Thought I would re-visit this subject since its been a while since I last posted. It’s now mid-2023 and a lot is happening with smart (AR) glasses that offer real time text display. The good news is a lot of small start ups are fully into development of smart glasses for the deaf and hearing impaired. Companies I’m referring to are
Vuzix, XRAI, Xiaomi, TCL, LLVision, Xander, OPPO and HearSight.
For what ever reason China seems to have an early jump on smart glasses with text display. Currently I’m seeing about 3 hours power usage for majority of above smart glasses under development by above noted companies. After three hours smart glass battery will need to be recharged. (See I’m not against rechargeable batteries - for smart glasses). Due to early development some current or upcoming smart glasses require being (wire connected) to users smart phone. That to me is a negative for several reasons but I think in future smart glasses will be stand alone. Also smart glass frames are continually being downsized to look like regular glasses. I think in a year you’ll see smart glasses that look just like real glasses, with or without cord use.
The other challenge for manufactures is how to prevent or eliminate text display when the user of smart glasses talks. Reading what someone says standing or sitting in front of you, beside you even behind will be a unique experience. But no one wants to read (on phone display) what they just said during conversation.
The bad news is all the big players (Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc.) have all pushed off their Smart Glass development projects for two or more years. I think the reason is limited power supply and waiting until smart glass parts have miniaturized. Apple’s AR headset might be the “new thing” but I think it will go the “failed route” like Google Glass back in 2013 for several reasons. One its bulky, two it’s connected to a cord and three its very expensive. Time will tell but I bet when Apple rolls out its smart (AR) smart glasses in 2025/2026 that’s when buyers flock in and BUY. Of course by then you’re going to have a lot more competition and the smaller companies I’ve mentioned will have a three year jump on new players.
When the dust finally settles in 2025/2026 I think the winner of smart glasses for deaf/hearing impaired will be a company that offers stand alone glasses that have a power supply of six plus hours. Maybe you’ll be able to change specially made batteries and have smart glass power 24/7. I also think who ever designs smart glasses to look and feel like regular glasses, will see very good sales.
One slight concern I have is when Big Tech companies finally get their act together and offer smart glasses for hearing challenged, will they offer glasses with text display and nothing more? No additional bells and whistles. Or are they going to add language translate and other features that mostly likely increase product cost? From what I can tell current smart glasses under development for this year and next could cost around $400 to $600. That a price many can afford. Hopefully come 2025 and beyond big Tech Players keep smart glasses priced at the same level as current start-ups are now promising.
So good things coming in this area, but ball game might change in two years when Big Boys enter and try to dominate.