VSP Global, which operates vision benefits plan VSP Vision Care along with several other eye care companies, is working on smart glasses with built-in activity tracking sensors. Called Project Genesis, it comes out of VSP’s innovation lab The Shop.

“Eyewear has been the most successful piece of ‘wearable technology’ for over 700 years,” Leslie Muller, one of the project leads at The Shop, said in a statement. “With Genesis, we’re now adding additional value into the frame, but doing so in a seamless, fully integrated design that creates a richer experience for the wearer.”

The regular-looking glasses can track steps, calories burned, activity time and distance traveled, and then beam the information collected to a smartphone app. The prototype unit is being tested with 26 VSP Global employees in the company’s Sacramento, California headquarters. After that, VSP will seek partners to deploy and develop the technology further.

VSP will continue to add more sensors and more frame designs.“We have 75 million members in our insurance program and we’re focused on their overall health and wellness,” VSP Global CEO Jim McGrann told the Wall Street Journal. “So we’re hoping that they’ll be willing to adopt this and then participate in different studies where the data can be used to help other members as they work through similar difficulties in their own lives.”

The project has been under development for the last 14 months, and VSP will continue to add more sensors and more frame designs. The goal is to provide VSP members with contextual health data about themselves that they can then use to feel empowered and make better decisions in their lives.

[Via: mobihealthnews]