There is a second EssilorLuxottica product family that has nothing to do with Ray-Ban, and it just got an update. Nuance Audio Plus looks like ordinary eyewear, yet each pair hides over-the-counter hearing aids whose technology carries FDA clearance, all of it squeezed into side arms that add barely any bulk.

The upgrade list is mostly acoustic. EssilorLuxottica says the Plus improves sound boosting and speech clarity in noisy rooms, adds on-device controls and stretches battery life to about 10 hours.

Two amplification modes do the heavy lifting. Frontal is built to pick out and lift the voice of whoever the wearer is facing, while All-Around raises everything happening nearby. An app offers four pre-configured amplification settings and three levels of background-noise reduction, so a wearer can choose how much of the room to keep.

The new controls reduce trips to the phone: a dedicated power slider and separate volume buttons sit on the frame, folding the arms puts the glasses to sleep and unfolding them wakes the pair again. Incoming calls can be answered straight from the glasses, but only when they are paired with an iPhone, not an Android handset.

Three shapes are on offer in the United States, Square, Pathos and Upturn, across five colourways that run from shiny black and shiny burgundy to deep blue, amber and olive green. Pricing opens at $829 before any prescription lenses are added, and the earlier Nuance Audio model remains on sale at $699.

Source: The Verge