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“Smart Glasses for Hearing Loss: More Than Just a Gadget?”

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Hello Gerrit

As you mention that you are satisfied with the speech to text transition,your biggest problems has been solved and thats where it all started with.I use my G1 glasses now 1 year and by coincidence the nosepad holder broke off ,probably rouge handling from my side.I took off the whole metal part from the frame and put on some software nosepads bought at amazone.Actually this fits perfect for me .Even Realities wants to repair under warranty but I keep them this way.Maybe a good solution for your problem.Mentra Os is open software and I prefer better at the moment then ER.Their is a lot of feedback with the Mentra team and they respond very quick on software issues

Edited

In reply to @peterhiel

Most smart glasses, if not all, are not ready for showtime as far as English-to-English transcription. We’re still in the first or second inning for Smart Glasses development, and Apple, Google, and Samsung have yet to come out with any significant product. Buying a monocular lens display is not only throwing money to the wind, but your dominant eye will be very unhappy with one lens. Since there is serious eye strain when trying to read what is in centimeters, displaying most likely in your right eye. There are also major connection issues with smart glasses in that they love to freeze up and battery drain issues. Personally, I’d hold off buying for a couple of years since these early glass brands are not making users happy.

Hello
look at https://www.evenrealities.com5
I use Mentra Os Captions as the speech to text transcriptor

MentraOS | Mentra2

MentraOS is the leading open-source smart glasses operating system (OS) and SDK. Build apps for Even Realities, Vuzix, Mentra Live and more.

If you have any questions please let me know

In reply to @Baileyhere

Hello

I understand what you mean, and yes, smart glasses are still developing. But I think it also depends on what you expect from them.

I don’t really use my glasses as a gadget or for tricks. I use them mainly because I have hearing loss, and the live subtitles help me a lot in normal conversations and social situations. That part is often missing in reviews.

A few things in your comment are also not completely correct for the G1 and G2. The display is not monocular — it works in both eyes, which makes it much more comfortable to use. You can also get prescription lenses for them.They also have no camera ,which I think is intimidating

Battery life has honestly been much better than expected for me.For the G1 6 to 7 hours of use and the G2 has doubled in time , so battery drain is not really a problem in daily use.

Of course there are still bugs and things that will improve in future versions. But if I had waited a few more years, I would also have missed a few more years of easier communication and feeling more involved socially again.

So I think people with hearing loss may look at these glasses very differently than people who only see them as tech gadgets.

Also, when people talk about price, it’s worth putting things into perspective.
A good set of hearing aids can cost far more than these glasses.
The G1/G2 glasses are not replacing hearing aids for me, but they do give me something my hearing aids never could: real-time visual support during conversations.
For me that has been life changing

In reply to @Baileyhere

Hello
Concerning the English to English transcription in most peoples opinion it is much better then expected.I use Dutch to Dutch transcription and it is excellent.Their about 80 langues available nowadays .You need to have internet.Offline their are English,Korean and Chinese .This is not so developed at the moment.Did you tested it by yourselve or did you see revieuws.?Many users are actually pleasantly surprised by the quality of the English-to-English live transcription on both the Even Realities G1 and MentraOS — especially people with hearing loss who use it alongside hearing aids.
The general opinion online seems to be:
Even Realities (standard ER transcription)
Strengths:
very readable text inside the glasses
good recognition in quiet environments
corrects sentences while people are speaking
works very well for one-on-one conversations
comfortable enough to wear for many hours
works well as a supplement to residual hearing
Many users say it:
works better than expected
makes conversations less exhausting
improves their social life
A user on HearingTracker even mentioned that the transcription worked better for them than standard tools like Google Translate.

An important suggestion to everybody: with G1 and G2, use the phone microphone and not the glasses microphone to capture conversations. The Mentra app transcription is amazing but the glasses microphone is just too weak while any smartphone will get even distant and soft speech.

I would like to try these glasses, but this line from the company FAQ gives me pause:

Non-prescription glasses are eligible for returns within 14 days of receipt. As prescription glasses are custom-crafted, cancellations are only possible within 24 hours of purchase.

This seems like taking a big chance, $599 for the frames plus whatever the partner optician charges for the progressive lenses that I would need, and then not being able to return them if they do not work for me. Am I interpreting this correctly?

For now, it appears manufacturers of smart glasses are holding all the cards, providing limited to weak return policies. It’s worse for anyone who purchases smart glasses built overseas (think China). Throw in a prescription lens request, and it becomes a coin toss if you’ll actually get what you wanted. Since third parties handle the lens manufacturing. Add to that, users don’t know if glasses will sit properly on their face or if frames have weight issues. I’ve yet to read any reviews on how smart glasses fit when someone is using aids. Does the temple tip fit properly over the ear with BTE aid when being worn? You also have to wonder if small components in glasses might impact hearing aids, such as feedback and Bluetooth connection.

In reply to @kev716

If you need prescription glasses, you normally go to a good optician who measures your eyes and checks how the glasses fit together with your hearing aids. In my experience, this is no different with the G1 or G2 smart glasses.

I have been using the G1 glasses for more than a year now and was probably one of the first users wearing them together with hearing aids. The glasses fit perfectly and I have no issues combining them with my hearing aids. The weight is only 44 grams, and the new G2 is even lighter. The balance on the nose is remarkably good because of the temple tip design.

My optician even lent me the glasses for a week so I could test them in daily life before buying them, which seems like a very normal procedure to me.

Of course, after more than a year of intensive use I did have some small issues. I damaged the titanium nose clip myself due to rough handling, but I solved it by adding soft silicone nose pads, which actually fit even better now. Also, one silicone strap came loose from the frame. My optician repaired that easily with a small amount of glue, and the original part can still be repaired under warranty by Even Realities in Germany.

Recently I bought the new G2, mainly as a backup because I noticed how much I rely on these glasses in daily social situations.

For me personally, the improvement in social interaction and communication makes the investment more than worthwhile, even including prescription lenses and sunglasses. The total cost was around €1600, which is still less than the price of a single hearing aid.

After using them for such a long time, I think real long-term user experience probably gives the most realistic picture of how these glasses perform in everyday life.

Thanks for this article ,it is mentioning the things far better then I could explain.

In reply to @peterhiel

@peterhiel said:

My optician even lent me the glasses for a week so I could test them in daily life before buying them, which seems like a very normal procedure to me.

Do you mean they lent you a non-prescription pair, or did they create one with your prescription and let you try it for a week? This would seem to contradict the company’s FAQ, although perhaps the independent optician clinics can offer more generous terms?

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Of course, they lent me a non-prescription pair so I could get used to the model and try it together with my hearing aids, as well as get familiar with the possible settings in the Even or Mentra glasses. The measurements taken by my optician were perfect. In case they are not, I assume you can make a claim through your optician.

That might work for me. Hopefully without prescription lens I can still read the captions well enough to get a sense of how well they are working.

I don’t need prescription lenses but I can tell you that captions feel VERY close and got can make them even closer.

In reply to @peterhiel

Hi Peter thanks so much for this info. I’ve been looking into this and found the article from wired tonight. As you can see I’ve got severe to profound loss across all but the lowest frequencies. I remember saying years ago I just needed my whole life captioned and here it is ! So exciting. I’m retiring in Feb so will only be using them socially but that of course will be more important than ever when I retire ! I keep thinking of situations where I still struggle and these will likely help! I wear phonak infinio sphere aids which are the best I’ve ever had but these glasses seem like a game changer!

Yeah, they’re pretty much a game changer. With the Mentra app, you can also download the English and French language for captioning, so you aont need to rely on the internet connection.

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