Innovative tech company Looktech has paired up with Wenzhou Moveup Optical Co on perhaps the best-looking smart glasses we've seen yet. But powered by GPT-4o, Gemini, and Claude, these shades are more than just style.
The Looktech AI Glasses, which will be showcased at CES 2025 in January, are essentially wearable audio/visual AI assistants that can identify objects, translate text, set reminders, answer questions, guide you with GPS, summarize meetings and even assess your fridge's content for meal suggestions – and then count the calories that end up on your plate, if you want them to.
Heck, they can even remember faces on your behalf, and feed you names so you don't get caught short.
At this stage, resistance to the new AI way of daily life seems a little futile – but at least now the wearable tech is catching up to what was promised – and light years away from the abomination that was early Google Glass.
Now, it's becoming easier to see how smart glasses can be incredibly useful – and also less creepy. These aim to have you spending less time looking at a phone screen, and while you can still use them to snap sneaky photos and videos, their usefulness is more in the large language models they're equipped with.
Here, a voice-controlled AI helper Memo becomes more personalized as you interact with it, feeding back information based on your preferences. Much like other assistants, be it Alexa or Siri, Memo is activated by a similar command ("hey Memo"), but can also switch on with a tap of the AI button housed in the frame.
The 13MP anti-shake camera will take hi-res photographs and record stabilized 2K videos, and then even run them through an AI editor if you want to share captures on the go. And, somewhat negating that creep factor, an indicator light will be displayed on the face of the frames when the camera is activated, letting others – well, at least those who know enough about smart glasses – know that you're in capture mode.
Obviously, these glasses also have the standard 'smart' functions such as playing music and taking/making phone calls, but they can also go one better; the AI assistant will record meetings and calls if needed, and then automatically deliver a transcript and/or summary that you can access on your smartphone.
Having spent what felt like hours each day holding my phone up to signs and wall menus in Taipei recently, I can also see the value of Looktech's real-time translation capabilities. Google Lens is great, but it's not subtle – and, as I learnt the hard way, it's substantially more difficult to use in the rain with a wet phone screen.
Looktech uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) end-to-end encryption and additional Advanced Encryption Standard to safeguard personal data, and all interactions with ChatGPT are made anonymously. In addition to these measures, the glasses have voiceprint activation, so only the owner can operate the in-built tech.
With "up to 14 hours" of battery life – which most likely varies based on usage – you can expect to get a good day's wear out of these. That's very impressive, given that Meta's smart glasses, built in partnership with Ray-Ban, only last "up to 4 hours." Bear in mind that you'll need to have both a smartphone and at least iOS 15 or Android 10 – although these have been around since 2021 and 2019, respectively.
Looktech also packs Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 6 and 32 GB of flash storage built into the tough but flexible TR90 frame weighing 37 g (1.3 oz). The speakers – which are aimed to keep your music and audio for your ears only – are housed in the frame's arms, as is a noise-canceling microphone.
The basic Looktech app is free, and comes with mini-apps to support various functions including transcribing and media editing.
Much like the tech inside, these glasses offer plenty of scope for customization. Beyond the frames being available in several colors and sizes, the lenses have transition, polarized and prescription options. Lens choices will be offered via a survey at the end of Looktech's Kickstarter campaign – which is where you'll also have the ability to add your prescription number if you need. Happily, none of the lenses come with additional costs.
And they're remarkably affordable. During the crowdfunding campaign, which at the time of publishing still had 50 days to go, Looktech AI Glasses start at US$209 (40% off the $349 MSRP) and come with a charging cable, cleaning cloth, manual and carry case. For $240, you can upgrade to a set that also includes a portable charging case (42% off MSRP). And for an extra $10, you can even have the frames engraved.
Shipping is worldwide, and since the funding goal has been easily surpassed, buyers can expect delivery from April 2025.
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