AR glasses with multimodal AI nets funding from Pokémon Go creator
增强现实眼镜配备多模态人工智能获得《精灵宝可梦Go》创作者资金支持
In the week when gadget lovers around the world are enchanted by Vision Pro, a young, brave startup is trying to carve out a space for its augmented reality device that features a form factor starkly different from Apple’s device.
在全球各地的器械爱好者为Apple的Vision Pro所着迷的这一周里，一家年轻而勇敢的初创公司正在尝试为其增强现实设备开辟一片空间，该设备的形态与苹果设备截然不同。
Today, Singapore-based Brilliant Labs announced its new product, Frame, a pair of lightweight AR glasses powered by a multimodal AI assistant called Noa. The glasses have captured the attention and investment of John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, the augmented reality platform behind games like Pokemon Go. Brilliant Labs declined to disclose the amount of funding it received from Hanke.
今天，总部位于新加坡的Brilliant Labs宣布了其新产品Frame，这是一款由多模态人工智能助手Noa提供支持的轻便AR眼镜。这款眼镜引起了Niantic CEO约翰·汉克（John Hanke）的关注和投资，Niantic是《精灵宝可梦Go》等游戏背后的增强现实平台。Brilliant Labs拒绝透露汉克投资的金额。
In a video demo seen by TechCrunch, one of Brilliant Labs’ founders asked Noa through voice for a self-introduction. After about three seconds, the agent generated and projected an answer in text onto the lenses.
在一段TechCrunch看到的演示视频中，Brilliant Labs的创始人之一通过语音向Noa询问了自我介绍。大约三秒钟后，助手生成并投射了一段文字回答到镜片上。
In addition to voice commands, Noa is capable of visual processing, image generation and translation, thanks to the handful of AI models it has integrated: conversational search engine Perplexity AI; Stability AI’s text-to-image model Stable Diffusion; OpenAI’s latest text generation model GPT4; and the speech recognition system Whisper. Frame’s lenses have a resolution of 640 x 400 for displaying videos and photos.
除了语音命令，Noa还能进行视觉处理、图像生成和翻译，这得益于其集成了几款人工智能模型：会话搜索引擎Perplexity AI；稳定性AI的文本到图像模型Stable Diffusion；OpenAI的最新文本生成模型GPT4；以及语音识别系统Whisper。Frame的镜片分辨率为640 x 400，可用于显示视频和照片。
With these features, a user shopping at a mall can ask Noa to check the online prices of a pair of shoes they are looking at through Frame, for instance.
比如说，有了这些功能，用户在商场购物时可以通过Frame询问Noa查看正在观看的一双鞋的在线价格。
“The future of human/AI interaction will come to life in innovative wearables and new devices, and I’m so excited to be bringing Perplexity’s real-time answer engine to Brilliant Labs’ Frame,” Aravind Srinivas, CEO and founder of Perplexity, said in a statement.
“人工智能与人类互动的未来将在创新的可穿戴设备和新设备中展现出来，我非常兴奋地将Perplexity的实时答案引擎引入到Brilliant Labs的Frame中。”Perplexity的CEO兼创始人阿拉温德·斯里尼瓦斯（Aravind Srinivas）在一份声明中表示。
The question is whether Frame will be responsive enough for any of its AI-generated responses to be helpful. Brilliant Labs’ Bluetooth-enabled devices rely on a smartphone to access the various AI models today. Eventually, though, the founders want to do away with the phone host and embed lightweight machine-learning models directly into the glasses.
问题在于Frame是否足够响应，以至于其任何由AI生成的回答都能够有所帮助。Brilliant Labs的蓝牙设备今天依赖于智能手机来访问各种AI模型。然而，创始人们最终希望摆脱手机主机，直接将轻量级机器学习模型嵌入到眼镜中。
Frame came after Brilliant Labs’ debut product, Monocole, a single-lens AR device that attracted a loyal following in the open source hardware community thanks to its programmability and affordability. A group of Stanford students once turned the device into a dating assistant that made real-time suggestions on what to say to one’s date.
Frame是Brilliant Labs首款产品Monocole之后推出的，Monocole是一款单镜头的增强现实设备，由于其可编程性和价格实惠，在开源硬件社区中受到了一批忠实的追随者。斯坦福大学的一群学生曾经将该设备改造成了一个约会助手，实时提供建议，告诉用户应该对约会对象说些什么。
Frame will continue to be open source like its predecessor, meaning developers will gain access to resources including living documentation, open source codebase and hardware schematics. They will also be able to adjust the parameters of Noa’s supported AI models.
Frame将像其前身一样继续保持开源，这意味着开发者将获得包括生动文档、开源代码库和硬件原理图在内的资源。他们还可以调整Noa支持的AI模型的参数。
Unlike the bulky Vision Pro, Frame is meant to be worn every day and comes with prescription lenses. Weighing 39 grams and featuring thick round frames made of nylon plastic, the glasses are, as the company puts it, an “homage to the groundbreaking innovations and ideas introduced by figures of history including John Lennon, Steve Jobs and Gandhi.”
不同于笨重的Vision Pro，Frame设计用于日常佩戴，并配备处方镜片。眼镜重39克，采用尼龙塑料制成的厚圆框，正如公司所说，这款眼镜是对包括约翰·列侬、史蒂夫·乔布斯和甘地在内的历史人物引入的开创性创新和思想的“致敬”。
Frame will be available for pre-order starting today and will retail at $349, the same as Monocle’s price tag. The devices will begin shipping in April.
Frame将从今天开始接受预订，零售价为349美元，与Monocle的价格标签相同。这些设备将从四月开始发货。
Since its inception in 2019, Brilliant Labs has managed to attract a lineup of notable angel investors. Back in June, we reported its $3 million investment from Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus; Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri; Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble and former partner at Y Combinator; and others. The new capital injection from Hanke brings the firm’s total financing to $6 million.
自2019年成立以来，Brilliant Labs已经成功吸引了一系列知名的天使投资者。今年六月，我们报道了其从Oculus的联合创始人Brendan Iribe、Siri的联合创始人Adam Cheyer、Pebble的创始人、前Y Combinator合伙人Eric Migicovsky等人那里获得的300万美元投资。Hanke的新资金注入将使该公司的总融资额达到600万美元。
