ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Halo smart glasses might be the first true AI wearable.
- The agent can remember names, and even vibe code.
- They are available for $299 and will ship later in 2025.
Smart glasses are an ideal form factor for AI assistance. They give AI access to everything you hear and see from your POV, making the handoff between you and the bot as effortless as possible. Now, the latest AI glasses from Brilliant Labs seem ready to take AI-enabled assistance to the next level.
The Halo glasses, launched Thursday, weigh just over 40 grams, about the same weight and look as traditional eyeglasses. Yet, they also pack in other features: a full-color display, made possible by a tiny optical module built into the frame; an optical sensor used for multimodal tasks; bone conduction speakers; a microphone array; and 14 hours of battery life for daily intelligence.
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While these specs are impressive on their own, they all work together to support their core purpose — being a true AI wearable that can see and listen to what you do all day and assist you with anything you need at a later date.
AI at the core
With the Halo AI glasses, the company says users can have near real-time conversations with Noa, the device’s AI agent that was created to feel as intuitive and natural as speaking to a real person. According to Brilliant Labs, part of the fluidity of the experience can be attributed to the fact that Noa can see and hear what you see using the mic array and optical sensor.
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This contextual data isn’t only used for immediate responses. Rather, through Brilliant Labs’ long-term agentic memory feature called Narrative, Noa can also create a personalized knowledge base of the user that analyzes life context for future questions.
“There’s a ton going on when it [the agent] receives unstructured audio and video and other related contextual bits of data that it’s working autonomously in the background to connect those data pieces together,” said Bobak Tavangar, CEO at Brilliant Labs.
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Beyond regular AI assistance, Noa can perform a series of tasks on your glasses, such as muting your microphone and camera. The AI can also help users vibe code with a new experimental feature called Vibe Mode.
Using this feature, users can create new apps using natural language voice commands, which, according to the company, takes seconds. Users can then see and run the application on the display, share it with others, and remix existing generated apps.
Deeper dive into the design
The display in the glasses is enabled by a small optical module that resembles a bead and sits on the frame. Despite its small size, the module projects full-color images in a retro arcade-style display. Other AI smart glasses, such as Halliday’s devices, have taken a similar approach. Although this form of projection sounds complicated, as someone who has demoed these types of devices before, it is quite intuitive.
There are practical reasons to use the optical module instead of the in-lens display, such as the ease of changing prescription lenses without worrying about the display. At purchase, the glasses will come with non-prescription lenses and a reflective coating. However, there will be options for prescription through a partnership with SmartBuyGlasses.
The biggest advantage of the module is that it’s powered at a lower brightness, saving battery, according to the company. The technology also complements the AI-wearable mission.
“We’re not trying to do like 150° field-of-view VR immersive stuff,” said Tavangar. “Most of it is, you know, imagery, emoji, and little visual indicators to complement your dialogue with AI.”
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The glasses also forego bulky cameras found on other smart glasses for taking high-quality photos and videos. Instead, the device uses an optical sensor that captures just enough data to allow the AI to see what you see, but not to capture social content.
This change was intentional, according to Tavangar, who shared that the primary intent of the glasses is not image and video capture, which the Meta Ray-Bans excel at, but rather a true AI wearable experience.
Open source
Brilliant Labs says that Halo glasses are the world’s only fully open-source AI glasses. Why does this status matter? The open-source hardware and software allow developers to build solutions for the device that expand the capabilities for all. This capability should be a win-win for developers and users.
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“This next generation of personal computing is one that we believe has to be built by all of us, not just a few people off in some design studio,” said Tavangar.
Security
Security is naturally a top concern for a wearable that listens to you all day, every day. Brilliant Labs addresses this concern in the release, assuring users that their data is protected. All of the rich media collected by Halo for Noa to function, including visuals and audio, is converted into an “irreversible mathematical representation”.
“For AI to truly be useful to someone, you need to be able to trust it, to be able to trust it, you need to be able to have it in your life all day, to have it in your life all day, you need the device to be lightweight, you need people to trust that the interactions you have with AI or the data that’s being captured,” said Tavangar.
Tavangar added that he wouldn’t want his kids wearing glasses that capture their lives and are susceptible to a data breach, so ensuring privacy and encryption was crucial. He also shared that third parties do not have access to user data.
Availability
The Halo glasses will retail for $299 in Matte Black on the Brilliant Labs website. Shipping will start late November 2025 and follow the same release model as the company’s Frame smart glasses. Only a limited number of units will be available for purchase.
