Welcome to the Thunderdome all you Tech Connectors! Today your favorite Assistive Technology Specialists: Cory and Luke, are going head-to-head! We are comparing two titans of modern Assistive Technology! That's right, its Meta vs Echo Vision and there can be only one winner!
Meta has been dominating the Smart Glasses market ever since they went public, and many among our audience might be wondering whether they should invest in their newest Display model or switch to one of Meta's competitors?
Well, fresh on the scene is Agiga's new Echo Vision Smart Glasses, eager to make a claim! https://agiga.ai/ This video today is not meant to be a deep dive on the Echo Vision itself, but simply a functional comparison using standard AT tasks.
So what domains will these two smart glasses be competing in? First we will look at financial documents and judge how accurately both devices deal with standard letters and numbers. Can they give us the amount due and the due date? Then we will see how well they relay cooking instructions on the back of a product, including timing and fractions. Finally, we will look at their Live AI features such as scene and person description. Maybe we will even play a card game or two to confirm the device's ability to distinguish colors and symbols!
Join us to learn which of these two devices will survive!
0:00 Start
1:30 Financial Documents, Due Dates and $ Amount
4:20 Cooking Instructions, Ingredients, Fractions, Time,
9:20 Using Live AI to ID Card Games, Colors and Numbers
12:30 Scene and Person Description
16:00 Wrap Up Review of which Device performed better!
17:45 Post Show Goofs and Upcoming Livestreams
If you have any questions please post them in the comments below! Echo Vision was just released by Agiga, and they were happy to come on our live show to discuss their exciting new smart glasses: https://www.youtube.com/live/jhkDUWw5p7Q
If you're new to Meta, check out those videos for summary of what they can do for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w3r7yCBGeM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aftNVwt83NQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WchQ6kb8V0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Lugpgj5JM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTIsLVCB8w
Want more Tech Connect in your life? You should try us Live! Next show goes live on Thursday the 9th of April! So be sure to check your email for reminders as we approach those dates!
Looking for the full playlist?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_k3I-_LcTPozan9upCqY8Yc
Catch-up with our most recent Tech Connect Livestreams!
CSUN 2026 Showcase!
https://www.youtube.com/live/AXaRSLubg54
Which Wearables are Worth Wearing in 2026?
https://www.youtube.com/live/YabIqipWNSI
#metaglasses #echovision #wearabletechnology #smartglasses
#maculardegeneration #lowvision #visuallyimpaired #glaucoma #legallyblind
Call us: 414-615-0103
Email us: techconnect@vision-forward.org
Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/
Meta has been dominating the Smart Glasses market ever since they went public, and many among our audience might be wondering whether they should invest in their newest Display model or switch to one of Meta's competitors?
Well, fresh on the scene is Agiga's new Echo Vision Smart Glasses, eager to make a claim! https://agiga.ai/ This video today is not meant to be a deep dive on the Echo Vision itself, but simply a functional comparison using standard AT tasks.
So what domains will these two smart glasses be competing in? First we will look at financial documents and judge how accurately both devices deal with standard letters and numbers. Can they give us the amount due and the due date? Then we will see how well they relay cooking instructions on the back of a product, including timing and fractions. Finally, we will look at their Live AI features such as scene and person description. Maybe we will even play a card game or two to confirm the device's ability to distinguish colors and symbols!
Join us to learn which of these two devices will survive!
0:00 Start
1:30 Financial Documents, Due Dates and $ Amount
4:20 Cooking Instructions, Ingredients, Fractions, Time,
9:20 Using Live AI to ID Card Games, Colors and Numbers
12:30 Scene and Person Description
16:00 Wrap Up Review of which Device performed better!
17:45 Post Show Goofs and Upcoming Livestreams
If you have any questions please post them in the comments below! Echo Vision was just released by Agiga, and they were happy to come on our live show to discuss their exciting new smart glasses: https://www.youtube.com/live/jhkDUWw5p7Q
If you're new to Meta, check out those videos for summary of what they can do for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w3r7yCBGeM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aftNVwt83NQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WchQ6kb8V0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Lugpgj5JM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTIsLVCB8w
Want more Tech Connect in your life? You should try us Live! Next show goes live on Thursday the 9th of April! So be sure to check your email for reminders as we approach those dates!
Looking for the full playlist?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_k3I-_LcTPozan9upCqY8Yc
Catch-up with our most recent Tech Connect Livestreams!
CSUN 2026 Showcase!
https://www.youtube.com/live/AXaRSLubg54
Which Wearables are Worth Wearing in 2026?
https://www.youtube.com/live/YabIqipWNSI
#metaglasses #echovision #wearabletechnology #smartglasses
#maculardegeneration #lowvision #visuallyimpaired #glaucoma #legallyblind
Call us: 414-615-0103
Email us: techconnect@vision-forward.org
Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/
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TechTranscript
00:00hi all welcome back to another tech connect today we are entering the thunderdome i will call you
00:06mad max why am i welcoming you to the thunderdome that's because we have two pairs of smart glasses
00:12that we are going to put head to head we have the meta glasses against the new echo vision glasses
00:19we will not be doing a in-depth video on the echo vision just yet if that's something you're
00:26interested in throw it down in the comments otherwise go check out the blind life sam did a
00:31great video on that but instead we wanted to put these two together because i think it's a natural
00:36comparison people want to know which one should they purchase we have how many tests do we have
00:42we have four tasks today yes and we're going to be grading each of the glasses and giving them points
00:48and we'll see which one is the winner at the end that is correct round one we'll be doing points
00:53round two we will be giving a letter grade round three we will be drawing a picture and round
00:59four we'll be giving out jelly beans so we'll tally that all up at the end to see who wins
01:05could be confusing could be a little bit uh luke will be wearing the meta glasses
01:10i will be wearing the echo vision throughout the entire video so stick with us and let's start with
01:16test number one okay so test number one we are going to be checking out a credit card statement
01:31and we're going to be seeing which of the glasses can best identify both the due date and also the
01:36amount that we have to pay so let's start with the meta which i am wearing see how they do
01:42hey meta
01:45what is the due date on this bill
01:51the payment due date on the statement is january 23rd okay so meta says january 23rd let's check
01:59out how much we owe hey meta what is the balance due on this bill balance due on this statement
02:07is
02:091392.71 all right so there we go we heard now uh i know that the amount is correct cory
02:15do you know
02:16if the uh the date due is correct i do not believe it is correct i thought it was december
02:21let me uh take a look see my glasses here so let's see the due date oh yes december 30th
02:28xx
02:29yes favorite year i was born in xx yeah i mean at least we uh we can't you know we
02:34can't forget to
02:35pay the bill yes because it's very unclear when it's actually true so so balance was correct
02:39when they're on 392.71 but date incorrect all right now let's see how echo vision does all right i'm
02:46going to use the ai mode i'm just going to press the button once what is the due date of
02:52this bill
02:57the payment due date on the bill is 12 xxxx
03:04what is the balance due
03:13the new balance due on the bill is 1392 dollars 11. oh
03:21this time it didn't now this is interesting because uh to pull back the curtain a little bit
03:27it has said the new balance correct in the past yes uh but in this case it did not it
03:34said 11 cents
03:34instead of 71. we can only go by what happens during the test i agree with you and the date
03:40was
03:42uh it got the if you cut the date in thirds uh month day year it got one third of
03:48it correct we got
03:49the 12 but then we got xxxxxx i'm not sure there's that many x's i think we just got xxxx
03:56oh maybe
03:56yeah uh so i guess in this case we got zero we got zero are there possible two points the
04:03metaglassics
04:04have scored one and sadly echo vision has scored zero all right in this very scientific test very
04:09scientific all right let's move on to the next test where we will take a look at food packaging try
04:14find out what it is and how to cook it all right we are moving on to test number two
04:22as luke mentioned
04:23we will be identifying a food product so we will be asking what the food item is and then we
04:29want
04:29to find out what the ingredients and cooking instructions are and then we will award points
04:36at the end luke hit us with meta first all right here we go hey meta what am i holding
04:43in my hand
04:47you're holding a box of hamburger helper three cheese
04:51oh cheesy okay let's turn it around see what the ingredients are hey meta
04:56look and tell me what ingredients i will need to cook this hamburger helper
05:03you'll need ground beef or boneless skinless chicken hot water milk and butter the box also
05:12includes the pasta and sauce mix just pick your protein and add those basics how much hot water
05:19milk and butter will i need
05:24for the stovetop method you'll need one and three quarters cups of hot water
05:29and one and a quarter cups of milk no butter is required but you can add it if you like
05:35for the
05:36microwave use two cups of boiling water and the same amount of milk what are the cooking instructions
05:45for the stovetop ground the beef then add the mix water and milk bring to a boil then simmer 10
05:53to 15 minutes
05:54for the microwave cook the beef mix everything and cook on high for three to four minutes
06:02now i'm not going to say that that wouldn't work but what i will say is that that is not
06:07all the
06:08instructions on the box so it correctly identified the item let's at least clear that up yes it did that
06:14the ingredients milk and hot water yes were incorrect right it said one and three quarters
06:22and one and a quarter i guess they were incorrect okay and then the cooking instructions talked about
06:27both stove and microwave and uh if i'm not mistaken there is no microwave instructions on that box at all
06:35not that i and as you as you mentioned it may work in the microwave yeah um you can give
06:41it a truck
06:41but it um it uh i would say it did not do it correctly i would say uh if we
06:47made this according
06:48to the instructions we may get food poisoning okay yeah gotcha possibly we would need the hamburger
06:53helper logo guy glove okay all right well let's see how i can echo vision does all right all right
07:01i'm going to start in the ai mode and just identify the item what am i holding in my hand
07:15you are holding a box of hamburger helper three cheese pasta mix
07:21all right that's good it did that now i'm going to switch to the back and this time i'm going
07:26to
07:26use the text detection mode and see if we can read some text here so i'm going to uh triple
07:33press the
07:34button on the top starting text detection please hold your document steady move about one inch closer
07:46stay still for a moment
07:50got it you can lower the page process this appears to be a food packaging box if using beef you
07:58will
07:58need if using beef one cup hot water one lb lean brown beef two cups milk one brown brown beef
08:06and 10
08:06inch skillet drain two stir during hot water milk soft mix and pasta heat to boiling three simmer reduce heat
08:17cover simmer about 14 minutes during occasionally until pasta is tender remove from heat refrigerate
08:25follows if using chicken you will need if using chicken or one tablespoon butter one cup hot water
08:34one okay i'm going to stop it now where did you stop it i wanted to hear what happened if
08:39we were going
08:39to use chicken well we're not using chicken where this is called hamburger helper not chicken helper how was
08:44our accuracy so it it was able to identify the product so uh we scored three points i believe not
08:51only did it identify the product but it also gave us the correct ingredients and levels of those
08:57ingredients and it gave us the correct cooking instructions too that's a three pointer there ah so
09:02three points for echo vision one point for meta just getting the product correctly you got it all right let's
09:09move on to number three test number three okay
09:14okay so so far it is a dose to trez and now we're gonna play uno and i just have
09:25two cards remaining
09:26here cory and i haven't played uno before but from what i understand as soon as i play one card
09:32here i will
09:33only have one card left and i can call uno very excited about that and uh once i do that
09:39i'm gonna
09:39use the live ai on my meta glasses to identify the card that i have remaining so here we go
09:44cory i am
09:45playing seven yellow thank you very much uno by the way let me uh turn on my live ai here
09:52hey meta live ai
10:00starting live ai during a session i can see what you see and you don't need to keep saying hey
10:06meta
10:06we can just have an ongoing conversation you can ask me for info on plants and landmarks for recipe
10:12suggestions and more what uno card am i currently holding you're holding the red uno card with the
10:20number one all right now of course koi no way he's gonna know that so pretty sure i'm gonna win
10:26this
10:26all right i am now going to turn my echo vision glasses into live ai mode and we're going to
10:31take
10:31a look at the i have two cards left here and i'm going to see which one i want to
10:37play i'm going to
10:38double press my button connecting to live ai please hold on
10:46live ai is ready here's what i see i'm processing please wait what card is this
10:56wait you are looking at
10:58a wild draw four card
11:05all right well i am going to play my wild draw four
11:11and i will call green no because you don't have a red one
11:21it's almost as if he knew exactly what card i had in my hands
11:25so the live ai i think worked well in both mine was cutting out because i because of the microphone
11:32it's a live microphone and so since it's coming through the bluetooth speaker it kept hearing itself
11:37talk so it was interrupting but it was able to i was wondering if it would be able to do
11:42a wild draw
11:43four and it was able to do it it did yeah so now i will say that the fact that
11:47a giga does just
11:49automatically give you the information is kind of nice but the fact that the microphone is on does make
11:54it impractical to use in any environment which has any kind of noise going on whereas with the metaglasses
12:00well they're waiting for that trigger phrase so the camera is ready to go but they're waiting for
12:05you to ask a question so anyway slightly different way that those two work so scoring yes uh there is
12:10a possible one point for each uh well i think they both get uno with this one coy
12:16one point for each that puts the meta at three the echo vision at four well counted sir thank you
12:22on to our last task quattro all right it is time for our last test we are going to test
12:33out two things
12:34uh at the same time we're going to use scene description get a little idea about the room
12:39around us and including that was a strange way to say and and including a person can it tell us
12:47if
12:47there's a person there and describe the person so meta up okay so here we go with the meta hey
12:53meta
12:55hey meta i'm afraid that's zero points so we're going to take them off fold the arms now if you
13:04saw our previous video then you will know that this is one of our troubleshooting tips if the meta
13:09uh go bad we can uh close the arms and then open them and put them fix it fast all
13:15right let's try
13:16again hey meta what's in front of me you're in a room with a person standing near some lighting panels
13:27and tripods there's a table in front of you with cables a speaker and other gear the setup looks like
13:33a photo or video studio space please describe the person in the picture the person's wearing a gray
13:42polo shirt with a lanyard and id badge standing casually with hands and pockets they're in front
13:48of lighting panels and tripods likely in a studio setup all right so we got a bit of information there
13:55about the room in front of us about the person in front of us so i would say that was
13:59not too bad
13:59let's see how the echo vision does all right here we go we'll do the ai mode what's in front
14:06of me
14:14a man wearing glasses and a gray polo shirt stands in front of two bright rectangular lights on tripods
14:21with gray sound panels behind them the room has white walls a ceiling with fluorescent lights
14:27and some chairs and a table visible on the left tell me about the man in front of me
14:39a young adult man of caucasian descent with fair skin dark brown eyes and medium length
14:45tousled brown hair he appears to be of average height with a medium build his expression is neutral with a
14:51slight tilt of his head and a direct gaze suggesting he is attentive and possibly a bit reserved
15:00all right cool well i mean they both gave us some useful information there but i have to say
15:05when it comes to the person description the echo vision definitely takes the biscuit yeah one quick
15:12thing i have a question though is jonathan which is who the uh both glasses were were describing do you
15:19have brown eyes jonathan no okay so that was incorrect are you caucasian yeah do you have tasseled
15:27hair i love that is it tasseled or tussled it's long it's like not tussled you realize that jonathan
15:33doesn't have a microphone on no i know but i figured people still hear him on our microphone yeah
15:38pretty good description but it got some details gotcha all right but as you mentioned the echo vision
15:42did give more detail well call me out of a possible of two points one for scene description and one
15:48for
15:48person description the meta scored just the one whereas the echo vision scored the mighty two
15:54all right well stick around for our wrap-up to get the final tally
16:02okay so there we go four tests that scientifically prove once and for all which is the best pair of
16:08smart glasses for people with vision impairments the final scores cory what did met come in at please
16:15four points not bad not bad how about the echo vision six points ding ding ding ding ding we have
16:22a clear winner now uh you know the way that the echo vision really took the lead there was in
16:28its
16:29personal description which it did a very nice job at doing that and it also did a great job with
16:34its
16:34reading mode which the the meta glasses do not have a specific reading mode whereas with the echo vision
16:40we saw that reading mode come into play to read the back of the hamburger helper there so uh yeah
16:45it
16:46seems like a giga have done a good job with thinking about ways to take existing smart glasses and improve
16:51the functionality for those with visual loss yeah i think the meta glasses sometimes people struggle
16:56getting you know kind of word for word reading uh where having a dedicated text detection mode in the uh
17:03echo vision made sense uh although i will say in my personal opinion i like the live ai the way
17:09meta does it
17:10versus the way echo vision does it at least right now i think the um it you know interrupting
17:17itself and constantly updating and telling you things is a bit too much well i will say cory if you
17:22go
17:22into the echo vision app you can actually turn off that feature so when you go into live ai mode
17:27it
17:28operates the same as the meta glasses where you have to prompt it before it will tell you anything
17:32very good cool all right so there you go i think at the end of the day the answer is
17:38the glasses that you choose are the best for you well the real question of course is which glasses
17:44look cooler when you're wearing them oh and uh well you know it's not for me to say cory people
17:49can
17:49put down in the old comment box the old treasure trove the old nope out of thoughts
17:57would you call it the notepad of thoughts yeah i like that you can put down in there who
18:02looks the coolest in their glasses was it me yes obviously with the meta wave bearer in the matte
18:08black with the tinted lenses or was it cory with the giga echo vision with the clear lenses please
18:14let us know who looked cooler one thing we didn't mention is price uh even echo vision's not yet
18:20released to the public but i do think it's safe to say that they will be more expensive than the
18:26meta
18:26ray-band glasses so that may play a part in it uh last thing really quick too is the echo
18:31vision has
18:32been designed specifically for people with a visual impairment with tons of testing by the visually
18:38impaired community so that might give it some extra juice going down the road but we'll find out
18:43indeed and if you want to find out some more about cool stuff then go to our lms where we
18:48have
18:48learning opportunities and you can get free on demand acv rep credits all you have to do is go
18:54to techconnect.vision-forward.org and you can find out what courses we have including our new screen
19:00reader course do you need to learn how to use a screen reader well now is the time and we
19:04have the
19:05tools you need we also do a live show every other thursday so if you have not had enough of
19:11our
19:11shenanigans then join us 11 a.m central every other thursday you might ask well what thursday does that
19:18mean cory because i don't know when uh you're watching this but my recommendation is join our
19:23channel every thursday at 11 a.m central and we'll either be live or you can watch one of our
19:29old live
19:29shows so you really can't go wrong let's make this a thursday party and with that it's time for us
19:36to go
19:37party and get out of here and maybe make some hamburger helper who knows whose instructions are we
19:43following that's a good question let's see how it goes and we'll see all of you guys in the next
19:47video
19:50so
19:55you
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