Amazon’s new Echo Frames are now available to anyone who wants them. These smart glasses sidestep many privacy concerns by ditching the cameras and focusing on audio instead.
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The Echo Frames are essentially an Alexa speaker built into a pair of glasses. But that’s enough for many people, with the added bonus of keeping the glasses from getting too big and dorky. Plus, smart audio assistants could be a huge boon for people with low vision.
“For blind or visually impaired people, audio AR can greatly expand their ability to interact with the world,” sound artist and augmented reality writer Halsey Burgund told Lifewire via email.
The Echo Frames look like regular eyeglass frames, with slightly thick arms. They contain microphones and small speakers that direct sound to your ears, “while minimizing what others can hear,” according to the product description. Compared to something like AirPods, battery life is poor: just four hours of listening time. Then again, these aren’t really designed for long-term music listening.
