“It gives me the advantages that sighted people have.” For Brian Manning, smart glasses are more than just a fun toy; they bring new independence and an easier way to interact with the world.
A partnership with Ray-Ban and Oakley, Meta’s new generation of smart glasses have cameras built in to take photos and video, subtle speakers so the wearer can hear audio, and a microphone to interact with the artificial intelligence that ties everything together.
Manning is no stranger to assistive technology. An IT trainer at Vision Ireland, he has tested many devices intended to make life easier.
“We had so many experiences of wearables that were going to change the lives of blind people. I’ve experienced them, I tested them and none of them every really worked out. So I was a bit dismissive and cynical initially,” he says.
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But as talk about the glasses and their potential picked up pace, he decided to try them out. The glasses were a birthday gift to himself, a chance to test them out not as a technology trainer but from a more personal perspective.
“I was gobsmacked by them,” he says. “For the most part I live alone. I was getting the feeling that these could really enhance my independence, my ability to live alone and function alone, and have so many extra aspects to my life that I would probably have had regardless of the Meta glasses, but in a very convenient and expeditious way.”
The convenience is the key factor. Much of what the glasses do can already be done by smartphones and apps but the glasses make things quicker and more convenient for users. Manning says that while he has found smartphone apps helpful, the process is longer.
“I’d have to click on this app and that app, and then I would get the response I wanted. I could read my mail, I could do my product identifiers but it would take a minute or two to get what I wanted.
“With this piece of technology, I could go to the freezer and, say I want fish fingers, I can put my hand in, feel what should be fish fingers and say ‘Hey Meta, take a look. What is this?’ and I would have it straight away.”
He often uses the example of the peas versus beans challenge. You have five tins of peas, and five tins of beans in the kitchen; you want a tin of beans, but you might have to open five tins of peas before you get to the beans.
It could be butter versus margarine, any product that can be easily confused with another. “With this technology, you can just say, hey Meta, take a look. What am I holding?’ And that’s it, done.”
Manning’s experience with assistive technology is extensive. He started work with the National Council for the Blind Ireland 25 years ago, helping other people with vision difficulties to get up to speed on devices that could transform their lives.
One of his first jobs was to set up a scanning machine for a woman that would allow her to read her mail. “She told me it was the first time in her life she had been able to read her own mail,” he says. “If I had these glasses for that lady 25 years ago, I wouldn’t have had to go through the elongated process of training her [to use the scanning machine].”
There is still something of a learning curve: finding out how to interact with the glasses, what they can do and, more importantly, what they cannot is a skill in itself. The glasses rely on Meta’s AI, and that means learning how to phrase requests so that the AI can get to the desired information in the quickest possible time.
“They’re like a teenager; the response you get depends on the language you use to interact. It’s the same with Meta AI: you learn to refine the language you are using,” Manning explains. “You have to be more refined in the way you communicate with the glasses to get a better response from them. That’s a matter of training and a matter of experience.”
After a year with the glasses and hours of use, he now knows some of the best prompts to use. Those can be passed on as part of his training and he learns from other trainers’ use of them too.
Another point in favour of the glasses is the ability to get straight to the point. While scanning machines read everything on a page, the AI-powered glasses can cut straight to the point.
“You’ll get the exact information you want, which is good. You can go to a restaurant and sit down and read the menu. You can cherry pick – I don’t want to look at the steak: is there a chicken dish? How much is it?”
The same could be applied to reading the post. You don’t want the scanner to read every transaction on your bank statement; you might just need to know the deposit total. The glasses can cut out the “gibberish”, as Mannings says.
It doesn’t always work out, though, as the AI defaults to analysing text rather than reading it word for word.
“It’s a bad thing in another sense because sometimes you’ll ask Meta to read the text and instead it’ll analyse it. That is grand if you are happy to analyse the text; you can just ask a question and have a conversation with Meta. But if you do want to read the full text, it’s important that you do.”
Meta has taken some of the feedback from users on board and has integrated the glasses with apps such as Be My Eyes, which connects blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers for real-time assistance. Wearers can also use the glasses with Whatsapp video calls if they need assistance from friends or family.
“The technology was something we invented to be a fun toy, to basically allow people to upload cool videos to Instagram. It was the addition of AI into that form factor that has made them this incredible accessibility device,” says Matt Sanders, director of wearables accessibility and impact at Meta.
“We realised that people were using it as an accessibility device; that’s when we realised we had to start leaning into that and being more deliberate in the way that we worked with accessibility communities.”
The AI can also respond with more detailed descriptions if needed, giving information about where objects are, people around you or the signage the glasses can pick up. The feature was designed by a blind engineer at Meta, whose own experience led to its development.
The glasses are still seen as complementary rather than replacing existing mobility aids, such as a guide dog.
“It’s enhancing your other mobility skills. I would always say, no matter what the mobility aid you’re using, these technologies support them,” says Manning. The guide dog is my main mobility aid but the glasses would definitely complement whatever independence the dog has given me, the same with the cane.”
The introduction of the technology comes with its own caveats. The use of personal information to train AI is an ongoing battle that Meta has fought, particularly in Europe, with users pushing back and the company offering users here a way to opt out.
One of its key advantages is the fact that the technology does not stand out, but that has also been raised as a red flag. Privacy concerns are an issue for those wearing the glasses for recreation rather than to help with their day-to-day independence. The potential for covert recording and the loss of privacy has seen Meta put measures in place such as an LED indicator light that gives away when the camera is being used.
The issue has not yet been satisfactorily resolved. Although the glasses have a tamper-detection technology that will not allow recording to start if the LED has been covered, it won’t stop recording if the wearer subsequently obscures it. And critics point out it puts the onus on other people to be aware that they are being recorded.
“Our terms of service clearly state that users are responsible for complying with all applicable laws and should not tamper with the product. As with any recording device, including phones, people should use AI glasses in a safe, respectful manner, which includes not engaging in harmful activities like harassment, infringing privacy rights, or capturing sensitive information,” a spokeswoman for Meta said. “We are aware that there are small numbers of users who choose to misuse our products, despite the measures we have put in place.”
Meta is likely to have competition in this space in the coming months, with Google recently showcasing its own AI glasses, and rumours of more companies set to enter the market.
Key to their success will be the AI models that underpin them, and the willingness of users to embrace them.
“The AI that underpins this is only going to get better and better, and as the models get better, they’re going to become even better accessibility devices,” says Sanders.
