Our thoughts on the Meta Ray Ban smart glasses for nosework

The guest co-author on this blog post is Rhonda Lockwood.  Rhonda's partner is Raven, a very accomplished German Shepherd Dog.  They split their time between South Dakota and Arizona and compete in NACSW nosework and AKC Scent Work.  Rhonda got her Meta Ray Ban smart glasses soon after I got mine and she generously agreed to provide her thoughts.  

I believe capturing video for review in both practice and competition nosework searches is one of the most important things one can do to identify team weaknesses and mistakes and thus drive improvement.   It's fun to use video to participate in online classes and exercises like the NACSW Skills Challenges, and the videos make for wonderful memories, too.  Possibly most importantly, they document progress and also let you cherish and celebrate times where things went really right.  

There are basically two types of videos possible under the rules (not all are allowed by all venues): 

1. Handler viewpoint, usually characterized as "chest" or "head" mount
2. Onlooker viewpoint, including professional videographer services, stationary tripod mount or handheld video by another person.

Both types can provide a lot of value.  Onlooker viewpoint gives a "big picture" that shows how you are moving, shifting your weight, what direction your feet, hips and shoulders are facing.  It may show what is going on around you during the search.  Personally, if professional video is available, I'm going to buy it.  And I use tripod-mount for a lot of class and other online submissions because the guidelines often specify that the video should show both handler and dog.

In handler viewpoint, it's pretty easy to tell if you weren't oriented toward your dog, or weren't looking at your dog, and just discovering that can be worth it.  Handler viewpoint video is handy for any exercise requiring a video submission when you need to move around a corner or cover a big area.  And it is so great to have for trials -- you can review it right after a run, "what happened in there?"  You don't have to find a friend who is not entered or who has already searched to video you.  And you have a record to review in the situations where there is no professional videographer. 

For handler viewpoint, the vast majority of people are using Go-Pro type cameras, often the same ones the professional videographers are using, with a chest mount, a headband mount, or clipped onto a headband or at the waist.  I originally wrote that I thought Go-Pro was the "gold standard" for handler-viewpoint video.  Not everyone agreed, and Rhonda put together this terrific analysis: 

Further, Rhonda has recorded three different searches using all three methods at once, in order to compare and contrast.  Each video shows the search from the perspective of the cell phone and tripod, then the Go Pro chest mount, then the Meta Ray Ban glasses:

Interior Search #1

Interior Search #2

Containers 

People often ask what they look like, what styles are available, how much do they cost, etc.  The best resources for that are the Meta Store, The Ray Ban Store, Reddit groups or Facebook Groups (lots of selfies on that last, not my favorite resource).  A couple of important things: 

• There are presently 3 frame styles.  Try to find frames at a sticks and bricks retailer to try on, but be aware sales associates are often not familiar with the options and one can usually find the broadest range of options online through Meta or Ray Ban
• Wayfarer   (comes in two sizes and the large is REALLY large)
• Headliner  (comes in two nosebridge heights)  
• Skyler 

• Frame colors vary.  Some are translucent.  There are limited frame color / lens combinations, i.e. you can only get the red lenses in the blue frames.  They occasionally offer limited edition colors for substantial markup.  

• Standard lens options are
• Clear 
• Blue-violet light screening (computer use)
• Transition
• Do not darken behind U/V protection glass like a windshield
• Do not get REALLY dark 
• Be aware some of the "clear" Transitions are subtly tinted 
• No "factory" Transition lenses are polarized
• These take about 30 seconds to fully darken or lighten 
• Sunnies
• Lens colors vary
• Only some are polarized
• Prescription lenses are available through Meta and they say they will take FSA and HSA.
• Other lens colors -- sunglasses, transitions, tints, polarization, and prescription are also available from other vendors.  Many users "pop these in" themselves.  

• If you have access to an educator or student email, look for discounts available to you  
• Lots of "influencers" got free glasses, sometimes several pairs, and those are often available 'new in box' on Ebay
• Meta has just announced a collab with Oakley, for "performance" smart glasses, "coming soon."  UPDATE: Info shows they have additional storage and polarized lenses but no mention of longer video capability

Here's the Meta article on what the smart glasses can do and how they work.  

• An app is required, so you need either an Android or ios Phone or Tablet.  There is no way to connect the glasses to a laptop or desktop computer.
• Both Rhonda (ios) and I (Android) found the app to be very user-friendly and intuitive.  
• The app is how you change settings, like the default length of a video.  Choices are 30 seconds, 1 minute or 3 minutes.  
• I also turn on "auto import" so if the glasses are in range of the phone, videos and pictures will automatically get sucked onto the phone's memory and deleted from the glasses.
• Not much works at the same time as video is recording!  You can set timers, play music, ask "what am I looking at?" or "what time is it" or lots of other "automated assistant" things but pretty much nothing works at the same time as video recording.  
• So you could use these to time your search and to play music during your search but if you turn on video, both those things stop.
• They do seem to understand all my spoken commands quite well with the exception of playing music.  They do that through the apps on my phone so maybe it's just my apps but if I say, for example, "play the soundtrack from Dear Evan Hansen" I'm more likely to get "Here are Country favorites by Jennifer Hanson on Sirius XM" or (heaven help me) "Here's mmmBop from Hanson on Amazon Music." 

I haven't played around with all the AI things the glasses can do, which seems ridiculous given the expense, but I'm like, "no, these are my NOSEWORK glasses, I just do NOSEWORK with them."

• Many of the AI features only work in the US, which is unfortunate if you really wanted to use the real-time translation feature to enter an SDDA trial in Quebec and don't speak French, for example.
•  The "what am I looking at?" feature has hugely variable results, but, often, it provides a very broad description:

The glasses say this is "A bush, or maybe some flowers"
(which was funny because, moments before, it identified sagebrush and gave the Latin name, too!) 

Other than nosework, however, my main enjoyment with them has been the ability to take pictures and video, especially while walking the dogs... Now, there are lots of times when I say "gosh, I wish I had the camera glasses on right now!"  They are a bit heavier than my "usual" (drug store Foster Grant) sunglasses and not quite as comfortable, but definitely not such an irritation that I think about them during a search.  In fact, one problem has been forgetting which sunglasses I have on and going to a search with the wrong ones!  Rhonda says "I love it for dog walking, taking pictures and videos and I also love it for talking on the phone. It’s as clear for the people on the other end as my AirPods!!"

Initially, friends were taken aback by the glasses, saying, nervously, "we'll have to watch what we say around Kristi now, with the spy glasses!"  There is an externally-visible LED that comes on when you are recording, though, and Meta has made it pretty darned impossible to cover that up.  But with the 3 minute limit and the very visible/audible on/off mechanisms, it's kind of hard to get much covert action out of them (which is great, imo).  

There is a 'status" light on the inside of the right temple.  It turns on when recording video but I find it impossible to see in any kind of light at all.  This photo was taken in the dark.  

LED glows when recording - but it is hard to see in sunlight
There are cameras on both sides, but the LED is only on the right side.