--- title: "These Smart Glasses That Show Captions of What Everyone’s Saying Without a Creepy Spy Camera Actually Seem Pretty Awesome" description: "Smart glasses that show live captions, but don't feature creepy cameras, sidestep a lot of the privacy concerns with regular ones." date: "2026-05-16" modified: "2026-05-16" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/transcription-smart-glasses" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Brain" - "Computing" - "Devices" - "Ethics" - "Health & Medicine" - "Machine Learning" - "Prosthetics and Devices" - "Robots and Machines" --- # These Smart Glasses That Show Captions of What Everyone’s Saying Without a Creepy Spy Camera Actually Seem Pretty Awesome ![Round black Even Realities G2 live-caption eyeglasses with thick frames and attached black rectangular sensors on the temples, placed on an orange grid background.]() *Even Realities / Getty Images* You know when you're in a noisy bar, trying to have a conversation, but you're missing every other word because of the nonstop din? Okay, maybe this one is just for those of us who went to a lot of deafeningly loud concerts when we were young. But take our word for it: it's a real thing, and it's infuriating. That's why this [new *Wired* piece]() is so intriguing. It's about a subspecies of smart glasses designed for a single core purpose: adding closed captions to whatever conversation they pick up and displaying it on a tiny in-lens screen, like subtitles on a movie or show. (They often have a few related features as well, like translation and transcription.) The appeal is twofold. The first is that it's just a cool concept, especially for those of us who aren't *quite* ready for full-fledged hearing aids, and one that the underlying tech seems to finally be catching up with. The second is more sociological. Smart spectacles like Ray-Ban's Meta AI glasses have caught a tidal wave of backlash for incorporating sneaky cameras that the [worst people alive]() are using to [record folks without consent]() and [worse](). The [privacy concerns are immense](), Meta itself seems [completely unprepared for the conversation](), and even the much-hated ICE is [getting in on the fun](). The situation's gotten so bad that Meta's specs have picked up the distinctly unflattering nickname of "[pervert glasses]()." This subcategory of live-caption glasses neatly sidesteps almost all those controversies, though. Since they're built for a single main purpose, they typically don't feature a camera at all. Some can pull up certain other information in their built-in display, like maps, but it's hard to imagine a pair causing the type of [Google Glass-esque scandal]() that specs built around surveillance inevitably kick up. *Wired* exhaustively tested numerous models on the market, and its top pick by a long shot were the Even Realities' G2 Smart Glasses. They've got [even more info here](). **More on smart glasses:** *[Students Renting Smart Glasses to Cheat on Tests]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()