Will live-streaming sunglasses go mainstream?

Meta is reportedly working on Ray-Bans that stream video live. And live viewer's comments will be audible to the streamer!

Here’s an unpopular opinion: Lashing a camera to eyewear is a great “medium.” The reason is that it replicates what you’re actually experiencing better than other photography media. (I learned this a decade ago wearing Google Glass.)

The photos I took with Google Glass’s low-quality camera were amazing (I took all the photos in this newsletter with Google Glass), especially when you’re traveling. You can take pictures hands-free, and very quickly because the camera is always ready to shoot.

The downsides of camera glasses are: 1) people you’re looking at feel uncomfortable because they don’t know if you’re taking pictures or video of them; and 2) bulky, nerdy camera glasses tend to look dumb.

And so the goal of camera glasses makers is to make camera glasses that look like regular glasses, but also clearly show others when pictures or video are being captured and when they’re not.

Dozens of companies have tried to make connected camera glasses happen. Snap, the company that makes Snapchat, captures 3D videos with it’s Spectacles 3 product. Nobody will want 3D video until AR/VR goggles like Apple Vision Pro go mainstream. Other good camera glasses are: Sheawasy Camera Glasses, BQXX Camera Glasses and, of course, Ray Ban Stories.

Now, Janko Roettgers is reporting that Meta is working on Ray-Ban branded live-streaming camera glasses in partnership with glasses giant EssilorLuxottica. The glasses will live-stream both video and audio via Facebook or Instagram, and then live comments will be audible to the person wearing the glasses.

The glasses will reportedly fail to operate if the light that indicates video capture is covered or tampered with. This feature would make sure people aren’t taking video without others’ knowledge.

I think live-streaming with audio feedbackx would be a great feature for camera glasses, as long as the camera is high quality and can also take photos and record video without streaming as well.

I really love the idea of camera glasses and have done since I wore Google Glass in California, Europe and the Middle East back in the day, where I took all these photos. As you can see, they have an intimate, first-person, direct experience quality that is really appealing. The ability to stream like this would be amazing.

The Dead Sea on the Jordan side with Israel on the distant shore.

My wife, Amira, on the bridge buttress over the Arno river in Florence.

Riding a camel at Petra in Jordan.

TWiT nerds riding Segways in San Francisco.

Sunset over the Arno river in Florence.

A rainy day in Paris.

Street mayhem somewhere in Italy.

The view from a hike in Italy’s Cinque Terre.

My wife, Amira, in Volterra in Tuscany.

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Mike’s List of Brilliantly Good Ideas

1. Cloudflare Speed Test is a superior alternative to Netflix’s fast.com

2. The Photogrammar site lets you choose a location, then see photographs taken in that location back in time.

3. The Vault 2.0 is an organizing system for carrying your gadgets, cables and tools — all of it.

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Mike’s List of the Moment

1. Malady of the moment: “TikTok Brain”

2. Mode of the moment: “fake airplane mode”

3. AI singularity of the moment: AI now better at proving it’s human than humans are

4. Claim of the moment: While AI becomes more like humans, humans become more like AI.

5. Sentence of the moment: “ChatGPT found work as a social media crypto huckster.”

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Mike’s List of Shameless Self-Promotions

1. I was on This Week in Google yesterday!

2. Oaxaca: the city of art

3. We just added a new Oaxaca Mezcal Experience for this year!

4. The future of work is AI-enhanced and remote

5. Read ELGAN.COM for more!

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Mike’s Location: Oaxaca, Mexico

(Why Mike is always traveling.)