Singapore-based Brilliant Labs has unveiled its latest product, Frame, a pair of lightweight augmented reality (AR) glasses featuring an AI assistant called Noa. The glasses have already caught the attention of John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, the company behind popular AR game Pokémon GO. While Brilliant Labs has not disclosed the amount of funding it received from Hanke, the investment is a promising sign for the startup.
Frame stands out from other AR devices on the market, such as Apple’s Vision Pro, due to its unique form factor. The glasses are designed to be worn every day and come with prescription lenses. Weighing just 39 grams, they feature thick round frames made of nylon plastic, paying homage to iconic figures like John Lennon, Steve Jobs, and Gandhi.
One of the standout features of Frame is its AI assistant, Noa. Noa is a multimodal assistant capable of voice commands, visual processing, image generation, and translation. It integrates several AI models, including Perplexity AI for conversational search, Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion for text-to-image generation, OpenAI’s GPT4 for text generation, and Whisper for speech recognition. With these capabilities, users can ask Noa to check online prices for products they see while shopping or perform various other tasks.
However, one potential concern is the responsiveness of Frame and Noa. Currently, the glasses rely on a smartphone to access the AI models. The founders of Brilliant Labs aim to embed lightweight machine-learning models directly into the glasses in the future, eliminating the need for a smartphone host.
Frame is not Brilliant Labs’ first foray into AR devices. The company previously released Monocole, a single-lens AR device that gained popularity in the open-source hardware community. Monocole was praised for its programmability and affordability. In fact, a group of Stanford students even turned it into a dating assistant that provided real-time suggestions for conversation topics.
Similar to Monocole, Frame will be open source, allowing developers access to resources like living documentation, open-source codebase, and hardware schematics. This approach encourages innovation and customization within the developer community.
Frame is available for pre-order starting today and will retail at $349, the same price as Monocole. Shipping is expected to begin in April. Brilliant Labs has already attracted notable angel investors, including Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus; Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri; and Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble. With the additional investment from John Hanke, Brilliant Labs has secured a total financing of $6 million since its establishment in 2019.
The release of Frame marks an exciting milestone for Brilliant Labs as it seeks to establish itself in the competitive AR market. With its lightweight design, advanced AI assistant, and affordable price point, Frame has the potential to capture the attention of consumers looking for a practical and stylish AR device. As the future of human-AI interaction continues to evolve, Brilliant Labs aims to be at the forefront of innovation in wearable technology.