Singapore-based startup Brilliant Labs has announced Frame, its new pair of augmented reality glasses powered by an AI assistant called Noa. Weighing just 39 grams, Frame looks nearly indistinguishable from ordinary eyeglasses but hides advanced technology enabling visual search, real-time translation, text summarization, and more.
Featuring thick round frames made of nylon plastic, it pays homage to iconic figures like John Lennon, Steve Jobs, and Gandhi, merging the legacy of their groundbreaking ideas with the forefront of technology. The glasses comes in Smokey Black, Matte Cool Gray, and H2O (see-through) color variants.
Equipped with cutting-edge AI models such as Perplexity AI, Stable Diffusion by Stability AI, GPT-4 by OpenAI, and the speech recognition prowess of Whisper, Noa can process visual information, generate images, translate languages, and much more, all projected onto the 640 x 400 resolution lenses of Frame.
“The future of human/AI interaction will come to life in innovative wearables and new devices, and I’m so excited to be bringing Perplexity’s real-time answer engine to Brilliant Labs’ Frame,” Aravind Srinivas, CEO and founder of Perplexity, said in a statement.
Beyond information search, Frame’s integrated camera and sensors enable real-time visual analysis for tasks like checking product prices in stores or identifying details about homes when house hunting simply by looking through the glasses. Unlike Meta's Smart Glasses or Snap's Spectacles, it does not store any files on device or allow sharing to social media.
Additionally, unlike devices like Humane's Ai Pin, Frame requires a companion mobile app to work. Over time, Brilliant Labs plans to embed lightweight ML models directly into Frame instead of relying on a paired smartphone for processing.
Founded in 2019, the vision of Brilliant Labs is not just to launch a product but to usher in a new paradigm of daily living, where technology enhances rather than intrudes upon our lives. The product's sleek design and AI capabilities has captured the attention and investment of John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Labs and creator of the hit AR game Pokémon GO. The company did not disclose the funding amount from Hanke. Other advisors and investors include names like Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus; and Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri.
But what truly sets Frame apart is that it is fully open source. All the design files, code and documentation are available on GitHub. Anyone can modify and run the code they want on their device. This could prove to be an ingenius strategy. By making Frame entirely open-source, Brilliant Labs is inviting a community of developers, tinkerers, and innovators to influence the future of the product. This approach not only democratizes the development process but also accelerates innovation by allowing anyone with the interest and skills to contribute, modify, and enhance the device.
The seamless integration of AI assistance into a fashionable wearable could enable more immersive and immediate ways to access information. If Frame delivers on its promises, it could introduce a paradigm shift in human-AI interaction through AR glasses, bringing sci-fi visions of AI sidekicks closer to reality.
You can preorder Frame now for $349, with expected shipping in April 2024. As a special promotion for the launch of Frame, Brilliant says that subscription for AI services are free (subject to a daily cap), however a paid tier will be announced in the future.