“In the category of smart glasses, Frame are definitely not pioneers” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levi tells how the device from the startup Brilliant Labs turned out.

The sitcom repeats itself: first, Apple releases a gadget that inevitably finds its harsh, and sometimes furious, critics, while subsequent devices from other vendors in this category or even versions that are far from analogous are compared by the press to the development of the Apple company.

So Frame smart glasses, created by the startup Brilliant Labs, have been applied to Apple Vision. The aspect about the weight of 40 grams, which a person really hardly feels on himself, came into place (the development from Cupertino is 15 times heavier) and the cost: Frame is ten times more affordable than the “Apple” new product. By the way, what does the status of smart glasses owe to?

The open source gadget, as the creators assure, has multimodal superpowers of artificial intelligence. And this is not at all in the category of spatial computing. Judging by the advertising video, through glass in a round frame, the user will be able to recognize surrounding objects, specific models and articles, for example, search for them on the Internet, give characteristics and descriptions, and translate text in real time.

Processes in Frame are not autonomous – the glasses are assisted by the Noa application, which has a built-in artificial intelligence assistant that uses OpenAI for visual analysis; Whisper service for translation and Perplexity for web search. In an interview with Venture Beat, Brilliant Labs said that Noa learns and adapts to the specific user and the tasks the device is given in general.

Noa is free to use, but surprise surprise, the app has a daily limit. The startup is considering a paid mode. So far nothing has been said about the tariff. There are no restrictions for other services, the developers assure.

Frame is definitely not a pioneer in the smart glasses category. The Focals model from the North company, a version with augmented reality from Bose, a collaboration between Ray-Ban and the recognized extremist company Meta, as well as other analogues, have already tested the market, but triumph has not yet happened.

Frame is available in three colors: black, gray and transparent. Prescription lenses when ordered will increase the cost of the new item from $349 to $448. Delivery is promised to begin on April 15.