Spexy Me Aims to 3D Print Your Next Pair of Perfectly Fitting Glasses

Some of us are not born with a perfectly sized head (what is the perfect size anyway?), making it difficult to find the perfect hat or glasses to fit our faces. I pretty much don’t wear hats because I look like a 9-year-old boy wearing his fathers baseball cap whenever I try one on. As for sunglasses, that’s a whole other issue. It literally took me a year and a half to find the perfect frames to fit my head correctly, while not diminishing my Tom Cruise-like good looks. Of course, within three weeks of me buying these ‘perfectly fitting’ frames, I lost them in the Gulf of Mexico as a mild wind gust blew them off my face.

The ability to affordably 3D print all sorts of products has allowed for total customization within many areas, from footwear to jewelry, and now to glasses. A new Australian start-up called Spexy Me, aims to soon take 3D printing to a whole new level with customized frames for your glasses. Today they’ve launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.

Me, trying out the Spexy Me augmented reality application

The way the Spexy Me system works is quite simple. Users go to their website, at which point they can decide to get custom fitted for a pair of frames. Using the camera on their mobile device, laptop, or PC, the system will measure the user’s face within seconds.  At this point, Spexy Me uses a special augmented reality application to place glasses on the user’s face, allowing him/her to move around on camera with the glasses adhered to their face, on the screen. This will give customers an amazingly accurate view of how the Spexy Me frames will appear on their head, once printed. 

Although the site is not yet fully functioning, the company promises to allow for the choice of frame types from a library, allow users to customize their chosen frames within their browser window, choose the color they wish for their frames to be, and then hit the order button. Each set of frames takes approximately eight hours to print out in full. Once printed the company promises to have them delivered to you within a couple of days.  Whether they will eventually sell the 3D CAd models of the frames for those who already own a 3D printer, is yet to be seen.

Could this change the way eyeglass and sunglass frames are produced? Probably not. Currently you will only be able to have your frames printed with plastic material, which most high quality glasses are not going to be manufactured with. However, if you want a cool pair of glasses, which fit your face, and have been totally customized, then this may be the way to go. Spexy Me guarantees the satisfaction of all their customers, or a full refund will be offered.

As for the price that Spexy Me intends to charge per pair, that information will soon be released upon their official launch. Do you plan on having your next pair of glasses fitted and customized via 3D printing? Let’s hear your thoughts on this technology within the Spexy Me forum thread on 3DPB.com.