“What would happen if your glasses gave you superpowers thanks to artificial intelligence?” This is how Brilliant Labs, a start-up based in Singapore, presented its Frame augmented reality glasses on February 8. Glasses promising, on paper, to offer translation, Internet search and object analysis services. A much lighter model than the Apple Vision Pro (39 grams), which can be fitted with corrective lenses and which is intended to be worn every day.
Theoretically, with Frame, it is possible to identify and search the web for a product you are looking at, or to obtain nutritional information on the dishes you are looking at. The results then appear transparent, in a simple display. Unlike other connected glasses already on the market, such as those from Ray-Ban & Meta, Brilliant Labs offers an open source model. Users will therefore be able to code the applications of their choice.
An application that uses GPT-4 and Perplexity
To develop its new product, Brilliant Labs linked its glasses to the Noa application. The latter contains an assistant that uses OpenAI's GPT-4 for visual analysis, the Whisper speech recognition system for translation, and the Perplexity search engine for Internet search.
On the technical side, the Frame glasses integrate a 640 x 400 pixel micro-OLED, which projects light through a prism in front of the eyes. However, color projection remains limited, with a field of vision of 20°, and only on the right lens. Frame also contains a 1280 x 720 pixel camera, microphone and 222 mAh battery. The product finally comes with a “loading nose”titled Mister Power, with a fun design.
The use of Noa remains free, provided that it does not exceed a “daily ceiling”. The start-up plans to offer a paid service, but the price has not been revealed. It also specifies that there will be no paywall or subscription, and that it is therefore possible to use the glasses with other applications.
Pokémon GO creator among investors
The launch of Frame follows the February 2023 launch of Monocle, a 15-gram device that attaches to any frame. Offered at the same price as Frame, 349 dollars (324 euros), the augmented reality lens allows ChatGPT responses to be displayed in front of the eye, after a question asked on the microphone of one's phone.
Created in 2019, Brilliant Labs can rely on renowned investors. During the presentation of Frame, the young company also announced the support of John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, an augmented reality platform that developed Pokémon GO and Ingress. Last year, Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri and Eric Migicovsky, formerly of Y Combinator, participated in the company's seed round.
The base product, black, gray or white, is priced at $349, but can go up to $448 by adding prescription lenses. Shipments will begin in mid-April.
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