Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

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

45 replies1.6k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic
Reply

Hello everyone,

I’m a hard-of-hearing user from the Netherlands, currently exploring different options to improve speech understanding in daily life.

For the past year, I’ve been using G1 smart glasses with real-time speech-to-text, and honestly, the impact has been much bigger than I expected. In many situations, it allows me to follow conversations again without depending fully on hearing alone.

I’ve seen some discussions here about smart glasses, often focusing on features like teleprompters, navigation, or comparisons with other devices. Personally, I don’t use those features at all — for me, the real value is simply the live captions, which make conversations much easier to follow.

What I find interesting — and perhaps worth discussing — is whether technologies like this could play a more serious role before moving to more invasive and irreversible solutions such as cochlear implants.

Of course, I understand that this won’t replace hearing, and that is essential in many cases. But considering the non-invasive nature, flexibility, and relatively low cost of these tools, it feels like they could be used more often as a first step or complementary solution.

I’m curious how others — especially those who have considered or received a CI — view this.
Has anyone here used smart glasses primarily for captions in real-life situations?

Best regards,
Peter

15 people in this conversation22 min readJump to latest

Welcome to the forum Peter. I don’t have any smart glasses yet but I’m frequently checking the marketplace for exactly this use case. But I don’t see them replacing hearing aids in the traditional sense. I still want to amplify whatever volume there is not just for speech alone. I use live captions on my phone but can’t wait to have them in some glasses.

Super interesting - how accurate is the transcription? Do the glasses rely on a smartphone for the heavy lifting in processing terms?

I sometimes use the transcription feature in MS Teams at work and…well, its accuracy is highly variable, if not downright amusing. Banal statements suddenly become rather X-rated!

As the technology matures, I could imagine this become part of a wider toolkit, but as noted I think I would want to feel part of the conversation through hearing (and then use smart glasses as a backup).

In reply to @finovox

Hello

I agree to still use hearing aids with the smartglasses.I had the best ones available on the market.Now I have the smartglasses and needed New hearing aids too I bought less expensive ones euro 1500 instead of euro 4000.Iam using the G1 glasses for more then a year now and it took me acouple of months to get used tothem in the right way .Reading instead of try to understand what some us telling too you.It is more comfortabele for your brain and therefore you get less tired in conversations

The captions are highly precisie in one to one conversation.In crowdy places it is less accurate,but your brains are able to repair this .Within these year of using them a lot have happend with smartglasses I use Mentra os.This is open source software .And the reliabilty of the software has made huge steps.I just decided to buy the New G2 glasses for back up .I have prescription glasses and it takes 4 weeks to have a New pair.The G2 has a much longer batterylife ( more then 16 hours instead of 6hours.

The new G2 has many new options too .

But i use only captions for better understanding

Hello

Up till now I think only as few people are using smartglasses in combination with hard hearing.I talked to my audilogist .He did not know about it and it is not in their interest .I am in a Discord group of mentra os for hard hearing People and the same is noticed everywhere.Up till now it is not covered by insurance ,maybe that is a bridge to far for a lot off People.The G1 and G2 glasses have readings in each glass so their is no problem with headaches.On the oppositie since I using theme I have less headaches.Also it takes a while to get used to reading instead of try to listen at least a few weeks.I found it worthwhile spending this time on learning

I used closed captions for TV for years. Reading the captions kept me from watching the characters. So much of communication between people is non-verbal. How well do you get the non-verbals while reading the captions?

Thats one of the topics you need to learn.

I have 3 transcription lines in the lenses.there is a small delay when somebody is speaking.If it is a one to one conversation I only look at it ,when i do not understand what has been spoken.It is more easy to use in a group .If 2 persons are talking to each other ,you can really follow to whole sentence easily and never have to ask again what they are talking about or ask for repeating.I always begin with that I am hard hearing and that I can read what they are saying.Believe me you are going to have a lot of attention.

Hi Peter,

I’m having the same problem—speech comprehension in my left ear is very poor. I can hear some low frequencies, but other than that, I can’t make out almost anything. I was warned about this five years ago at the hospital; they advised me to consider a cochlear implant () for my left ear. My right ear, however, works well when it comes to speech comprehension.

For that reason, it doesn’t make sense for me to buy an expensive set. Microphones would be an option, but they’re no longer available with the Phonak Paradise. I’d have to buy a whole new set of hearing aids, which would cost me 3,500–4,000 euros.

As for glasses

I got to test the G1 for a week and found it disappointing, especially compared to the G2, which I think is much better. Unfortunately, the G2 isn’t usable for me; the screen would need to be a few millimeters lower. To see anything, I have to put the glasses on the tip of my nose, which isn’t really an option. Hopefully they’ll release version 3 soon and that problem will be solved; There are more people who are bothered by this.

It’s certainly strange that there isn’t more attention paid to these glasses. All you have to do is ask, and you get an expensive Roger ON, yet they know nothing about glasses for the hearing impaired. You’d at least expect them to have taken note of them.

Sincerely,

Gerrit

I’ve been interested in this technology for a while. The G2 looks promising. I would need prescription lenses. I did notice that there are sizeable modules on the ends of the arms. How do these work with such as Phonak iSpheres which are not small? Do they interfere with the HAs physically? Are the G2 glasses comfortable? Are they heavy on your nose and ears?

In reply to @Gerrit

Hello Gerrit
Too my opinion a week testing is much too short to get used to it.This is a very new technology ,so be not too quick dissappointed .The hardware of G1 and especially the G2 is very impressive Software updates especially with Mentra OS made a huge step to improove readability.Did you try the display adjustment

Display adjustment G2

In reply to @CaptainTrips

Hello
Your can get prescription lenses through an optician.On the even Realities website you can find their partners.I have prescription lenses through an optician .In my case they lent me the glasses to test at home.I am wearing opticon zircon 1.They fit very well with the glasses.

I have G1 and they’re great with the Mentra app for captioning and translating.

A life changer for me at work.

They have some small delay but hey, it feels like science fiction honestly.

In reply to @Baileyhere

Realistically, anyone who has even a small amount of frustration with the whole ‘speech in noise’ aspect of hearing loss. The market potential is way bigger than the people actively seeking this technology out, a lot do not know about this technology and have never seen it working in their hands.

Hello

Since I started using my smart glasses, my social life has improved a lot and I feel like I matter again.This is one of the reasons I started to promote this technology.

In reply to @peterhiel

Peter,

It wasn’t really a matter of getting used to it—I think I just didn’t like it right away. The G1 didn’t meet my requirements, and I was able to test the G2 at two stores in the Netherlands, but neither of them could get the screen to sit right in front of my eyes. Apparently, some users remove the nose pads to get the glasses to fit properly.

As far as speech-to-text conversion goes, I was satisfied with the G2, but I’m not keen on having it sit right on the tip of my nose. There are more complaints on Reddit about the screen being too high, causing users to miss part of the text.

I haven’t tested Mentra is there a big difference from the original G1 software?

Gerrit

Related discussions