New smart glasses show conversations in real time on the glasses

When someone with a hearing impairment wants to communicate with others, they usually use lip speech and facial expressions to understand the meaning of their interlocutor. For some people with a hearing impairment, using hearing aids works. However, hearing aids do not work for everyone, nor is it very convenient. A British smart glasses company (XRAI Glass) has launched a product that can display closed captions in real time on glasses.

The smart glasses are made by an AR glasses company Nreal and the software is by XRAI Glass. When in use, the microphone on the glasses captures the conversational audio. Then it will use a wired connection to send it to the cellphone. That Subtitles are then displayed in time via the sound and audio software on the mobile phone. On the data glasses, the software can also recognize who is speaking. In addition, it can also work when making phone calls.

Not ideal for a noisy environment

Since smart glasses rely too much on audio software, the effect in noisy environments is not as optimal. In addition, it may also not work properly if you are talking to many people. However, XRAI Glass President Schoff was optimistic that product development and optimization will always take some time. This is only the first generation of the product, subsequent generations will come with improvements. In the future, this software will be coupled with contact lenses, and audio technology will also develop rapidly. The company said: “We are proud that this innovative technology can enrich the lives of the hearing impaired.”

“The impact of being able to speak to someone without looking at their lips is clearly life-changing,” said users who have used the glasses.

The current price of these smart glasses is £399.99 (US$487). 100 people with hearing impairments are currently using these smart glasses. If all goes well, the glasses will be officially released in September.

Google Hardware Director: AR data glasses are still in development

Google Hardware Director Rick Osterloh said in an interview a few days ago that “Ambient Computing” is Google’s future goal and vision. “Computers should be able to seamlessly help you solve any problem and be right with you,” Osterloh said in an interview on Wednesday. A few months ago, Google unveiled a number of new product and feature updates at its 2022 Google I/O developer conference. At the end of the event, Google released new Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses that support the Google Translate service.

Google previously released Google Glass, which can connect to the internet, but the project ultimately failed. In the 10 years since the device launched, Google has conducted a number of research projects in similar augmented reality. However, most hardware products are more traditional smartphones, laptops and smart home speakers.

“We learned a lot from the introduction of Google Glass,” Osterloh said in an interview. “We know how difficult it is to develop this technology and what users care about and what matters most.”

Osterloh did not say when the augmented reality data glasses will be available. Still, he confirms that Google “has a number of engineers and developers who continue to develop the product for internal testing.” There’s still a long way to go, but we will continue to invest heavily in augmented reality,” he said.

But products like smart glasses play a key role in Google’s “ambient computing” vision, Osterloh said. “You can see how wonderful it would be if you had a device on your face that you could use to instantly communicate, create translations, and see the world around you in real time,” he said. The situation is similar with the smart glasses from XRAI Glass and Nreal.

Zuckerberg is pushing to launch the Meta AR glasses in 2024

According to former contributors to Meta’s AR smart glasses project, Mark Zuckerberg hopes to make Meta’s upcoming AR glasses his “iPhone moment” to refresh him and the company. According to the report, Meta’s first-generation AR glasses, dubbed Nazare, will be designed to work independently and use a wireless device that offloads some of the computing power.

A feature of the device is the ability for users to communicate and interact with other people’s holograms. According to the report, Meta intends to launch its first-generation AR glasses by 2024, aimed at early adopters and developers. In the same year, the company also plans to release a cheaper pair of smart glasses, codenamed Hypernova. This glass pairs with smartphones to show incoming messages and other notifications on the head-up display.

Looking ahead, Meta’s AR roadmap includes a lighter, more advanced version of the Nazare goggles, due for release in 2026. This will be followed by a third version in 2028. If the AR glasses are successful, Zuckerberg hopes they will bring new perspectives to Meta. This is also kind of an innovative path for Meta and Zuckerberg. However, Meta has to compete with Apple, which has its own AR ambitions. Apple is working on at least two AR projects, including an augmented reality headset due to launch in late 2022 or 2023, followed by slimmer augmented reality glasses.

Apple’s AR/VR headset is coming out in 2022, perhaps at the WWDC Worldwide Developers Conference in June, but Apple still has some development issues to overcome. Reliable sources like Bloomberg analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Mark Gurman say the headset could launch in 2023, while the smart glasses could launch in 2024 or 2025.