I am getting the Meta Ray-Ban glasses. I am in the Middle East, so will I miss on features? I am going to use it to read text on paper and few other basic stuff, will this work outside EU and US?
Hey there @Maldalain,
You may not have live AI right away, but the look and describe what you see feature should work for you.
I'd say that reading text will be complicated at first until you figure out how to prompt it for the text correctly.
Especially as these glasses were not made specifically for the visually impaired, it can pose a chalenge.
Congratulations though, on those new glasses!
Presently not even the EU gets the ability to describe things the camera can see, it's only US, Canada and Australia.
Edit
Portia, look and tell outside those three countries has been very inconsistent and has often required messing with a VPN but increasingly isn't possible even with a VPN. It's as if Meta are realising people are working around the restrictions and trying to block it.
I don't believe you can do that at present. The only way to do that unguided is to use Meta AI's Look and Ask which is only available in the US, Canada and Australia at present.
You can take photos with the glasses, then import them into the phone and use other apps to do it for you, but that does defeat the object a little.
There are some options that require another person to help you. Firstly, you can do WhatsApp video messaging to someone you know and ask them to read it. Or you could use a service like AIRA or Be My Eyes, although I don't know for sure if that's available where you are.
Can you do that with Meta AI on the glasses? I'll have to have a play later.
But presumably this does still require Meta AI of some sort and I'm not sure which countries it is available in. It only just came out in the UK without look and ask recently.
Yes, you can do this with the Meta AI. This is what I do. First I use the capture button to just take a random photo of whatever. Then I activate Meta AI, and I ask it something like "tell me about the last photo I took".
Would I get back as a brief description of the photograph I took, you can ask it more questions too depending on what's in the photograph. Well not perfect, I think it's a clever workaround for the current issue with the visual AI not being available in certain regions.
Hi @Brian, this is Kyler Golden. I saw your comment on this thread and I recently just joined the Meta bandwagon as well. To answer your question, yes, you can take a photo with the capture button and then say something like, "Hey Meta, describe my last photo." HTH.
Firstly, the VPN. Short answer is no it appears not. This has worked for me for a long time this year, but a few weeks ago stopped and it seems that Meta has clamped down on this. The terms and conditions now saying that using a VPN is against the rules. A number of people have reported this same problem.
I believe if you were to factory reset the glasses, uninstall MetaView, then switch on a VPN and set it all up again from scratch using a different Meta account then it supposedly will work. You will likely need to have the VPN running forevermore. But at this point I thought I will wait and hope that it comes to us properly.
Regarding describing the last photo, that's a nice feature. I just tried it and unfortunately it doesn't work for me - it tells me to go to the MetaView app for more details about a photo. So I am guessing that function is tied into look and ask. Pity. But at least it saves my photo roll from becoming filled up with lots of crap.
Regarding describing photos, thats a shame if it's not working for everyone, I would think that would at least be allowed within the limitations set forth by those countries in which "Look and See" is currently not permitted.
That is what I get for thinking, I suppose ... 🙄
Probably because the same legal concerns apply regardless of whether the glasses are taking a picture to describe or describing an existing picture. You know there are going to be sighted people using the glasses in inappropriate ways and a work around for us would be equally a work around for them.
I get this shouldn't affect us but we don't live in an ideal world. Meta aren't about to start asking for medical certificates to enable features, that would be an even bigger privacy and legal headache than just enabling the feature.
Comments
Re: Meta Ray-Ban More Questions
Hey there @Maldalain,
You may not have live AI right away, but the look and describe what you see feature should work for you.
I'd say that reading text will be complicated at first until you figure out how to prompt it for the text correctly.
Especially as these glasses were not made specifically for the visually impaired, it can pose a chalenge.
Congratulations though, on those new glasses!
Presently
Presently not even the EU gets the ability to describe things the camera can see, it's only US, Canada and Australia.
Edit
Portia, look and tell outside those three countries has been very inconsistent and has often required messing with a VPN but increasingly isn't possible even with a VPN. It's as if Meta are realising people are working around the restrictions and trying to block it.
What can be done with the Glasses outside supported regions
So I do not want to buy something for very little use. Can I get it to read text?
Reading text
I don't believe you can do that at present. The only way to do that unguided is to use Meta AI's Look and Ask which is only available in the US, Canada and Australia at present.
You can take photos with the glasses, then import them into the phone and use other apps to do it for you, but that does defeat the object a little.
There are some options that require another person to help you. Firstly, you can do WhatsApp video messaging to someone you know and ask them to read it. Or you could use a service like AIRA or Be My Eyes, although I don't know for sure if that's available where you are.
What if ...
What if they take a photo with the capture button, then ask the AI to describe the photo? Is that possible?
@Brian
Can you do that with Meta AI on the glasses? I'll have to have a play later.
But presumably this does still require Meta AI of some sort and I'm not sure which countries it is available in. It only just came out in the UK without look and ask recently.
VPN
Will having a VPN give me the chance to have all features of the glasses?
Re: Describing photos
Yes, you can do this with the Meta AI. This is what I do. First I use the capture button to just take a random photo of whatever. Then I activate Meta AI, and I ask it something like "tell me about the last photo I took".
Would I get back as a brief description of the photograph I took, you can ask it more questions too depending on what's in the photograph. Well not perfect, I think it's a clever workaround for the current issue with the visual AI not being available in certain regions.
Re: What if...
Hi @Brian, this is Kyler Golden. I saw your comment on this thread and I recently just joined the Meta bandwagon as well. To answer your question, yes, you can take a photo with the capture button and then say something like, "Hey Meta, describe my last photo." HTH.
Re: VPN and Describing Last Photos
Firstly, the VPN. Short answer is no it appears not. This has worked for me for a long time this year, but a few weeks ago stopped and it seems that Meta has clamped down on this. The terms and conditions now saying that using a VPN is against the rules. A number of people have reported this same problem.
I believe if you were to factory reset the glasses, uninstall MetaView, then switch on a VPN and set it all up again from scratch using a different Meta account then it supposedly will work. You will likely need to have the VPN running forevermore. But at this point I thought I will wait and hope that it comes to us properly.
Regarding describing the last photo, that's a nice feature. I just tried it and unfortunately it doesn't work for me - it tells me to go to the MetaView app for more details about a photo. So I am guessing that function is tied into look and ask. Pity. But at least it saves my photo roll from becoming filled up with lots of crap.
Thats too bad
Regarding describing photos, thats a shame if it's not working for everyone, I would think that would at least be allowed within the limitations set forth by those countries in which "Look and See" is currently not permitted.
That is what I get for thinking, I suppose ... 🙄
Too bad...
Probably because the same legal concerns apply regardless of whether the glasses are taking a picture to describe or describing an existing picture. You know there are going to be sighted people using the glasses in inappropriate ways and a work around for us would be equally a work around for them.
I get this shouldn't affect us but we don't live in an ideal world. Meta aren't about to start asking for medical certificates to enable features, that would be an even bigger privacy and legal headache than just enabling the feature.