The Chapterhouse of the Domenican San Nicolo Monastery in Treviso, Italy, houses a 14th-century fresco of a cardinal wearing spectacles

摘要

It's the first known image of someone wearing spectacles in Western art. And they are also the first kind of spectacles-a rivet model perched on the end of his nose. These early spectacles were initially worn by scholars and members of the clergy, and gradually became accessible to craftsmen and small business owners. Their invention was celebrated for enabling more efficient work, but their clumsy appearance was often the subject of caricature and satire. Seven hundred years later we are inventing other kinds of vision. The trialling of Google's Project Glass-a lightweight reticule turned wearable computer-in April 2013 heralded an array of reactions, from the awe-inspired and the zealous, to the sceptical and the alarmed.