The Frame eyeglasses provide AI aesthetic analysis, transcription, and web lookup directly in front of the user’s eyes.
Authored by Emma Roth, a news writer specializing in streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and more, who previously worked as a poet and director at MUO.
Introducing the latest innovation in smart eyewear, the Frame glasses priced at $349, offering bidirectional “AI insights.” Developed by Brilliant Labs, these open-source glasses aim to deliver AI translations, web search capabilities, and visual analysis right within the user’s field of vision.
Illustrated in a video shared by Brilliant Labs, users can interact with the glasses using voice commands to perform tasks like identifying landmarks, searching for specific items like sneakers, or retrieving nutritional information for food items. The information is displayed as an overlay directly on the lens.
Available for purchase in three colors – black, white, and clear, the Frame glasses also offer the option to include prescription lenses, albeit at an increased price of $448. The shipping of Frame glasses will commence on April 15th.
While smart glasses are not a novel concept, they have yet to gain widespread popularity. Previous attempts include North’s Focals glasses, Bose’s now-discontinued audio AR sunglasses, and the recently launched Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with beta AI features. Brilliant Labs’ Frame glasses stand out for their open-source nature and customization options, providing users with unprecedented flexibility.
Frame is designed to integrate seamlessly with Brilliant Labs’ software, Noa, featuring an AI assistant powered by OpenAI for visual analysis, Whisper for language processing, and Perplexity for web searches. According to Brilliant Labs, the Noa AI “learns and adapts to both the user and the encountered content.”
Although Noa is currently free to use, there are plans for a paid tier in the future, with details on pricing yet to be disclosed. However, users can rest assured as Brilliant Labs has confirmed on its Discord channel that there will be “no paywall or subscription” for using the eyewear with other applications.
The technical specifications of Frame glasses are outlined by Brilliant Labs on its Discord channel. The glasses feature a 640 by 400 pixel color sub OLED that projects light through a lens in front of the wearer’s eye, offering a vertical field of view of approximately 20 degrees. Additionally, it includes a 1280 by 720 camera, microphone, 222mAh battery, and is powered by an nRF52840 Cortex-M4F CPU, running on a Lua-based custom operating system that is “fully open source with very few dependencies.”
Furthermore, the glasses are accompanied by a unique Mr. Energy cable for fast charging, ensuring “all-day battery life” and adding a whimsical touch by giving the glasses a “nose” when plugged in. While comparisons to other high-end eyewear like Meta’s $299 Ray-Ban glasses or the discontinued Google Glass are premature, Frame glasses are expected to offer a lighter feel on the face, weighing less than 40 grams compared to Apple’s Vision Pro at nearly 600 ounces.
