Meta has released an update of its AI-powered smart glasses software, bringing two new capabilities to the fore: the user’s ability to hear better in a noisy environment and linking Spotify music to the user’s visual input.
The greatest and most useful highlight is a feature that allows users to hear conversations more clearly in noisy places. The glasses have open-ear speakers that pick up and amplify the voice of the person in front of you. A user may control amplification via a pair of glasses’ operations or settings. This feature is about everyday situations when the background noise is too loud for the speech to be heard. The function does not involve hearing aid devices but imitates what some earbuds have already offered in their hearing modes. The conversation-focus update will be available via the Meta Early Access Program only in the U.S. and Canada first and subsequently to more users.
Meta has also built a whimsical music feature. If the glasses are able to recognize certain objects or scenes, they may prompt Spotify to play the songs which are related to what the user is seeing. For example, by looking at a music album cover, playing might start of the artist whose work is on that cover or if you see a tree being decorated, then the glasses by referring to the visuals may play Christmas tunes.
That is mostly to entertain the user rather than a serious tool and at the same time it is an indication of how Meta is thinking of different ways to fuse the visual context with entertainment. The intent is to give the users more immersive interactions between the real world and digital services.
Those innovations are in line with Meta’s previous talks at its Connect conference and are a manifestation of the company’s bigger plan to not only make wearable tech more practical but also to turn it into a source of joy. At the same time, they serve as a sign that smart accessories are gradually taking over the functionalities of smartphones and earbuds.
Meta’s smart glasses are the rival of other wearable technologies that can help concentration or increase the user’s awareness of the environment such as hearing enhancers that come with the latest AirPods models.
