Beautiful and stylish glasses have long been more than just eye protection from the sun or a fashionable accessory. Their integration with machine learning brings an entirely new concept — AI-powered smart glasses. This innovation is likely to soon become a tool that provides constant access to various resources. Beyond being an advanced AI product, smart glasses also carry a noble mission: they can help engage socially excluded groups in society.
What is AI-Powered Smart Glasses?
Smart glasses are a type of high-tech eyewear that combines augmented reality (AR) — which enables interactive information visualization — and AI — which facilitates information generation and action prompts. A key feature of these glasses is the smart display integrated into the lenses, allowing seamless interaction between digital content and the real world.
Additionally, AI-powered smart glasses include:
- Micro-displays embedded in tiny lenses that project digital information directly into the user’s line of sight.
- Sensors that collect environmental data, enabling the smart glasses to respond intelligently.
There are 3 ways in which a user can control smart glasses. First of all, these are voice commands — the user controls further actions from the voice prompts provided. Second, the use of gestures. Some glasses can integrate sensor-based identification of hand movements. Finally — eye tracking. Just by looking at the glasses screen, the sensors respond to eye movements and perform prompts.
How Do AI-Powered Smart Glasses Change Everyday Life?
New AI-powered smart glasses models introduce entirely new possibilities, dramatically shifting away from the traditional use of glasses. Since people spend significant time on smartphones for instant access to information, capturing moments, and communicating, smart glasses present a challenge — or at least a promising alternative — for future communication technologies.
The integration of generative AI into smart glasses offers users a completely different experience. With the ability to respond to the environment and understand not only text but also multimedia (images, videos, and sounds), AI assistants built into glasses can deliver impressive results without needing a smartphone.
AI-powered smart glasses can perform functions such as:
- Scanning unfamiliar signs and explaining their meaning.
- Translating foreign languages in real-time during conversations.
- Searching for information instantly.
- Glasses that initiate shopping processes.
- Providing recommendations, such as clothing combinations from your wardrobe or food menu suggestions.
- Glasses that record and takes photos.
- Analysing conversational emotions.
Moreover, these glasses have significant potential for people with health challenges. For example, individuals with hearing impairments can benefit from devices like Nuance Audiosmart glasses, which reduce background noise and amplify nearby speech.
Several other AI-powered smart glasses market players offer products of varying levels, so everyone can basically find the best smart glasses for their expectations. Vuzix has created glasses that integrate 3D vision, so when viewing certain information, it can be seen with that true depth. Loomos.AI glasses use ChatGPT and can shoot 4K photos and 1080p videos. Rokid Glasses have a 12 MP camera for taking photos and videos, and integrate AI assistants, real-time translation.
UX design and research show that these products bring incredible opportunities for diverse user groups. Advanced technology ensures faster and more unique access to information in the future, breaking down language barriers. In work environments, quicker and more convenient information sharing could even improve productivity.
Final Word
There are still ongoing discussions about AI integration, including concerns about ethics, bias, and privacy. Questions also remain about the functionality, design, and everyday usability of these smart glasses. For now, these devices remain relatively limited in availability. However, AI has advanced remarkably, and today we can access products like AI-powered smart glasses — something that once seemed like pure science fiction.
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Sources: Rokid, The Verge, Qualcomm, Workplace Insight
