Stepping into the future: Seleste smart glassess Unreview

Have you ever been asked, "how do you do [insert task here] without eyesight?" I live in a metro city, so you can imagine I am asked questions like that all the time.
All, the, time. . .

My go-to response is always the same, "I would much rather be blind now, in this point in time, than 50 years ago."

Why? Because of technology. I am a huge tech enthusiast. I love reading about new technology and technological discoveries. Having said that, I am very much looking forward to reading everyone's experiences and feedback on this and similar tech.

As stated, now is a good time to be blind.

Now is a good time to shine! 😎

I got the email and the correction today too. I'm in Canada, so mine are slated to arrive on the 22nd. I figure next weekend will be a writeoff. There will be fiddling, downloading, muttering, gasping, more fiddling, and generally, all the good things that come with unpacking and learning new tec. Can't wait.

I have to wait until the shipment in late April. I ordered a few days after all of them were sold. Super excited for you almost euphoric sometimes at the age we are in

My glasses are set to arrive on the 26th of March. I'm looking forward to what they have to offer as well!

I also live in the UK and have also received my notification of dispatch et cetera! Has anybody actually dared open the app yet? I wonder how we will get instructions about setting up the glasses? From the app? I own a pair of meta Rayban glasses which were pretty complicated to set up and on a couple of pages required cited assistance because they did not work with VoiceOver so I anticipate that the Seleste will be much more Blind friendly yes, I have very high hopes of these glasses for helping me interact with the world and people
Harry

I ordered these sometime in march so missed the deadline. Sad, but I guess there might be a few more updates or something. I still can't wait.

I opened the app, and it started to tell me how to launch the glasses, so like Lotti, I too just closed it to wait for the glasses. Making it " through work on Friday is going to be a challenge. The last time I was this excited was waiting for my Apple Watch. I think this will be even better.

I'll post when I start in on playing with them. I also look forward to everyone else's impressions.

I find the Meta Ray-Ban glasses good as everyday audioglasses. On the odd occasion, it is great to take and share a photo - but not often. The key appeal will come when we get the update to enable AI, though that may be many weeks away. Buying Meta Ray-Ban glasses is a gamble but at least the cost is limited and not massively more than Bose Frames or Airpods Pro.
The Seleste glasses will be the Real Deal for blind folk and I hope that my Seleste glasses will not get delayed at Customs with demands for import taxes!
Harry

I was going to get the Seleste glasses last year when I heard about it the price back in those days was set at around $800
Wow!!! I said with some happy face finally some smart glasses at a excellent price
However few weeks later I recievd a email from the company to let me know that was going to change the prices at subscription payments
50 american dollars at month
I set no in about 3 years or so it will cost the same as NVision glasses or even more expensive
One more thing Meta view app its very accessible with voiceOver also the set up process of Ray Ban Meta smart glasses is very accessible
I don't know why some blind people always blame Accessibility when they are not able to perform some tasks

So I have to wait until next Tuesday. I was hoping to have them before I left for CSUN, but life can't be that convenient. LOL. Anyway, I''ll be checking back here to see if others have posted before I get mine to learn what I can!

I will be going also at CSUN
March 21th
I am using the early access of ray ban meta
and the Look feature using the camera is working good for me.
If somebody is interesting in know about the meta design and how the glasses look and feel
contact me and we can meet at CSUN

I'm in Canada, and mine weren't supposed to arrive until the 25th, but I just checked my Canada Post link, and it says they have been delivered to my mailbox! Can't wait to get home from work and try them out!

hi all, so, i just want to understand what these can and cannot do. I can read say letters, magazines, books and the like i can read signs across the street i can have the glasses describe a scene at present though, is this it? so we can't yet go outside, and as we walk, hear what's around? i was going get these for work as we have emails come in with pictures or photographs attached showing repairs, could i ask the glasses to look at the laptop screen and describe the picture? it is very scant information as to why we are paying per month for these, and what we can expect in the future.

it does seem a steep price per month to pay just to query chat Gpt or similar if i am honest, if it had the ability to interact with my surroundings outside tell me where I am have the camera scanning as i walk telling me to dodge oncoming children or buggies etc. would be great; it's just a shame that hardly any information seems available as to their limitations at present so will be watching this thread with interest and what do the US have on the glasses that other countries like for me in the Uk do not?

So you can scan text, get your scene described to you, ask it questions about stuff, what am I holding, that kind of stuff.

There's also a auto scanning mode thing where it's meant to take pictures every second and let you know once you've found what ever it is you need.

I honestly don't know how much use blind people will get out of this on a day to day bassess but I'll check out the reviews when they get here.

I purchased the glasses the other day and they were only $150 plus the subscription. that seems way more affordable than $800 with a subscription, even if the subscription is significantly lower than it is now. Unless the original $800 was to buy them outright.

When seleste started offering the smart glasses thae price was to a single payment $800 not subscription at all
Now you have to do monthly subscription $50 American dollars
in a year will be total of $600
2 years $1200
3 years 1800
and so more
if you have not seen this in about 3 years almost will cost the same amount of The spensive Nvision glasses.

I'm in favor of the subscription model for one reason. It includes both hardware and software upgrades. If you were to pay once, you'd most likely have to purchase any newer versions that come out. This way, you get new glasses whenever they release new glasses.

Oh okay, that makes more sense. I’ve heard that now a single payment would be around $3000, so I get where you’re coming from in that regard. Seems like things have changed pretty drastically. I personally have no problem with the subscription model as it exists now though. The free upgrades in software and hardware definitely make it worth it for me. I don’t think envision glasses would offer anything similar, at least in regards to hardware.

Envision does offer a subscription that includes hardware upgrades, but its only available in the US at the time of this writing. It's also $150 per month, so definitely more expensive.

hi i note the scene descriptions is seemingly a lot better than chat gpt, so are the glasses using a better AI? also, i am still interested, if i took a picture of my PC screen that had a photo on the screen would it be described?

so when we are out and about, can the glasses intigrate with Aira i wonder as a camera? it would be far more affordable that way for when out and about as real-life human eyes are viewing our surroundings, have people in Canada and those who have them tried them yet? other demos than those from the company direct i feel would be needed as of now but the glasses are tempting, how long is the battery life by the way?

@Will I'm guessing that any picture in the computer screen will be described; at least, Be My AI already does that and anyway, that only makes sense. And of course, you can ask it questions so...

Have any of you tried them? what're your impressions? do any of you plan to make a recording? I'm so excited!

Hey there Gokul,

Yes, once my glasses come, I will have recordings made.
My partner Michelle is getting hers first apparrently, so we will see if she will let me help her set them up, etc, and she may do her own recording.

I got mine today, but getting them connected isn't very smoothe. They managed to connect once to my home wifi, but then when I tried to connect them to my iPhone's hotspot, they refused to join that, and afterward, never connected to my home wifi again.

I did get about 5 minutes to work with them, and they described my kitchen pretty well, and even found my dog when asked. I think they'll be pretty neat once the connection thing gets sorted out.

They'll have to join my hotspot, or I'l; have to send them back. I intend to use them while away from home, so they can't be dependent on wifi.

One other neat feature is that you can route the audio from the glasses through your phone. I like that because it then comes out through my bluetooth earbud, and the sound quality is much better.

If anyone else has them, I'd love to hear if your connection went better than mine. I emailed the developer, and am confident they'll reach out to help. !

And we already have a call scheduled. Stay tuned for updates.

So, I deleted all my unsuccessful attempts to connect to wi-fi, and started again from scratch. Both my home wi-fi and iPhone hotspot are now connected. I can't wait to try this thing on a powerpoint at work tomorrow.

I just used it on a document we received in the mail. According to my husband, it is formatted with text boxes, columns, and a bunch of stuff that makes reading difficult with most screenreaders. The seleste glasses read it like a pro.

It does take about 5 seconds or so, maybe a little less to scan a page, but a person could actually hold and read a book.

So far, I'm impressed. I'm going to proof this with my glasses. 😁

I got mine today, and let me just say, make sure you have adequate lighting!
My room is dark, so I think sometimes they have a hard time seeing, but I'm going to try more during the daytime, it is late Thursday night here for me... and we will see how things go around my mother's house tomorrow while she's out.
I'm super excited, and can't wait for Michelle to come home and get hers, as they should be arriving sometime between tomorrow and this weekend!

I think the most compelling aspect of these is reading books. I understand that it is possible but a couple of questions for those lucky pups among you who have a pair:

1. Does it distinguish between the left and right page or does it simply read straight across each line?

2. How long does it take to scan and begin voicing the page?

3. Is it possible to speed up the voice? I use Alex on about 70 % which, I believe, is a fair approximation of a sighted readers reading speed.

Thank you.

Hey there Ollie,

Honestly, I am pretty impressed with my test of the Seleste glasses thus far.

Hopefully someone will have better information on the book reading capabilities of the glasses, but I will say that despite my dimly lit room, it was able to see what was around me pretty decently, although it did say that the image was blurry and out of focus.

Scanning text:

When scanning text, I was also pretty amazed, despite my room being so dimly lit.
My mother buys these waters from Costco, and the glasses were able to actually tell me what brand they were, and even say how many ounces / milliliters the bottle was!
That was super amazing!
I will do further testing today as it gets lighter outside. Hopefully then I will have better luck with scanning and whatnot with better light from outside.

My mother plans to go out today, so maybe I'll try bringing some things out to the kitchen table, try testing there maybe and see how that goes.

Thank you and yeah! I always always forget that my flat is dark. I tend to leave the curtains shut too, so god knows what the neighbors think of me.

I look forward to hearing peoples demos on these glasses not going invest quite yet so Lottie how long as you are in the Uk did it take you to get them?

Hey Lotti, I just got a complement on the glasses from someone who didn't know they have special powers. We were on a Teams meeting, and I got a text that said they looked cool. She then clarified that she had no idea they could scan and read text, just that they look styl'n.

I have just a couple complaints about them at this point.
When turning them on, I have to have the phone and app open for them to connect, and connecting takes a long time. Also, I don't appear to be able to summon Ela today, while on my hotspot at work. Seen and tex! description are working well though.

I will apreciate a side by side comparison with the Ray-Bans at some point. Naturally, we need to wait for meta AI to be properly rolled out, but I think they might just win on economy of scale. These need to really nail down a USP that can't be replicated anywhere else.

I have Managed to connect my glasses to my home router for Wi-Fi but I simply cannot work out how to connect to my personal hotspot on my iPhone 15 pro for when I go out! I have triple check that the password I enter and the name of my phone are correct and my wife who can see well has also checked But I simply get an error message. Has anybody else managed to connect to the personal hotspot of an iPhone? Advice solely needed! Thanks Harry York

is it possible to hear the audio from the iPhone through the glasses? Whether that is radio, podcast, music or voice? It is frustrating that there is no documentation! Thanks Harry

Has anyone used the micro-USB earpiece that comes in the Seleste box? Harry

I have tried resetting network settings on my iPhone and then trying connecting to personal hotspot - but same error message! Any ideas? Thanks. Harry

Hi, There is an article for connecting Envision glasses to iPhone hotspots. Apparently unlike with Android it is a fiddly thing. For EG you cannot connect the glasses on the same phone as the app as you need to leave the hotspot screen in settings open until they connect the first time. So they suggest creating a QR code on a different device and using that. May have nothing to do with how you do it with these but thought I'd put it out there just in case.

That you could hear the glasses out of the arm peaces, I don't have them but that's what I thought, I asume the ear pease connects to the glasses and you can then hear out of both sides.

The speakers aren't the best and according to shub they're going to be improved in the next design.

There really really should be instructions on how to set these up and stuff like that.

It's fine that you guys get a mailing list but honestly this isn't professional and I will be writing to shub about this and recommend you do the same.

It does not seam as simple as, press pairing button, go into bluetooth, pair glasses, done.

I'd like those of you who do have this to review my email and to tel me if it's worth sending or could do with some cleaning up or what you think about it.

I don't want to come across as to harsh but i want to get my point across, on the other hand; I don't have the glasses and shub knows this, I'm planning on buying the glide instead and he's also aware of this.

start of email: hi shub, I just remembered we were meant to talk, I completely forgot, sorry about that.

Having said that, people are having issues paring their glasses, I've pasted a link to show you this. https://applevis.com/forum/assistive-technology/stepping-future-seleste-smart-glassess-unreview?page=1#comment-164869

I think a lot of blind people, including myself are not a fan of you not giving out any instructions on how to use the glasses.

You have a youtube channel showing off the features but you don't have anything with clear instructions on how to use the thing.

If I buy a product, I expect instructions on how to use it so this shouldn't be any diffirent.

I know i'm not buying it, I'm buying the glide instead but you can garentee that's going to come with instructions.

I'm sorry but if this keeps up, people are going to return your glasses and if you're not careful; your company is going to collapse.

--
Thanks for reading, Brad.

End of email.

For those who have issues, please turn on the setting that says, "Maximum compatibility" in the settings for your hotspot.
If you do not do this... connection to the hotspot will fail.
Hth,
Portia.

I think I'll leave it and let those of you who have the glasses email him.

@lottie is right, the company is very small at the moment.

Speaking of, did you get my reply lottie? Applevis sent me a blank email and I was wondering what that's all about.

I had already turned on max compatibility for personal hotspot but it still failed! Harry

I was able to read both messages and send you replies, did you get any?

I finally got this to connect, but it is fiddly indeed.
First, go into the Seleste app, and delete where you have the hotspot saved. I promise you it won't work unless you do that first.
Next step, go into settings, and open the hotspot settings, making sure that compatibility is on.
Don't back out of the hotspot. Just go back to the Seleste app either by swiping or by going to the home screen and opening Seleste from there.
Go to Internet settings, and rescan. You should then see your hotspot. Be sure to set it as hotspot and not as wi-fi.
That should work.

As I said earlier, this is fiddly, and I noticed that the glasses didn't automatically connect to my hotspot while at work yesterday. I think it might have something to do with my iPhone having been connected to a secure network, which I've since removed, so we'll see when I go out later.

We'll see how fast improvements roll out. I want to give these a chance, but need good productivity today, not in months or years. I'm contemplating the Meta glasses and fear that if there's AI, Seleste may not keep up.

I'm wary of using blindness products after using a smart cane, which was chosen by the so-called amazon as the initiative of the year, but which cannot be used in the rain and is charged with MicroUSB. By the way, with a rain of emails every day, I pressure Meta look and ask to make it globally available, and I highly recommend you do that.

The guy wants everyone to use it.

The glide is but I'm not bothered about that.

Well, I took advice from you all! What a relief! I have eventually managed to connect my glasses to my personal hotspot! I noticed that the name of my iPhone personal hotspot did not actually appear in other people's list of available personal hotspots, so I change the name of my iPhone a few times and then rang Apple Accessibility Helpline who said I was doing everything right and then I used the iPhone Shortcuts app to add the Accessibility shortcut to create a QR code for Wi-Fi and then I went back and had another go with the personal hotspot in the Seleste app and I asked Siri whilst that was going on to QR hotspot! All very mysterious
I have now been out for a walk with my glasses and got Ela to continuously describe to me all that was going on in front of me! Fantastic!
Thanks
Harry