Be My Eyes "Call a Volunteer" on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses!

By Hans Jørgen Wiberg, 25 September, 2024

Forum
Assistive Technology

Hi everyone,

I am Hans Wiberg, and 10 years ago I founded Be My Eyes!

I wanted to let you know about something we’ve been working on that I think might be useful to our community. You may have even heard the announcement by Mark Zuckerberg at the Meta Connect event earlier today….

We have been working with Meta engineers for some time now, to make Be My Eyes available on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. This is not some superficial work but real platform integration by their engineers and ours to try and make sure it is as smooth and as easy to use as possible.

The first function that we are releasing will be our call-a-volunteer. Now you will be able to do so just by voice command, without needing to hold a phone, and completely hands-free. This has been something that the Be My Eyes community has been requesting for quite some time. Although ‘hands-free’ does not sound much, we think it could really be significant. After all, no-one really wants to juggle with a phone when trying to sort something out, which is the reason for the volunteer call in the first place!

The problem until now has been that ‘wearables’ were simply not quite there technically, and as we all know the price point for some hardware alternatives has been prohibitively high.

But now with a typical price point of around $299 for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, that all changes. Which is why Meta and Be My Eyes were so keen to do something. And of course our service to end users is still completely free as always.

The announcement was today, but first we want to complete a beta testing phase, so it will be available in certain countries in a few weeks (we’ll make an official announcement from Be My Eyes’ channels). But in the meantime I would be really curious to hear what you think of this.

Best,
Hans

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Comments

By Tara on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

Hi Hans,
I live in the UK and I love your app. I've been using it for some years now. I particularly like the BeMyAI feature. It's great that the Be My Eyes feature will be available on an affordable pair of glasses! But I have to ask you, will the BeMyAI feature be available as well? I would love to be able to take pictures and get them described to me as I'm walking along, anything from street signs to things in shops.

By The Blind AI on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

I use BME all day, on my iPhone and Windows laptop. Being able to call a volunteer in this way is the next step towards that future we cann al see ahead of us.

Of course, I want Be My AI via my Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses next! But hey, I'm blind, I want to be able to see as much as I can, as easily as I can.

Cheers. Amazing service - been using it for around 7 years now.

By Orlando on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

First off, let me say thank you not only for this announcement but also for bringing this wonderful website back for all of us so we all have a community! I have been using my Ray-Ban Meadows since June of this year and I loved them! I cannot wait to test out this new integration and I cannot wait to see where things go in the future for these types of products!
Again thank you so much for everything that you guys have done! Be My Eyes has had a great 2024 so far! And 2025 will only get better!

By JC on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

So did I. Congratulations! I cannot wait to try it out! I have the meta glasses, so this is perfect for everyone.

By Kelly Pierce on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

Yes, this is an important advancement. I am a highly skilled and confident traveler. I am concerned that Those blind people who are not at my level of travel independence would utilize volunteers for crossing busy intersections and other potentially dangerous areas. The glasses may not be able to show everything and the blind person could ignore valuable sounds in the environment and rely solely on the volunteer describer in possibly dangerous situations. Clear guidelines must be in place to delineate how and why volunteers can or cannot describe or narrate certain items or situations.

By Ollie on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

Hey, Hans!

This is magnificent news! Well done for cracking open something I thought would forever remain locked against these wonderful advancements that seemed a little out of reach. I'm aware other and similar support services are attempting to find ways around the limitations, am I correct in thinking your offering will be 'baked in' rather than being a work around?

Also, thank you so much for saving our site from oblivion! I completely understood the issues that were faced and the reasons from David and the team who have put so much work into this place for us, but I admit to feeling rather low without this lifeline in our dark wanderings of apple tech. I realised that, it's not only the resource of being able to find help here but, something that is rarer for us, being able to provide help, where we can. Too often we feel like takers, friends and family helping us with us feeling we aren't able to return the favour. Here, we can feel like we are contributing... At least, that's the way `i see it.

Thank you and congratulations on both this site and meta....

Now I just hope the Open AI stuff we saw demoed all those months ago comes to light. I imagine getting chat GPT on meta glasses is out of the question, but even on an iPhone, real time visual feedback from an AI will be epic!!

By kool_turk on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

This is where common sense comes in.

Using tech to cross the street just isn't a good idea. What if the live feed lags? It's better to rely on your own senses for stuff like that. Technology can be helpful, but not for life-or-death situations like crossing the road. Trust your instincts and use your own two ears.

By mr grieves on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

Wow, what a roll Be My Eyes are on at the moment. Firstly they save this site and now they have done what I thought was impossible and integrate themselves properly into the Meta Ray-bans, which I already love and use every day. I honestly didn't believe that Meta even knew that we existed, let alone were ever going to integrate anything into their products for us. This is so exciting not just because Be My Eyes is a great service and this will be a perfect way to make use of it, but also it feels like doors are finally being opened.

Really, really happy about this. Thank you, Hans, and all of your team for everything you do.

By Brooke on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

I can't wait for this to be released, it's awesome news!!!

By PaulMartz on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

I've been on the fence about the Meta Ray Ban glasses. The integration with BME might be enough to get me to look past my reservations about Meta and make the purchase.

Keep up the good work, Hans.

By Top Shelf on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

Personally, my tipping point for the Meta glasses will be when BME features Be My AI using the Llamba 3.2 90B model which I’m pretty sure must be in the pipe-line! Thanks BME and thanks Meta!

By Gokul on Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 17:28

This is great news, though it seems the service is not going to be available in my country at the moment.
Also, I think it's not too much to want to know if some kind of AI integration, maybe involving Llama 3.2 and BeMyAI in the Meta Glasses is in the pipelines? That would be so great.

By MarkSarch on Thursday, October 3, 2024 - 17:28

Hello Hans and Be My Eyes team
first of all, I would like to thank you for such a great job
I am the person who made the podcast to the forum and introduce the Ray Ban Meta to our visual impairment community several months ago
Wow already 6 months ago!!!
From the first moment I had it in my hands, even with their limitations I trusted that the Ray Ban would make a technological revolution for many individuals from our community but I have to admit that it exceeds my expectations in popularity
I love the ideology that Meta has, and although it seems a little crazy
completely always hands-free it is the best option to fit our needs right!
I listened during the weekend the interview they did on the double tap channel and I got excited first to hear the story, how started the conversation with Meta and how happened then the acceptance and the hard work to be able to carry out the integration with Meta and let's hope soon to be able to obtain the O C R functionality in the near future.
Last week I told Michael in a Facebook conversation that he had no idea how many people in our community have obtained the glasses from different parts of the world, Central and South America, some countries in Africa, Spain, Europe and some Asian countries, I hope that Be my eyes will soon be
include and improve for more countries and languages. Believe me, even though in those countries don't speak English, they will appreciate it very much.
Well and lastly, I congratulate you for the great job and you have to keep the good mood and continue working to provide new things in the future
MarkSarch

By viphoana on Thursday, October 3, 2024 - 17:28

I was watching these glasses with interest and, the moment I heard about BMY integration, I got them the next day. Looking forward to hearing news about when beta is opening up for testing. Thanks again for this amazing initiative.