Soooo... here we are again. Another pair of smart glasses. I know.
I had basically written off paying attention to anything new in this space because lets be real, most of it has been disappointing. You get excited, you spend the money, and something about it just does not work the way it should. I returned the last pair I tried. Did not even think twice about it.
But I kept seeing stuff about the Rokid Styles pop up and eventually I gave in and started actually looking into them. Rokid has been around since 2014, they are not some company that just decided glasses were a cool idea last month. They have been doing AR wearables long enough to have figured some things out, and three million dollars on Kickstarter suggests other people think so too.
What pushed me to actually order them was the navigation. That is the thing nobody else is doing. You tell these glasses where you want to go and they give you turn by turn directions through the earpiece. Walking, biking, driving.
They also do the AI stuff, look and tell, translation, calls, reminders. You already know what all that is so I am not going to go through the whole list. The one thing I will flag is that they can record audio and the companion app can transcribe it or summarize it. Useful for meetings, appointments, anything like that. How accessible the app actually is I cannot tell you yet. That is the first thing I am testing when they show up.
Battery is around twelve hours according to what I have read. The case that comes in the box is not a charging case, you buy that separately, which yes is a little annoying but not the end of the world. The glasses are as of right now three hundred dollars. From what I've read, you also get to pick your AI, Google, ChatGPT and I think a few others.
Rokid also has something on their website for blind and disabled users, a twenty dollar voucher with basic verification. Small thing but it means something that they put it there.
My pair is on the way. I could not find a single review from a blind person yet which is a big part of why I am writing this. When they arrive I will tell you exactly how they perform.
Cheers!
Comments
YouTube guide
Here’s the best YouTube video guide I could find on these glasses.
https://youtu.be/jTaZjHAWWA4?si=szKBN7iQdGo-OpCc
Well this is actually interesting
I stopped reading reviews after meta rayBands for the exact reasons you described.
Let's see how's this one.
Let us know
These sound promising, let us know if they're good
Navigation
Is interesting, but I don't know if this kind of turn-by-turn directions, if I understand it correctly, will be any different from using Google Maps with an open ear headset. What I'd really want is a navigation system that combines the map data with the visual info that the camera captures.
@ Gokul
I agree 100%. That’s definitely the dream. Without having them tested yet, the only difference really is that you can access map directions and get turned by turn directions without ever pulling out your phone, which is handy for me because I do like to travel and a lot of the time my hands are full of stuff. Now, if they do more than that, I’m definitely gonna be pleasantly surprised. I really can’t speak to them as I haven’t used them yet but I’ll let you know 😊.
What I would love to see
Of all of the innovations in Smart glasses, something I would really love to see added to a pair of smart glasses, would be a simple compass. I'm not talking about GPS, although that is pretty cool, I'm not talking about turn by turn navigation, or an audio map or anything like that. Just a simple no nonsense compass. It could be something that announces your direction every so many feet, or simply tells you which direction you're facing with a hotkey or even a gesture command.
@ Brian
Right? My ONM skills are fantastic, but for the life of me, I could never tell whether I’m facing north south east or west… I only understand right, left, forward and turn around lol.
Any direct link
Hi,
Anyone have a link direct to the glasses? Doing a google search in the UK all I can find is ones with a display which isn't what these have and they are £589 so can't be the same thing. Can find absolutely no links for these without a display.
@ Lee
Here is the link:
https://global.rokid.com/products/rokid-ai-glasses-style?srsltid=AfmBOorW2S5bZYcHYgaaOfT11TwABv5SSrOWZjuLygoInh_8VBvppeHj
Another thing
Another thing that sets these glasses apart is that you can customize the touch panel on the side to trigger specific ChatGPT prompts. Certain gestures can automatically send different prompts without you having to say anything. For example, if you tap the touchpad with two fingers and hold it, it can instantly send a prompt asking what’s in front of you and start describing the scene.
So these sound like they may have potential
Really itching for a demonstration of these, whether it be via YouTube or another platform...
@ Brian
I can do that for you once I get them :).
Custom prompts
That's cool! could be so useful not shouting out stuff all the time.
Gokul
I've got a funny story for you, regarding what you said in your post above.
So, for context purposes, I live in a high-rise apartment building. I am on the third floor of said building, and one day I was standing at the elevators, waiting for the elevator to arrive so that I can get on and go down to the lobby. There was another guy there as well, and while I was there, I was on the phone. I was, of course, using my Meta's, and talking to a friend of mine. The friend who was in fact downstairs waiting to pick me up. However I was trying to talk quietly, Because I didn't really want anyone else to hear my conversation. So the other person who's standing at the elevator moves up next to me and leans over and whispers very quietly, "Hey man, are you talking to yourself?"
I laughed, and then I said, "No actually, I'm talking to my friend on my smart glasses. She is downstairs, waiting to take me to an appointment."
Needless to say, it would be nice to not always be caught talking to your smart glasses where others can hear you. 🙄
@ Brian
Omg you should have said yes haha.
I have the Rokid display glasses.
So I backed them on Kickstarter and I have the version with the display. I had high hopes for these glasses.
The pros:
They are lightweight and comfortable, you can use ChatGPT and when you ask a question, it is very similar to a Be My Eyes response, very detailed. The navigation works pretty good, you just tell it where you want to go and basically it launches Google Maps and you hear everything through your glasses. The recording with the transcription and summary work really well. The app is mostly accessible, I’d say about 90%, there are a few things you can’t access on it though like brightness and volume, but those are on the display glasses. There are a lot of camera options like being able to shoot in widescreen as opposed to vertical and you have up to a 10 minute recording time which can be extended to unlimited if you use the capsule battery or plug it into a power bank while wearing the glasses.
Cons:
The speakers aren’t as good as the Meta Ray-Ban speakers. When you ask it to describe what’s in front of you, it does take about 8 to 10 seconds to get a result there is no live AI feature yet although customer service tells me that there is a beta, but it is not on my glasses here in the US. The people at customer service are morons and they don’t understand what you’re telling them, I guess they’re translation app doesn’t work too well. There are only two voices and not a lot of customization other than speed adjustment.
Major cons specific to the display glasses:
The way you adjust volume is to select volume in a menu on the display, which volume should never be buried in a menu. I emailed them a suggestion to add a two finger swipe forward and back for volume so that we can use it without going through a menu, it hasn’t happened. The menu system does not have a screen reader. The smart eye app which describes everything that it sees has been promised, but is not out yet, nor is the live AI feature every day, I grabbed the glasses to see if there’s an update to finally give me the features that I want but they never come. It’s been pretty disappointing. I will let you guys know once I get the live AI and smart eye app, and then my opinion will hopefully change.