If I mention sunglasses with a radio built in, a lot of readers might think that it was new technology. But in fact, as as far as we can tell, the Radio Sunglasses pictured above actually came out in 1966. The Spectra Radio Sunglasses featured sunglasses with an embedded radio. Behind reach ear were the controls, one for on/off/volume, the other for tuning.
The radio was a powered 3 transistor unit, with a battery that was “smaller than a dime”. Note that the earpiece was actually a rubber plug from a hollow tube, which we figure ducted the sound from a transducer sitting in the eyeglass frames.
All in all, we are suitably impressed with a pair of sunglasses that have a built in radio. Even if it is 42 year old technology.
