Future had us all believing that we should all have flying cars, hover boards, and self-lacing sneakers by now. You would think that wearable tech would have at least made some advancements in the meantime, you know, in lieu of pizza hydrators and down-to-the-second meteorological accuracy. But perhaps if the future Marty McFly visited was wrong about all of that, it was wrong about smart glasses too. 

Well, not so fast. A far cry from Google Glass, and the original Snapchat Spectacles, smart glasses and wearable tech of all sort have come a long way recently. With the release of Apple’s new ambitious “Apple Watch Ultra,” it’s clear that people take their wearable tech seriously. It’s also clear that these things are more than just a fashion statement. This new iteration of the Apple Watch isn’t just useful for taking your music with you on a run, or checking the odd text message at a glance. On the contrary, it’s packed with more power than whole flagship phones were not too long ago. And with the rugged looks and emphasis on functionality, the market is clearly hungry for useful wearable tech, even if it’s a little in your face. 

The difference with smart glasses, however, is that they’re more than a little in your face. They’re a lot in your face. Literally. And consumers aren’t going to commit to having something on their face if it looks bad and performs worse. Luckily, these days, those interested in having a camera ready to go at all times don’t need a helmet-mounted GoPro. Ray-Ban’s “Stories” glasses allow you to take photos and even shoot quick videos on the fly. And while they’re not really AR specs, they also allow you to make phone calls and even play some of your favorite tunes. They won’t break the bank, that’s true, but probably the best part is that they don’t look half bad. That is to say, they don’t look like smart glasses. Not at first. In fact, most people probably wouldn’t notice you were wearing anything other than regular Ray-Ban sunglasses if you passed by them on the street. 

Of course, that has been a problem for wearables in the past. The original Google Glass smart glasses sparked a new debate about privacy. And that’s not really surprising, given that this new branch of technology pointed to a future in which everyone has a camera attached to their face at all times. And, again, we’ve move way beyond that original 5 megapixel camera. Now with the high-resolution cameras built into smart glasses like the iVue Vista, getting caught in 4k just got a whole lot easier. 

But smart glasses offer way more potential than just making sure you never miss out on any #content. Over the summer, Google unveiled their newest smart glasses, which were not only leaps and bounds better than their original foray in terms of tech, but they also look pretty good too, at least in the demo video. The coolest feature, however, is the real-time language translation showcased by Google at the event. If tech like this can break through the proverbial language barrier anytime soon, that might be worth waiting just a little bit longer for a hover board… maybe.