The $299 Halo smart glasses will remember the names of people you meet

The Verge

01-08-2025

Startup Brilliant Labs has announced a successor to its $349 open-source Frame smart glasses, which debuted early last year with features like AI-powered translations and the ability to identify what you were looking at. Its new $299 Halo smart glasses are priced closer to Meta's entry-level Ray-Ban models and come with upgraded AI capabilities, including more natural conversations with its Noa multimodal AI agent that can 'understand what it hears and sees within its environment and responds with contextually relevant information in real-time.'
They're available for preorder now (in limited quantity) through Brilliant Labs' website in a style similar to Ray-Ban Wayfarers but only in a matte black finish. Shipping is expected in late November 2025. For those needing prescription lenses for the Halo, the startup has partnered with SmartBuyGlasses.
Instead of simply relying on audio cues like Meta's wearables, the Halo glasses use a 0.2-inch color microOLED display that 'projects a retro arcade-style UI' into your peripheral vision. There's sound, too, but it's delivered through bone-conduction speakers on the Halo's arms for added privacy. Battery life is rated at up to 14 hours, thanks in part to a low power camera and an AI chip featuring a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), and while slightly heavier than last year's Frame glasses, the Halo are still relatively lightweight at just over 40 grams.
Brilliant Labs says that conversations with its Noa AI agent will now 'feel natural and intuitive as if speaking with a real person,' thanks to it delivering contextually relevant information based on your environment. Noa also has more control over the Halo glasses themselves, letting you mute the microphone or put them to sleep using expanded voice commands.
For those who find both their memory and eyesight starting to slip, Halo will utilize Brilliant Labs' new 'patent-pending agentic memory system' called Narrative that uses data collected from its camera, mics, and interactions to create a 'private and personalized knowledge base' for you. The startup says Narrative will allow its smart glasses to recall the name of someone you've met when talking to them again, and even access details from past conversations.
There's also an experimental new coding feature called Vibe Mode that will let you 'create custom applications using simple natural language voice commands.' Noa will generate an app based on your specific needs, such as an alternate mapping utility that's customized for how you prefer to navigate a city, the startup suggests. Instead of having to dig through an app store and try several options until you find an app that best suits your needs, you can create one on demand that immediately features the specific functionality you need.
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