10 ms·

These could be pretty incredible if the platform was more open. You get highly available image and voice input, and good voice output. Imagine if you could tak

These could be pretty incredible if the platform was more open. You get highly available image and voice input, and good voice output. Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. Not necessarily an awesome Instagram picture, but just a picture of some mail you got, a tool you are putting away, any thing you want to record and save. Heck, why not a picture of your computer screen? Pair that with quickly available audio transcriptions and you can also dictate anything, thoughts, small notes, information associated with the images. That all could be great... if the library of things you made was useful. It's pretty clear how it could be useful now; do some OCR and other detection on images, use a vector store for both that and transcripts, and hook it all up to an LLM assistant. It's a bit complicated, and a bit expensive to run, but at least for a prototype you could make something pretty incredible. Meta might make something like that... but they aren't doing that yet, and they might never do that. If the platform was open people could explore these things right now. And it doesn't even need to be radically open, you don't need to be able to hack the firmware; but it has to be more open than the preview Ray-Ban glasses, and I'm assuming more open than this revision.

jperras 3y ago
> Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. Not necessarily an awesome Instagram picture, but just a picture of some mail you got, a tool you are putting away, any thing you want to record and save. Heck, why not a picture of your computer screen? Pair that with quickly available audio transcriptions and you can also dictate anything, thoughts, small notes, information associated with the images. I know HN already has too much cynicism for my own liking, so it pains me to say: you can already do this with the phone you have in your pocket. Have a shortcut that enables audio dictation/photo mode/etc., and you're good to go. The workflow for glasses (either these or some other hypothetical ones) would involve hitting a button and then having to either speak the command out loud or hit some other button to capture video/audio/etc., which seems more cumbersome than the phone approach that exists today.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > hitting a button and then having to either speak the command out loud or hit some other button to capture video/audio/etc., which seems more cumbersome than the phone approach For the mass market, perhaps the right place to put the camera is on headphones. (I’m already talking to my AirPods.) This product doesn’t appear to be positioned for the mass market, however, but instead influencers.
  - paul7986 3y ago
    Once battery life is solid and all bugs are worked out smart glasses will be as ubiquitous as smart phones
    - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
      > smart glasses will be as ubiquitous as smart phones This reminds me of the difference between Apple and Google: a sense of style. I have no doubt smart glasses will find their niche in industry and among techies. But what people put on their faces is deeply tied to identity. Until the technology can exist virtually unseen, it’s not going to compete.
      - paul7986 3y ago
        Once smart glasses run solidly and can run mind blowing innovation / apps solidly too they are the next smart phone. Such innovations will sell smart glasses like apps drove smart phone sales. I think my argument is helped by the billions both Facebook and Apple are putting into smart glasses.
        JumpCrisscross 3y ago
        > my argument is helped by the billions both Facebook and Apple are putting into smart glasses I accept the latter, though discard the former: they were trend following VR. I also think Apple, savvily, doesn’t brand the Vision Pro as a pair of glasses. And it doesn’t look like that’s the vision (no pun intended). It’s something that’s put on and taken off. Not kept on continuously. By the way, I accept the vision. Just not the form factor of a pair of glasses. Those are closer to another Apple Watch than an iPhone killer.
toddmorey 3y ago
I would be so uncomfortable having lunch with someone wearing these. Am I alone in that?
- ianbicking 3y ago
  As long as the activation is overt I don't think it's a big issue. Overt as in taking a picture or recording requires the user to do something that is noticeable to the people around them. The wake word is quite obvious; the button on the stem is a bit less, but together with the light I think it's fairly clear something is happening.
  - brightstep 3y ago
    Activation via Pegasus spyware will not be overt
- JohnFen 3y ago
  You're far from alone in that.
- hightrix 3y ago
  Not at all. In fact, I would ask someone wearing this to not only remove them from their face but also place them in a backpack/bag.
- hotnfresh 3y ago
  People used to feel all kinds of ways about what is now normal smartphone use. There are probably a lot of remnants of those attitudes in ‘00s media that can still be found. Everyone either got over it or shut up about it because they (ahem, we) had clearly lost. I expect actually-useful smart glasses will eventually overcome the same stigma. Actually-useful being the key part of that.
  - hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
    Strong disagree. I think there is still a fairly large cohort of people who feel that e.g. looking at your phone at dinner, or responding to every random ding from your phone during a conversation, is rude and unacceptable behavior.
solardev 3y ago
That... takes like a double-click on a modern cell phone to pull up the camera, with an all-day battery life and no silly designer glasses needed. Also doesn't need to upload all your crap to Meta.
sheepscreek 3y ago
Have you heard of rewind.ai? It does exactly that but for your computer screen. I find it incredibly useful. Combined with this, the future looks very promising! [1] https://www.rewind.ai/ https://www.rewind.ai/
- darau1 3y ago
  This seems seriously cool. I wonder if its constant recording is going to fill up my HDD. edit: found the storage option. It defaults to keeping all data, but I've changed that to one month retention -- they say they use around 14GB a month. It reminds me of having to use screen recording software for a previous remote job. I wished I could use that recording to do something exactly like this. Now, if only one could flip the script, and make the employer request that recording, instead of forcing one to share it.
taf2 3y ago
“Damn it Siri where did I leave my hammer?” “At 8:32, you were in the basement and left it on your work bench, it was very close to the edge of the table and possibly fell” Ah the easy life…
- baby 3y ago
  I was waiting for them to say “hey Meta, who is this person again?” But that might have been too creepy for some people :)
  - Snoddas 3y ago
    I'm terrible at remembering names. This would be so useful on when attending workrelated functions. Privatly I only hang out with the same 5 people or so, so there I manage
danielvaughn 3y ago
Or imagine that you've got an AI taking in your video and giving you instructions, like while you're cooking or something.
- bacon_waffle 3y ago
  At times in my life, I'd have paid good money to disable that feature of some NIs.
  - danielvaughn 3y ago
    NIs?
    - bacon_waffle 3y ago
      Natural Intelligences, it was an attempt at humor.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
aaronharnly 3y ago
> Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. This is more or less what Vanevar Bush imagined in his 1945 article “As We May Think”, which many consider the origin of hypertext [1]. “On a pair of ordinary glasses is a square of fine lines near the top of one lens, where it is out of the way of ordinary vision. When an object appears in that square, it is lined up for its picture. As the scientist of the future moves about the laboratory or the field, every time he looks at something worthy of the record, he trips the shutter and in it goes, without even an audible click. … And there is provision for direct entry. On the top of the memex is a transparent platen. On this are placed longhand notes, photographs, memoranda, all sorts of things. When one is in place, the depression of a lever causes it to be photographed onto the next blank space in a section of the memex film…” [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m...
yard2010 3y ago
Facebook loves to spy on other people and businesses without their consent and target its opponents like that, I've worked in a firm in which that happened. After a while the whole Cambridge Analytica fuck up came out and it was an A Ha moment for everyone involved.
herbst 3y ago
A good start to make the tech more approachable for real hackers and nerds would be removing the Meta account requirement. But it's obvious they don't want that community.
Varqu 3y ago
My biggest disappointment is that the product seems to be centered around recording/taking pictures and no AR features are advertised. The big question is what kind of development platform will it provide.
autoexec 3y ago
> Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. that's the plan, but for facebook's benefit instead of yours. We're not allowed to have cool new tech that doesn't exploit us in some way for the benefit of some one else.

jperras 3y ago

> Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. Not necessarily an awesome Instagram picture, but just a picture of some mail you got, a tool you are putting away, any thing you want to record and save. Heck, why not a picture of your computer screen? Pair that with quickly available audio transcriptions and you can also dictate anything, thoughts, small notes, information associated with the images. I know HN already has too much cynicism for my own liking, so it pains me to say: you can already do this with the phone you have in your pocket. Have a shortcut that enables audio dictation/photo mode/etc., and you're good to go. The workflow for glasses (either these or some other hypothetical ones) would involve hitting a button and then having to either speak the command out loud or hit some other button to capture video/audio/etc., which seems more cumbersome than the phone approach that exists today.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> hitting a button and then having to either speak the command out loud or hit some other button to capture video/audio/etc., which seems more cumbersome than the phone approach For the mass market, perhaps the right place to put the camera is on headphones. (I’m already talking to my AirPods.) This product doesn’t appear to be positioned for the mass market, however, but instead influencers.
- paul7986 3y ago
  Once battery life is solid and all bugs are worked out smart glasses will be as ubiquitous as smart phones
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > smart glasses will be as ubiquitous as smart phones This reminds me of the difference between Apple and Google: a sense of style. I have no doubt smart glasses will find their niche in industry and among techies. But what people put on their faces is deeply tied to identity. Until the technology can exist virtually unseen, it’s not going to compete.
    - paul7986 3y ago
      Once smart glasses run solidly and can run mind blowing innovation / apps solidly too they are the next smart phone. Such innovations will sell smart glasses like apps drove smart phone sales. I think my argument is helped by the billions both Facebook and Apple are putting into smart glasses.
      - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
        > my argument is helped by the billions both Facebook and Apple are putting into smart glasses I accept the latter, though discard the former: they were trend following VR. I also think Apple, savvily, doesn’t brand the Vision Pro as a pair of glasses. And it doesn’t look like that’s the vision (no pun intended). It’s something that’s put on and taken off. Not kept on continuously. By the way, I accept the vision. Just not the form factor of a pair of glasses. Those are closer to another Apple Watch than an iPhone killer.

toddmorey 3y ago

I would be so uncomfortable having lunch with someone wearing these. Am I alone in that?

ianbicking 3y ago
As long as the activation is overt I don't think it's a big issue. Overt as in taking a picture or recording requires the user to do something that is noticeable to the people around them. The wake word is quite obvious; the button on the stem is a bit less, but together with the light I think it's fairly clear something is happening.
- brightstep 3y ago
  Activation via Pegasus spyware will not be overt
JohnFen 3y ago
You're far from alone in that.
hightrix 3y ago
Not at all. In fact, I would ask someone wearing this to not only remove them from their face but also place them in a backpack/bag.
hotnfresh 3y ago
People used to feel all kinds of ways about what is now normal smartphone use. There are probably a lot of remnants of those attitudes in ‘00s media that can still be found. Everyone either got over it or shut up about it because they (ahem, we) had clearly lost. I expect actually-useful smart glasses will eventually overcome the same stigma. Actually-useful being the key part of that.
- hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
  Strong disagree. I think there is still a fairly large cohort of people who feel that e.g. looking at your phone at dinner, or responding to every random ding from your phone during a conversation, is rude and unacceptable behavior.

solardev 3y ago

That... takes like a double-click on a modern cell phone to pull up the camera, with an all-day battery life and no silly designer glasses needed. Also doesn't need to upload all your crap to Meta.

sheepscreek 3y ago

Have you heard of rewind.ai? It does exactly that but for your computer screen. I find it incredibly useful. Combined with this, the future looks very promising! [1] https://www.rewind.ai/ https://www.rewind.ai/

darau1 3y ago
This seems seriously cool. I wonder if its constant recording is going to fill up my HDD. edit: found the storage option. It defaults to keeping all data, but I've changed that to one month retention -- they say they use around 14GB a month. It reminds me of having to use screen recording software for a previous remote job. I wished I could use that recording to do something exactly like this. Now, if only one could flip the script, and make the employer request that recording, instead of forcing one to share it.

taf2 3y ago

“Damn it Siri where did I leave my hammer?” “At 8:32, you were in the basement and left it on your work bench, it was very close to the edge of the table and possibly fell” Ah the easy life…

baby 3y ago
I was waiting for them to say “hey Meta, who is this person again?” But that might have been too creepy for some people :)
- Snoddas 3y ago
  I'm terrible at remembering names. This would be so useful on when attending workrelated functions. Privatly I only hang out with the same 5 people or so, so there I manage

danielvaughn 3y ago

Or imagine that you've got an AI taking in your video and giving you instructions, like while you're cooking or something.

bacon_waffle 3y ago
At times in my life, I'd have paid good money to disable that feature of some NIs.
- danielvaughn 3y ago
  NIs?
  - bacon_waffle 3y ago
    Natural Intelligences, it was an attempt at humor.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

aaronharnly 3y ago

> Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. This is more or less what Vanevar Bush imagined in his 1945 article “As We May Think”, which many consider the origin of hypertext [1]. “On a pair of ordinary glasses is a square of fine lines near the top of one lens, where it is out of the way of ordinary vision. When an object appears in that square, it is lined up for its picture. As the scientist of the future moves about the laboratory or the field, every time he looks at something worthy of the record, he trips the shutter and in it goes, without even an audible click. … And there is provision for direct entry. On the top of the memex is a transparent platen. On this are placed longhand notes, photographs, memoranda, all sorts of things. When one is in place, the depression of a lever causes it to be photographed onto the next blank space in a section of the memex film…” [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m...

yard2010 3y ago

Facebook loves to spy on other people and businesses without their consent and target its opponents like that, I've worked in a firm in which that happened. After a while the whole Cambridge Analytica fuck up came out and it was an A Ha moment for everyone involved.

herbst 3y ago

A good start to make the tech more approachable for real hackers and nerds would be removing the Meta account requirement. But it's obvious they don't want that community.

Varqu 3y ago

My biggest disappointment is that the product seems to be centered around recording/taking pictures and no AR features are advertised. The big question is what kind of development platform will it provide.

autoexec 3y ago

> Imagine if you could take a picture of anything, add a little note, have it filed away. that's the plan, but for facebook's benefit instead of yours. We're not allowed to have cool new tech that doesn't exploit us in some way for the benefit of some one else.