Car flipped in a Starbucks drive-through
u/Far_Audience_7446 — 12 days ago
u/Far_Audience_7446
▲ 17 r/SmartGlasses
The MemoMind One Experience, from a smartglass true believer
I got the opportunity recently to try the MemoMind One, an ultralight display smartglass provided to me by MemoMind free of charge. I have been a SmartGlass user for several years now, regularly using Xreal ONE Pros for work and for gaming, and more recently a pair of prescription (-6 & -7 diopters) Even Realities G2Bs. I’m very much already a true-believer when it comes to smartglasses; with the non-prescription MemoMind now in my hands, I literally wear display glasses all the time when not sleeping. This review will cover some basics about smartglasses but is really intended for those who have decided to make the plunge and can’t decide where to plunge. I’ll highlight the differences between these competitors, who, despite being very close together in the marketplace of wearables have a very different appeal.
Who should be looking at these? First off, price; this is probably the most cost-competitive entry into the market of “absolutely normal” display glasses. With a Kickstarter price of only $399, anyone who has doubts about investing a lot in their first foray into a smartglass needs to add these to their list. My first foray was a pair of G2Bs by Even Realities, which included high-index prescription lenses, the R1 ring, and the sunglass clip – all of which cost about three and a half times as much as the current Kickstarter price of the MemoMind One. For the purposes of this review, I’ll do my best to compare like-for-like, as not everyone has the taste for the expense of added accessories.
Those looking for more fashion-forward styles will find the One more appealing. With more color offerings than competitors, they fit between the more conservative G2 styling and the SmartGlass “statement” styles of Meta or Rayneo offerings.
Hardware and comfort – I was surprised to have to give this one to MemoMind. While both are precisely crafted, the magnesium frame on the MemoMind was not what I expected at this pricepoint. The frame and hinges are a particular upgrade from the plastic on the G2s. The arms of the Ones are more comfortable, thanks to the more bulbous profile of the speaker and electronics pods at the end, and a rubberized layer on the inside of the arms. This rubberizing is probably the only part of the frame I have any longevity concerns about, though it doesn’t come in direct contact with my skin. The portion that wraps around behind the ear is smooth plastic, and doesn’t have pressure points like the titanium arms of the G2. The nosepads are roughly the same, but the MemoMind was easier to adjust to comfort due to the larger waveguides (more on these later). Ultimately both of these glasses look good, which I can’t say about the Meta Display.
While the MemoMind lacks the touch-sensitive input of the G2, having only a single button interface located on the underside of the right temple, its location requires a much more natural and less socially awkward movement than the touchpads behind the ears of the G2. I got the R1 ring for the G2s specifically because reaching around my ear all the time just felt awkward to me. Like-for-like this is an exceptional first-gen offering.
The only thing that is a clear miss for me is the lack of a matching sunglass clip, which is actually part of the current Kickstarter offering, lucky for you. I would consider it a necessity for any display glass, I’ll be getting them as soon as they are offered separately. No matter how bright these displays are, they are nearly invisible when squinting through them on a hot summer day in the south.
The big thing we’re here for, displays! - Speaking of big things, the waveguides are absolutely enormous compared to the G2s. The MemoMind edge out the G2s here based on that, because that is about where the differences end. The display image takes up almost the exact same FOV on both (the G2 looks slightly smaller, though my severe myopia prescription could be impacting that appearance).
They function in the same way, a diffractive waveguide that pipes the light from projectors mounted in the temples, into your eyes. You will experience the same forward throw of projected images on both, at roughly the same angles. They look almost terrifying in the dark in the long exposure below; the photomontage below demonstrates the fore and rear projection angles and the projected image.
long-exposures of the projection configuration
Just for fun, they don't really look like this
The other more “nuanced” images below on the right were taken with a fixed ISO, and shows what it *actually* looks like to a casual viewer in a dark room at brightness levels 1 and 10 for comparison. The projectors have the same optical appearance, with bright, laser-like scintillated sharpness, and can be fully adjusted for parallax (1-5m distance), and position within the app.
The large waveguides are also mounted a little lower in the lens than the G2s; the larger size and more centered location give you more breathing room to adjust the position of the frames on your face without encountering edge darkening, and can accommodate a wider range of pupillary distances (PD). My own PD of 70mm is rather large, right on the cusp of being too big for the G2s, while the MemoMind has a few extra millimeters of shift before I see any darkening from the edge of the waveguide (my guess would be that a PD of 75 would still be able to see the screen without darkening of the outer edges). While this is the same in the vertical axis, it’s not uniform for the entire range of PDs due to an angular cutoff at the bottom, resulting from the deeper projection angle of the projector into the waveguide. The geometric problem is best explained as trying to fit a small rectangle into a larger trapezoid without the edges or corners of the rectangle overlapping the trapezoid. You can see in the images the steeper angle of the projected image creates a dark corner of the waveguide that can impact you if you have a wider PD and wear the glasses high on your nose.
Audio; and its not even a competition – If you want audio in your ultraminimalist glasses, these are the ones for you. Judging from forum discussions, audio on minimalist glasses is pretty divisive; full disclosure, I’m from the non-audio camp. I wouldn’t call it a dealbreaker either way, and in my time with them, I have certainly found it to be handy. Most unexpected was just taking Teams calls where I look and sound normal without a boom mic, and not having to bring my headset along to whatever coffee patio I’m working at. While my recording tests didn’t sound studio quality, they sounded about the same as my boom mic Bluetooth headset. Multipoint pairing worked without issue for me, taking calls from my phone or my computer throughout the day.
When it came to music, even the Harman AudioEFX audio is going to be handicapped by the open-ear configuration, so I compared them to my Xreals, with similarly located Bose speakers. The MemoMind are noticeably muted and treble-leaning, bordering on tinny compared to the Bose. I mostly found them convenient for listening to podcasts or watching movies or videos when going for a walk. The open headset is great for maintaining situational awareness, but it also makes others exceptionally aware of your content. The positioning of the 4 speakers is also strange; the more powerful speakers are on the top rear of the arm, projecting sound upward, away from the ear. Wearing the arms over my ears like a pair goggles actually sounded much louder.
Adjusting volume is also not slick or convenient; it’s most convenient to just use the phone buttons. You can set up some of the very limited shortcuts in the glasses to control volume, or ask Memo AI to do it for you, but summoning the AI also causes your music to pause when it processes the request.
While you can’t disable the audio profile to save battery, you can turn the Harman EFX off, which gives you a quieter, tinnier, more private audio profile to do the same.
Software – Going on included software alone, they are roughly even, but overall it goes to the G2s. This is mostly because of the massive Even Hub offerings provided by third-party apps, and the more robust interfacing and shortcuts for operating the glasses alone without resorting to the phone app. I didn’t expect the built-in features of a beta-phase MemoMind iOS app to be clear winners, but one of them certainly is; Maps. Even’s Navigate feature is comparatively an embarrassment as a second-generation offering. MemoMind’s Maps feature uses Google base map data, I never get crummy routes telling me to walk across 8 lanes of traffic along a road with no sidewalks instead of strolling down a bike path, and it’s also nice to be able to get audio prompts for those times sightseeing when you lose focus of the waveguide (and also if you can’t see the waveguide because you don’t have sunglass clips). I also like the HUD cluster configuration better (see photos). Both the G2 and One still suffer from map updates ceasing if the phone app is backgrounded or the iPhone screen turned off. The Map app’s only real weaknesses are that you can only store a total of 5 favorite locations (including home and work), and that you need to enter an address or search a destination; you can’t just select it on the map. This is a basic fail that I expect will be addressed in a software update.
Assortment of thru-the-lens photos (not simulated)
The teleprompter is competitive, Even Realities has even rolled out updates that mimic some of the better aspects of the MemoMind app like the outline feature.
Translate is functional but decidedly the weakest of the apps; the lack of an auto language function makes it hard to use in an instant through the shortcut menu, requiring you to set languages ahead of time in the app. Otherwise it has been very accurate for single-speaker translation.
MemoMind’s iOS phone app is very full featured, but it isn’t organized intuitively. It looks like parts have been built out in anticipation of an additional suite of apps being added in the future (I hope that is the case). It is very stable as a beta, I experienced no crashes or bugs, even after an iOS update.
One of my favorite things about the MemoMind interface was the Quick Launch feature. This allows shortcut icons to three apps or settings to be placed in the glasses view and accessed by a double-tap of the action button, and to be selected by head movement and click of the button in a sort of pseudo-AR experience.
A view of future interactivity? I certainly hope so
It is definitely the seed of something that could be massive in future software/firmware updates. There are actually a couple of games that are hidden as shortcuts here and can’t be activated anywhere else. These Tetris and Blockbreaker games, while also fun, are really technology demonstrators, and I really hope MemoMind leans into this. The interactivity that this provides could match or exceed the flexibility of the G2s for subtly initiating apps and adjusting settings directly on the glasses, without the need for expensive accessories or taking out your phone. The three shortcuts provided just aren’t enough.
AI incorporation – MemoMind has the edge here, mostly because Memo AI doesn’t suffer from “chatbot Alzheimer's” that has notoriously afflicted Even AI. Memo AI’s “tone” is quite similar to Even AI, worlds ahead of Siri, and even Gemini in human-like interactions. It does a very good job of following through a conversation and reflecting on the entire context when answering. The chats on the glasses also transfer to the phone, so you can interact via typing, keeping separate subject-based strings just as you would with any other chatbot. I also found it better at contextualizing pronunciations – when asking what games are good to play with “XBOX connect”, Memo AI was able to understand the context and interpret the listening as XBOX Kinect, while Even AI did a fair bit of explaining that XBOX Connect wasn’t a thing, and that maybe XBOX Kinect was what I meant, and in the follow up had forgotten the context entirely. On the downside, the lack of touch-sensitive controls precludes you from being able to scroll back and read a lengthy response on the glasses, so you’ll have to take your phone out and check that that record if you missed any part of the response. There is also no way to "cue" a follow-up question; Memo AI starts listening as soon as it finishes it's response; it often picks up background conversation if you don't start speaking immediately. The initiating phrase “hi, Memo” used to summon the AI is less reliable than Even AI, though manually summoning via the action button is easier than tapping through shortcuts on the G2 if you want to “silently” summon by just asking a question. You can adjust the target length of responses in the app, which range from a single screen of text to a small novella that you have to really sit and focus to read, depending on how much detail you want to see before asking a follow-up question.
MemoMind also has an entire suite of AI features called Memo+ that is only available with a subscription. This group of features is really an implementation of an AI memory assistant. I only had limited time to evaluate these but they are beyond the basic features of the glasses, as well as not markedly integral to the glasses, so I will not delve into them here. Suffice it to say this is an entirely different product category, and the features and cost are comparable to subscription services like Limitless or Bee AI. The value proposition here seems to be that because you are already wearing the glasses, using them in lieu of a clip-on AI recorder makes sense.
Battery and all-day use – This definitely goes to the G2s. A lot of the differential comes from the added audio support, as listening to just a couple of hours of conference calls or podcasts can mean the difference between an all-day battery and dying before dinnertime. I’ve never had anxiety about the battery level of the G2s, but I do get it daily on the One. This isn’t an insurmountable problem for non-prescription users like my use case, but it will be a major consideration for people considering prescriptions. MemoMind has remedied this reasonably well by making the charging protocol much easier and minimalistic than the G2s. It is done with a simple dongle attachment at the back of the right arm, and charging can be done with any USB-C cable. It’s far more minimalist than the big, expensive charging case for the G2s. Technically you can wear them while they charge, too, should you find your battery sucking wind during an important call.
Even without a lot of daily interaction, they still burn through both the glass and phone batteries faster than the G2s, in part due to the increased need to interface via the phone app. Using them as headphones while getting ready in the morning, using the Maps app on the way to work for about 30 minutes left me at 82% by the time I got to the office. Just getting notifications on the glasses during the morning and another 25 minutes of walking using the Maps app left me at 57% by the end of lunch. Taking a 40-ish minute call during the afternoon left me at 37% at the end of the workday; without using any more audio, this was an all-day wear.
Using the Recording tool, which provides AI notetaking for your interactions without the screen being used to caption, for over an hour on a Saturday when running errands with my kids consumed only 5% of the battery, significantly more efficient than either Even’s Conversate tool or MemoMind Captions tool. (Doing the same thing while also listening to a podcast on the glasses consumed that 5% battery in only 20 minutes).
Who should go for the MemoMind? – Non-prescription users looking for a cost-effective, durable entry into the low-profile smartglass market, the Kickstarter price is absolutely unbeatable, even before considering the sweetener of the included sunglass clip. People who just want to be able to receive visual notifications, HUD map overlays for walking or cycling, live captioning and summarizing meetings or conversations, or the occasional translation of a known language should definitely go MemoMind. Those who are uncertain about the utility of smartglasses will find the addition of audio support to be a compelling value add over the G2s.
Anyone who has ever had issues with the durability of glasses, particularly hinges, should also go with MemoMind, as the full magnesium frame and hinge mechanism is far more robust than any of the competitors I have seen.
Those looking for prescription glasses will find MemoMind more limiting and potentially aggravating, due to the faster battery burn potentially requiring charging while wearing. Some prescription users may be outside the diopter limitations of the Zeiss lens system used by MemoMind (at the time of this writing, strengths in the range of -6.00 to +4.00 diopters could be accommodated).
For those who want to directly interface with the glasses, I would advise waiting to see how the Quick Launch feature develops before making a decision (but stay aware, maybe keep trolling Reddit or Discord for current updates; don’t wait so long as to miss the Kickstarter pricing). The G2 has more direct interface capabilities today, but I find them to be a hassle without the inclusion of the R1 ring (after sending my R1 back for repair, this has become much clearer to me), an expense that makes the entry point of the G2s more than double that of the MemoMind One (even more with the sunglass clip). An enhanced Quick Launch feature with more shortcuts makes MemoMind far more compelling as a standalone glass purchase.
Frequent travelers will also find the MemoMind more convenient. The small pocketable charging dongle, slick Maps app, and option for audio notifications will all make these more packable and useful for exploring new places.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I have!
u/Far_Audience_7446 — 27 days ago
This fucking lunatic passed me on a residential street going into a school zone and then he and his passenger proceeded to lay on their horn and give me the middle finger.
The reason? I really don’t know. I live on this street and I drive the speed limit. This happened at 8am when there are actual children walking to school. A group of children were in front of us and the sidewalk was blocked by a work truck, so I likely slowed down a bit in anticipation that they may be moving closer to the road? That’s when this dude gunned it to pass me on a road where the speed limit is 30. He then sped through a literal school zone.
When he thought I was following him (I wasn’t, we were just both going the same direction, go figure) he pulled over and yelled “fuck you bitch” as I drove by. Maybe if you weren’t a reckless and aggressive driver you wouldn’t have to worry about people following you - just a thought.
I just don’t get it. This isn’t what being in a rush looks like; this is an actual freak of a person who is too stupid to consider their own safety and too selfish to consider the safety of others.
I wish JSO had a reporting mechanism for road rage. I did call in the tag, but I doubt anything will come of it.
Stay safe out there.
u/Far_Audience_7446 — 4 months ago
▲ 5 r/Xreal
Hadn't noticed it in the year I've been using them almost daily lol, but just noticed that on the 1/2 darkness setting, I can see flickering in my peripheral vision. I assumed that varying voltage would be the way electrochromics adjust, but looks like they are cycling on/off like LEDs.
u/Far_Audience_7446 — 4 months ago