Envision Glasses versus or in addition to Meta glasses

Greetings and salutations, I hope everybody is well. After my use of the Envision glasses, I was quite disappointed in it. I know for me, I’m going to sell my Envision classes and switch over to the Ray-Ban‘s, I think the functionality will be better suited for my needs. So if anybody is interested in a pair of envision glasses, let me know.

Hi Eden,

Just remember, with whatever device you decide to stick with, that these devices are two completely separate beasts. While both have similar functionality, Envision were designed for the visually impaired, whereas Meta Ray-Bans were not. In fact, if it were not for the AI feature, they would be nothing more than a fancy camera you wear on your face.

Having said that, the Meta are definitely trendy eyewear, and make taking photos with a camera a breeze for us blind folks. 😉

Isn’t that pretty much with the Envision glasses are as well with the AI? Also, wasn’t there something about visual interpreting of some sort coming to the Ray-Ban‘s? The only difference is one look hideous, and the other pair look actually really good.

There is reportedly a whole lot more functionality for the visually impaired via the Envision glasses, then there are via the Meta Ray-Bans. However, yes the Metas look really nice, like every day ole sunglasses. While the envision glasses, reportedly, make you look like an insect. 🪲🤷‍♂️

Actually, the metal band and the Smith optics maybe are borgesque, but the lux frames are tidy, neat and don't look bad at all.

As someone who has used both, definitely prefer the Ray-Ban’s. Not sure how the Envision glasses are as of late however it’s definitely not worth the US$3000-US$4000. There is not a thing I can’t do on the Ray-Ban‘s vs the envision glasses.

They look pretty bad lol. You definitely get a lot of interesting Looks when you wear them. It’s that look when you go into public that says without saying you look more disabled than you actually are.

Yeah, I love my Metas as well. Especially since I paid less than $100 for mine. 😇

Well as of this week they have introduced a beta of the envision ally app onto their glasses. Whilst this is a first trial it may well have a lot of potential. What is good is that you can start up ally then mute it leaving it in the background. Then, when you need something just unmute and ask without reopening the app.

I recently bought a pair of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses for $299 on Amazon. That's 2 HUNDRED 99. The Envision glasses are much much more costly. Why? Because they are made specifically!! for!! the!! blind!!! Immediately when this is true, the price skyrockets. The Ray-Ban glasses are not made for the blind. Immediately, a far lower cost. I have heard that the Envision glasses have connection problems quite often, and you must have either a WiFi connection or use a hot spot on your phone. The Ray-Bans connect through BlueTooth. Both have Ai, mikes and speakers in the glasses. I think that both can take pictures and videos using their camera. Ray-bans use a 12 megapixel wide angle lense located in the top left corner of the frame. What about the Envisions? The software in both the Ray-Bans and the accompanying app, Meta View, are always being updated, and new features are being added and improved. With the Ray-bans, there is no subscription fee. Same with the app, no subscription fee. How qabout the Envisions? What will the Envisions do that the Ray-bans won't do that makes them 10 times the cost?

I think you nailed it. Tech design for the blind is 10 times more than tech designed for the general masses.

I know this thread is ancient now, but i just took the plunge and invested in the Meta glasses. Two very good friends, who I have always trusted when it comes to tech purchases, have both recommended these glasses now, so even if I'm not keen on giving money to Meta, I realized that it was a no-brainer decision. I really like the Envision Ally app, though, and can imagine how having access to my ally on glasses could be very handy. Still, it's not worth paying 10 times the price. With taxes and everything, my meta glasses were $408. I know that by the time all is said and done, I would have paid close to $4,000 for the envision glasses. So, as nice as it might be to have access to Ally on the meta glasses, it's not worth such a major price tag. I know it's wishful thinking and will probably never happen, but it would be really awesome if Envision would add Ally to the Meta glasses instead of charging a small fortune for their own glasses; seems that collaborating with Meta might have been a more beneficial idea than producing their own smart glasses, but what do I know? Hoping that I will like the Meta glasses as much as my friends do.

Ultimately, I wasn’t really impressed by the Meta Ray-Ban glasses. The AI got a lot of things wrong. People could not see anything clearly when I was using the B my eyes app. It all came out as very grainy and pixelated. We couldn’t find any address numbers on the street or even useful doors. And I found them to be relatively very uncomfortable because of their weight.

I am interested in the echo vision glasses. And I think they’re coming out in September or October. Moreover, I’m interested to see what the next generation Ray-Ban glasses will be like. There’s also the Google glasses that are supposedly coming and eventually, there will be apple glasses. I’m not in any specific rush to have the technology yet. On paper, it’s amazing. They’re just needs to be a little bit more patience and it’ll work itself out

The envision ally thing is really nothing special. The metas have basically the same thing but they call it live AI.

You're right that Envision ally is more or less exactly the same as the live AI. I guess the only advantage to the ally is that it knows a bit about me and my preferences. Still, at the very least, my bank account is very happy that I chose t he Meta glasses over the Envision ones. LOL!

Besides Be My Eyes and Live AI, don’t forget we also get access to Aira with Meta smart glasses, although the way to use it is a little wonky right now.

Meta glasses for sure, been using them when I got mine and can't say I had any complaints. With that being said, It baffles me that a company who are targeting the envision glasses for us blind people are just so expensive and most of us are in a bind to afford that kind of money, I just don't understand the logic here. Never mind the glasses being ran on unsupported hardware and a lot of other problems as well. Totally not worth the thousands of dollars. Can some people shed any kind of ounce of logic of why these are so expensive? For me, I see no logic here and don't know why they'd have to charge that much for a pair of glasses when you can charge just as much for the meta glasses. No thanks. I'll always put my money toward main stream companies because you know all too well that companies that focuses on blind and low vision people are charging way more than they should for their products. Jaws anyone?

There is absolutely a blind tax but they also can't spread the development costs among as many sales, nor can they benefit from the volume discounts a company like Meta can. There's also an expectation that a certain number will be bought through government or charity grants, like schemes to get disabled people into work.

I almost always prefer mainstream products like you say because of the more guaranteed support and the better value for money. I understand specialised products will always cost more but sometimes the difference gets ridiculous and so many companies just get people all excited then disappear a year or two later. I said recently and I'll repeat, around the turn of the millennium there was a general feeling in mainstream tech you should never buy first generation partly because so many companies failed after their first product launch and partly because the second generation tended to be wildly improved. It's the same as sighted people saying never buy the first year of a car model.