Google “Intelligent Eyewear” Hands (and Face) On: Promise of Better AI and More Privacy

You can now pre-order Intelligent Eyewear (i.e. smartglasses with cameras and Gemini, but no display) with software from Google, hardware from Samsung, and styles/retail from Warby Parker and GENTLE MONSTER. I've gotten various demos of the platform as it's evolved, but this week I spent some time at Warby Parker's "Literatureland" media pop-up in New York City. This was just a brief demo of various Gemini-centric scenarios, but it was delightful. I’ll have more product details and feedback when I get a review unit.

Even in brief demos it was clear that Google's Gemini is better than the AI on the competition's smart glasses in several respects, with Google services integration being the big one for me. Ask for directions, and it’s connected to Google Maps, which is also the service I use on my phones (both iOS and Android). Gemini can add things to your Google calendar, work directly with Gmail, etc. Microsoft Outlook integration has been promised for a while, though at time of writing, Outlook doesn’t work at all, so Microsoft has bigger issues to deal with. Gemini live translation is also more seamless than on other platforms – perhaps enough to actually use in real life; most live translation I've tried works well enough in demos but fails in real world situations.

Google is also pushing the privacy narrative in a slightly new direction; when you ask Gemini to look at something, faces are automatically redacted from images and video before the content is sent to servers for evaluation, and beam-forming microphones used to restrict audio capture to your voice, not others.

The glasses are relatively lightweight and the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 chipsets powering them were responsive in my hands (and face) -on time.

Warby Parker has three styles in two sizes and several color options starting at $395 for non-prescription lenses. They can accommodate a moderately wide range of prescriptions with a total power of -8.00 to +5.00, and cylinder between -/+5.00; bifocals and progressive options ARE allowed as well. Shipping dates currently start Dec 15 for most of the styles/sizes I checked.

GENTLE MONSTER has four styles, including two cats-eye versions, one of which looks like it would be very much at home in The Matrix. Pricing ranges from $450 - $490, with shipping starting Dec 10.

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