Update – I’ve hacked them once again!
Before I picked up my Google Glass, I knew they didn’t support prescription lenses. To prepare for the Google Glass, I went to my optometrist and got fitted for contact lenses. She tried to talk me out of getting contacts due to the shape of my right eye (severe astigmatism). She explained that contacts would most likely not be comfortable and to stick to glasses. Knowing that Google Glass didn’t support prescription lenses, I got contacts anyways. I should have listened to the doctor, the contacts were HORRIBLE! I immediately switched back to my Warby Parker eye glasses for daily wear.
I tired to wear my Google Glass with my eye glasses, but there was no way to make it work. Luckily I can see pretty good up close, so I was able to wear my Google Glass by themselves. There was no way that I could drive a car, work on a computer, or carry on daily life without my eye glasses, so my Google Glass had remained somewhat of a novelty. I would take off my eye glasses, put on my Google Glass and show people the future, but as soon as the demo is over I take the Glass off and put my eye glasses back on.
Today I realized that I hadn’t really worn my Google Glass in a few days. It really upset me. I want Glass to be a part of my daily life, but without support for prescription lenses, it wasn’t going to happen. I decided to do something about it. I was willing to take apart my Google Glass if I had to. I was going to make them work with my prescription lenses at any cost.
I started by removing the only exposed screw on the Google Glass. It’s located just above the right temple, and can be removed with a Torx-5 bit. After loosing the screw, the titanium headband is easily detached, leaving the main Glass unit.
Looking at my options, I took and old pair of my 141 eye wear and decided to cut the right arm. I used a pair of wire cutters to get the job done. After my first cut, I realized that I was going to need to cut it a bit shorter, so that the power button for the Glass was exposed.
With the arm at a minimal length, I was left to figure out how to attach the Glass to my glasses. I first tried double stick tape, but it just wasn’t strong enough. I didn’t want to use glue and risk damaging the plastic housing. Instead of getting fancy, I went with a very cheap, low tech solution – a zip tie, or wire tie. I just happened to have a black one in my tool box.
After snugging down the zip tie and cutting off the excess, the whole assembly felt very solid and fit very well. The side of Google Glass is touch sensitive but the tie doesn’t seem to interfere with it’s responsiveness.
For the first time, I was able to see Glass through my prescription lenses. I could truly appreciate the quality of the display optic. Images were more vibrant and clear. This is the experience I was looking for from the beginning. This is going to let me wear Glass on a daily basis, and it cost me less than $0.01 to do it! I may try to use a thinner zip tie so its not so obvious. Then again, I have a computer hanging off my face and I think that most of the attention will be focused on it. 
Maybe Google feels that the people who have the Glass Explorer Editions are true explorers and pioneers, and they will find a way to make prescription lenses work. Maybe Google hasn’t found a good way to make lenses work for most people. All I know is that I have found a way to make Glass work for me, and this is the start of something awesome. Look out world!
