I read with sympathy the concerns of Elle Hunt in relation to privacy issues around Meta smartglasses (I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep, 1 April). Clearly there needs to be ongoing development of technology and protocols that protect the public from ill-intentioned users. As the chief executive of a charity supporting people with a visual impairment, however, I would like to emphasise the point touched upon in your article: how transformative this technology is already proving for blind people.
We are seeing significant numbers of our visually impaired staff and clients using Meta glasses in conjunction with their mobile phones to improve their ability to perform ordinary functions that most of us take for granted. A visual impairment can be disempowering and isolating. Having a tool that can read your bills to you, tell you when your bus is coming, make calls for you when your hands are full and read the cooking instructions on your dinner is offering a level of independence that many visually impaired people have lost.
I am mindful that the visually impaired population (more than two million people in the UK) will not be a large enough market for Meta and other companies currently developing such wearable devices. So let’s hope that they can resolve the concerns about privacy soon enough to ensure that this gamechanging technology continues to be developed.
Sherine Krause
Chief executive, Sutton Vision
Elle Hunt says smartglasses are, for now, “not reliable or functional enough to offer consistent support” as an assistive technology, but for some of us they are already changing our lives for the better.
I have suffered a progressive hearing loss since around the age of 10; it terminated my first career, hobbled my second, destroyed my social life and caused me years of stress. Recently I discovered AirCaps, a phone app that comes with a pair of Rokid smartglasses. This app converts live speech to captions which are displayed on the glasses for me to read. Accurately, in real time, subtitles for life. It has been 100% reliable so far, and completely unlike the Meta experience that Hunt describes.
For people with disabilities, the age of smartglasses that subtitle speech really has arrived, and some acknowledgment of this might help us when people accuse us of being “creeps” for wearing “pervert glasses” (although at least we’ll know what they’re saying).
Laurence Amery
Hastings, East Sussex
I have juvenile macular dystrophy and have no central vision. My Meta glasses are terrific. I use them to read newspapers, which I have not done for more than 30 years. We receive a monthly Welsh language magazine and now I’m able to read it. I just say: “Hey Meta, look and translate into English.” At Worcester Cathedral, I was able to read the plaques on the wall for the first time in decades. I came across one that sounded like Latin, and again the glasses translated it successfully.
Last week I was at the National Maritime Museum, and was able to enjoy the exhibits without the need for any assistance. I could read all the plaques using my glasses. Walking around Kensington, I came across a fancy sports car. I asked the glasses to tell me about it. It was a Ferrari, and the glasses gave me all the details that I could have wished for. Certainly a life-enhancing device.
Vaughan Lewis
Pontardawe, Neath Port Talbot
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