I’m planning to buy these Glasses and wanted to know if anyone here likes these wearables stuff. If so, do you know of a better solution, project or product that you can buy?
2 Likes
I’ve been looking at this …
Haven’t bought it though… I don’t VR enough to buy that… but maybe if I had that, I’d VR more… 
Oh I just looked and these ER G1 are augmented reality glasses. I tried Google Glass back in the day as a developer and well… I dunno it wasn’t for me. Perhaps 13 years of development makes all the difference. Somehow though I doubt it’s going to be as good as it is portrayed on the website. Also they look fragile as fuck… like way easier to break than already fragile regular glasses… and much more expensive.
4 Likes
I own some and honestly haven’t worn them in months. I should try again, originally the software wasn’t quite there, but I know they’ve had some updates
3 Likes
Git dem updates when you have a minute… because I need to start wearing glasses and I think if I had prescription lenses in these it might be worth it. I’d love to hear what you think.
I’m mostly interested in just getting filtered notifications from specific things on my phone… like 1) forum notifications, 2) messaging notifications from a specific app (nextcloud talk), 3) any notifications from a specific contact.
As far as doing anything else, I kinda don’t care tbh.
3 Likes
Will do, ping me again if you don’t hear from me in a few days lol
3 Likes
@Jammyjellyfish Is it possible to add prescription lenses to the G1 glasses in a regular optician? Or do we really have to buy the prescription version sold on the website? If so, would it be necessary to buy another pair of glasses if your prescription changes? It would be a nightmare if I had to buy a new pair after only 12 months (I update my prescription annually).
@amal you should consider this before buying one.
I am mostly interested in the real-time teleprompter function. That would be awesome for me at my work because I could put some bullet points and read them in the glasses in order to remember the most important parts of my speeches. I’d also use it to record videos everyday. It would make my life way easier.
For that price, why not just buy an Apple Vision Pro instead?
You need to get it from them, there are wave guides in the lenses that a regular optician wouldn’t be able to replicate.
That said, I believe you can send your existing pair in to get a new prescription put in
Ok, just updated to the latest app and firmware.
Since I can’t reply all, @amal @eusouamom
Enjoy the 50 page brain dump 
TL;DR
I don’t recommend them.
Pros:
- the new square style are probably the best looking smart glasses
- fucking cool technology
- comfortable
Cons:
- The G1 B (maybe the A) frames sit noticeably off the nose, necessary for viewing the screens but looks just very slightly odd
- Everything else
So a few issues I’ve ran into repeatedly:
Reflections
The lenses are super reflective, except for the wave guide area. This means that the spot directly in-front of you is fine, but any light source (lamp, monitor, my rgb desktop) that is in your peripheral creates very distracting glares. Imagine you’re constantly seeing an aurora borealis in the edges of your vision, constantly changing and shifting as you make slight head movements.
My normal glasses, raybans, are overpriced but the lenses have zero reflection. Something I really didn’t appreciate until I wore the G1s.
Software
The app (at least on Android) is unreliable, and will sometimes close in the background. The glasses are therefore useless, but the only indication of this is if you look at the HUD and notice the weather icon is gone.
Firmware
The firmware on the glasses also needs work. Each lens has it’s own screen, but the screens are each connected to their own BLE radio, which means that occasionally (even on the latest firmware), one side will freeze. Best case one side is blank while the other is showing something. Technically this is readable but focusing on the image is painful. Worse case they’re showing two different images and it’s unusable.
User Experience
The controls aren’t intuitive, which I’m sure I could learn if I tried. The glasses have a tap area behind the ear, with each ear doing different things for a short and long tap.
The HUD automatically comes on if you look up, which is great, but if you’re lounging on the sofa then it’s easy for the glasses to get confused and just stay on permanently. You can disable the tilt-to-look feature, but I think this defeats the purpose of the glasses.
Ouch, my aching aching eyes
I wore them for an hour, and while my prescription is slightly out of date, I’m currently experiencing pretty heavy eye fatigue from trying to focus on the text. It’s just a little too difficult to really get a good look at. It feels like I need to cross my eyes to get the screens into focus, regardless of the virtual distance I have set in the app.
Testing Method
I tested this using app version 1.6.1, firmware version 1.6.0, on my pixel fold, running GrapheneOS android 15. I imagine it might be slightly more stable on stock android.
Note on the company
Also, I don’t love Even Realities. I bought the glasses after they announced they were dedicated to open source. So far they’ve released a minimal SDK with little documentation. That’s it. No firmware, no custom icons or anything (that I’m aware of at least, I’ve been out of the loop for a while). Additionally, I originally bought the G1 A (the circular framed ones). While my order was in production, they announced the G1 B (the square frames). They didn’t really give any indication this was coming, and refused to switch my order to the new style. I was able to eventually persuade them by paying the cost of a new set of lenses, but the overall lack of communication from them was really disappointing from the perspective of an early adopter.
Possible alternative to the software?
I’ve also been following MentraOS (formerly AugmentOS), an open source app to control a variety of smart glasses. Currently, their app is too beta to be useful. I couldn’t even sign up correctly. Unfortunately, since they’re relying on essentially reverse engineered BLE commands for the G1s, it doesn’t fix any of the firmware issues on the glasses. Additionally, and this is also a concern with the official Even Realities app, is almost all of the services rely on their servers, creating some serious privacy concerns. I also need to point out that based on the release history of MentraOS: they’re promising a lot, moving fast, and breaking things. It’s not a good user experience and they’d need to become more stable before I’d consider their software usable.
My Solution
That was my major use case for mine. It’s just not a good experience.
I recently picked up an old pebble time steel that I’ve been liking a lot more. The original founder is making new hardware if you’re interested (https://store.repebble.com/).
Just a good smart watch. It does the notifications and shows the time. It’s not trying to be a smart phone. Battery life is great and I love having physical buttons. Also now with open source firmware.
5 Likes
Excellent breakdown… thanks for saving me $800
5 Likes
Nextcloud talk is great. I considered going back to them but we opted for Teams instead. How are they preforming for you currently?
Talk made big strides the last 6 months… it’s almost usable now! The biggest thing for me is running my own instance so all the chat stays internal. If you go to a 3rd party hosted nextcloud instance then it’s kinda not worth it since there are no advantages that make the quirks tolerable.
1 Like
A decade of development does make a difference, but not in the direction you’re thinking. I tried the MyVu back before Google bought the company and ruined the product. It was fantastic back then. I can only imagine what current versions would look like now if it were still around.
When the iPhone came out ten years later, I thought: what are we doing carrying around this pathetic little junk in our pockets when we already have the tech to make full powered wearable PCs? Stupid Google and stupid American patent industry.
This is why I haven’t tried this product or many like it. Any ocular display advertising that it has its own software immediately loses points for me. Software is for the computer, not for the monitor. Now, I don’t know which is case with ER G1:
- The software runs in an all-in-one computer built into the glasses. I would never recommend buying such a device. That’s dumb. Why would I want a processor that is either too large to be comfortably worn on my face or two small to be a decent processor? I want the monitor on my face next to my eyes, but I don’t want the entire computer on my face.
- Software running on a separate device to provide apps for:
2.1) Just handling monitor control itself, like brightness, colour balance, motion stability, etc. This is fine. (I think this is what the rokid max does?)
2.2) To host a limited set of hardware specific apps. This is dumb. It’s a monitor. Just show the screen and let my processor run the apps I already have - any application I want.
All that said, the only ocular display I’ve liked is the VuFine. It’s very minimal, just a single tiny monitor mounted over one eye. For a while it was my daily monitor for some reason back when I used to walk around with an entire desktop PC in a crate and plug it in to random power outlets around town. (Don’t ask why. I just did.) It is a very small screen, maybe comparable to a smartphone or smartwatch, but it does the job. If you run an entire desktop OS like I did, just run your device with an appropriate resolution, or big fonts, or use a magnifier application. It does have a rechargeable battery, which I neither need nor want as I run it plugged into a power supply, but maybe that’s a feature you want.
The trouble I’ve found when shopping for ocular displays is that there’s a huge flood of companies with vague products, no listed specs, and 3D models instead of working examples. It can be hard to tell if the thing even has a display at all or if it just has a camera or some other nonsense that qualifies it for the vague specification of “smart glasses” (seen some that all they do is light up). Digging through all that, I’ve found the VuFine, and also have been curious about the Xreal (formerly Nreal), the Rokid Max, and the Avegant Glyph. That last one isn’t a full product, just components out of which an engineer could make something. But, the last time I researched it was a year ago. Pretty soon here I’m going to be shopping for a new one myself (my old VuFine I left in storage during Covid and it broke). Personally I’m leaning towards getting another VuFine or maybe I’ll try out the Rokid Max or look into what else is out there now. Will see.
2 Likes