Meta Connect - new glasses, a screen reader and an open platform - Seeing AI anyone??

I have been behind the times when it comes to news like this. I was aware of the Meta Oakley's, did not know about the other technology though. I'm thinking my next pair of Metas will be Oakley, as I would love to have Meta Smart glasses in a wraparound form factor.

While I'd heard about the new glasses, I hadn't heard about the screen reader or any of the other stuff. But honestly, it's a Meta product, and I really don't have any trust in them or desire to use anything they put out. But I recognize that's just my opinion, and others may vary.
With that said, I think the main reason it's not being discussed here is that it's not an Apple product, and I think that part of the website, the core Apple categories, are visited more frequently than this forum category. So, it very well could be popping up here or there, but not in plain sight.
I'm not throwing any shade here, I don't think the AV Mastodon account posts topics from some categories at all, either. It's highly possible it might be getting some traction on Mastodon or in other places though.

I nearly wrote about this but, as it's so far off, I didn't really think there is much to say yet. Yes, it's all coming, but we've heard that before.

I've actually applied for the dev kit, so we'll see where that goes.

Call me jaded, but a lot has been promised. I'm still cautiously optimistic that this will be the turning point for us where Meta Glasses go from something that's kinda cool, but not quite filling our need, to something that is really powerful. My dream, as I've mentioned elsewhere, is to be able to kick back and read a book, any book. This would be the app I'd look to develop, purely book reading. I know Seeing AI will have document reading, but book reading, at least, many pages, might be a little beyond its remit.

I'd go for the Vanguards. I find the Meta Ray-Bans uncomfortable. I've got a low nose bridge so as soon as I get a bit sweaty (gross), they slip down my snozz. I know the second gen have better fit and should stay put, but I'd rather go a little more expensive and get wrap arounds. Not sure about others, but if I've got a bit of a flare up, or a stye, I'd like to have that full hidy coverage. Centre camera is also cool. Plus, I can pretend to be like totally sporty and stuff... WEEEE

I have no idea how I never knew about this, the screen reader and neural band I knew about, but the integrations I decidedly did not. My only excuse is… I don’t watch events... or something?

oh dear, well it's a bit of a sore point I'm afraid. I've gone and ordered the Ally Solos glasses now, but if I'd known Seeing AI was going to be on a pair of glasses coming soon, I probably wouldn't have ordered the Ally Solos. Particularly as Seeing AI is better at identifying products than the Ally app is. I'm just hoping that when I wear the Ally glasses, they'll be better at identifying stuff, since they'll be sat on my face so to speak, and I won't have to position the camera. But the Ally app really did halucinate when I asked it what I had. It got totally the wrong type of beef burgers. It said they contained jalapeno, and they definitely didn't! It just made the whole thing up. They were only Birds Eye afterall! I could always send them back if I really don't like them, the glasses not the burgers, they've already been eaten and I liked those no question. I always wanted Seeing AI on a pair of glasses though. Maybe I could have both? The Meta glasses and the Ally Solos? We'll see.

I know Meta has delivered some amazing things in recent years, and, my finger is itching to hit that buy now button, but, I am just holding for Google's version to launch, so can make an informed decision.
Also, I need to know if Seeing AI and other assistive apps make good use of the Meta's SDK. Because the ones from Google are certainly bound to have better integration with all of it's existing Android apps. Yeah, Google Talkback combined with Google's TTS is kind of frustrating, but, if they tackle that in glasses version somehow, and, if we get to see some nice capabilities in terms of accessible navigation and recognition, it might be much better deal.

I'm just speaking for myself personally, but I honestly don't want anything to do with Meta as a company. Yes, I have Facebook, but I consider it more of a necessary evil than something I genuinely want. For everyone who is excited about all of these new announcements, that's great, and I'm sure I'll read as much as I can just for my own knowledge, but I just have a lot more confidence in Envision. Can't wait to get my Ally Solos glasses; they'll probably meet my needs better than the Metas did and will almost certainly have fewer privacy concerns.

Perception is everything. I don't trust Meta because of Facebook's track record with user privacy. If I'm going to be having glasses with a camera on them, I want that data in the hands of a company with a strong and proven track record for putting user privacy first. That said, though Meta glasses are not for me, I am very glad that third-party apps like Seeing AI are going to be able to come to the glasses; and Meta's inclusion of a screen reader on the display model is a welcome development.

Post it here, and was really surprised noone did till now. I knew all the stuff including the humanwear and seeing AI integrations, and am happy I waited till the meta connect event before deciding as to whether or not to order Ally Solos. I honestly believe the opening up of the developer toolkit is revolutionary. Also, I'm not sure what promis that meta gave is that they've failed to fullfill? I mean, I can understand if someone did say meta never gave us any promisses, but don't know what they promissed and didn't deliver. If you ask me, that's Apple not meta.
Edit: I guess most of you've heard of it, but in case you haven't, the humanwear integration will also include indoor navigation facilitation; I'm excited for it; in as much as I have my doubts as to how practically it'll work.

I think a lot of people in regions such as the UK were unhappy with the delay on getting the actual AI portion of Meta AI. That and of course being able to describe your scene/photo/whatever with said AI.

The AI is pretty unreliable. It gets a lot wrong. And it’s a lot to invest in with so much that it can’t/won’t do. And the meta presentation with Zuckerberg failed pretty miserably. And between this being unreliable, Glyde being delayed, echo vision being delayed, envision being unreliable, people have gotten weary. Be my eyes and be my AI work ok on the phone. And Google XR are on the horizon. Apple glasses are coming. And they are a year or three away. A lot of excitement earlier in the year. Just to be repeatedly let down. People are burnt out.

I don't know what there is to be frustrated about when I think of the fact that some 15 months ago, getting a picture described the way it is today by an LLM was not even in the frame of possibilities. These are all early itterations and there are bound to be glitches, failures, and even regression. I mean, IOS got its screenreader first only in version 3 if I'm not wrong. Just because there have been some setbacks doesn't mean either that the potential cannot be realised or that one's got to mistrust everything. in as much as it is not ethical on the part of any company to make unfullfillable promisses, it's unreasonable on our part, as consumers, to set unrealistic expectations.

It’s just that there’s too many promises that have been made. People got their hopes up. They thought that by this point, they would be using glyde and they would be running around doing all the things they’ve been dreaming about. They thought that they would be using smart glasses, too read everything around them, have everything described without fail, meet the partner of their dreams, etc. And it came to fast and too hard. And then when it started looking like all those things were going to take a little while longer, they pulled back. So now they’re hyper cautious.

I wasn't aware that these new products would be open for development instead of totally tied to Meta's ecosystem, and to me that changes absolutely everything. Whereas I couldn't care less about the Meta Raybans as they were, a wearable like that to which I can develop my own software for is a dream for me, so short of any major showstopper details I'll be all over these. The only Meta service that I use is WhatsApp because I'm kinda forced to use it, but if these platforms end up being open enough to allow my creativity to flow, then Meta might just have won me as a customer. Privacy is not an issue here since to my knowledge none of these devices has its own Internet connection, and I can just run large machine learning models on my Mac Studio back home so none of what I intend to be using these devices for will be sent to untrusted destinations.

Anyone remember the Osbourne? It is a fossilized dinosaur today in the rapid growth of technology today, but at the time it was a massive forerunner of the laptop computer. It was roughly suitcase sized, weighed 23 pounds, and the keyboard folded over to cover the five inch screen. I believe it came out in 1975. so it is exactly fifty years old.

In late 1976, Osbourne announced the coming of the Osbourne II to hit the market sometime in 1977. So what happened?

Suddenly, people stopped buying the original Osbourne , preferring to wait for the Osbourne II. Revenue fell off so sharply that Osbourne eventually folded its keyboard one last time and filed for Chapter 11. It never emerged from bankruptcy and disappeared from the market. It made promises so extravagant that it encouraged people to wait rather than purchase the original unit. Had it kept its promises to itself, it might still be around today. Apparently, Dufferberg never heard of the Osbourne and its tragic marketing fiasco.

Feofil

The day you code something for this platform I purchase one, even if I don't need it or your software at all :) just sayin...

VOSH on Meta?
🎵 Dun—dunn—dunnn! 🎶

I have other plans for wearables, which I was already going to implement using Apple products and may require an iPhone to run muscle code on its GPU, but until I actually find out what's available I can't really tell exactly how I'm going to use Meta's hardware.

Just took the time to read about the Wearables Device Toolkit, and what I gather is that it's not really going to run anything on the wearables themselves, which to me is really good news because that likely means direct access to the audio, video, and motion sensor data streams from a companion device like an iPhone. Therefore unless Apple pulls yet another anti-competitive stunt to limit what Meta can actually deliver, I think it will be good, and am not subscribing as a developer right now because I still have work to finish.

Very much looking forward to seeing what you dream up. It is all very exciting.

There is an app, or a concept, called The VOICE. It scans an image and presents an audio version using volume and pitch to denote colour and height whilst presenting it in a stereo sweep. It's a really interesting idea; the developer has just never had the mainstream platform for it, instead having to suggest clunky old Android glasses. With this, and with very little set up for the user, I imagine it will find far more traction. It's an interesting solution; with enough training, it activates the visual cortex. It basically rewires the brain through exposure.

More info here if anyone is interested.

Exciting times.

What do people think of the Vanguards by Oakley? I'm thinking they will be my device of choice, but realise they are a bit more expensive, and I do worry I will look like a twerp in them... More of a twerp.

I am quite invested in my Meta smart glasses. Use them every day, for all sorts of tasks, which intern give me greater independence. Having said that, I really hope Apple does not put any silly limitations on the development toolkit for Meta. I'm really looking forward to seeing what developers come up with.

I can see that at some point this will have its own cellular connection. Maybe not this iteration. But eventually. Apple is also fast tracking their smart glasses to directly compete with them. Apparently they’re making one that will be dependent on your mobile phone. The other one will be its own device. I think that smart glasses will eventually be our cell phones and our main device really.

I can see that happening somewhere down the line. Smart glasses replacing smart phones as a daily driver, with their own cellular connection, Bluetooth chips, etc., etc. Meta will absolutely need to update their touch panel on the right arm though. Currently, it is extremely limited. Other smart glass designers will likely have to incorporate something similar. I mean, voice is nice, and introducing gestures we could do with our hands, in front of the camera while we wear the device to get things to happen, could work, but probably not very efficiently with today's technology.
Still, the potential is definitely there...

Good morning Mr. Grieves!
You know, I forgot all about the Neural Band. I suppose that, paired with the smart glasses, could definitely be a game changer for touch interactivity. 🙂

Having a wrist band as an input device for my iPhone could be game changing. Imagine operating your iPhone while it's still resting in your pocket, doing gestures using wrist band while VO speaks in your ears using airpods. It's probably never going to happen from Meta's side, but, I am sure other brands or perhaps even Apple might realize the potential of such an innovative input method. Perhaps, they might even integrate the tech in Apple Watches.