Blind veterans helped shape accessibility features for Meta glasses

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 35:30

   tried on backstage. We all put on a Metaglass. And I've never had the product before. What is the repeated use case of that product, do you think? What is it that gets people... I remember when Google had the goggles, and then Apple had VR, and everyone's had an effort at putting something on your face, and none of them have stickiness. They're all really interesting novelty experiences, and then your usage tapers off, and you kind of put it in the drawer, and it's like a cool tech.

2. 36:00

   Relic. Well, they're very stylish. Yeah. These are the Kylie Jenners. No, actually, we are so excited about this as a product. The engineers have been working on this for 10 years. You make a good point that if people don't look good in them and they're not stylish, they're not going to put them on. But billions of people wear glasses, whether they're to see or obviously sunglasses. And we're really excited about the features. You can obviously listen to music. The only way I listen to All-In every week is wearing my metaglasses as I'm walking or working out.

3. 36:34

   They actually have the incredible speaker, and so your phone calls are perfect. And now we have a couple of features we're really excited about. Conversation focus. So when Chamath is, you know, at dinner with his beautiful wife and he actually wants to hear her, if he looks at her, all the noise, it goes away except her voice, which is pretty cool. And then translation. That's great. translation as well. Can I do the opposite when I'm... Shemath, it's interesting, Dina, it's interesting you bring this up, Dina.

4. 37:02

   Great. Shemath was just telling me... I'd like to do more of that. Shemath was just telling me he got the new Apple AirPods 5 specifically because of wife-canceling mode. It's the opposite. If you double-click, you can actually tune in, but I know that with... Let me tell you why you're wrong and I'm right. Okay, thanks, Dan. By the way, I just... With these products, you're, you know, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't in the sense that if you design it poorly, no one's going to want to use it. If you design it really well, and it's a big success, a bunch of trial lawyers are going to say it was addictive, and then you get sued for that.

5. 37:34

   So true. I just wanted to move to AI for a second. No, I want to finish on this. But it has this kind of recurrent use case built into it at this point. I really want to understand. The reason so many people are working, I mean, all of our peers are working on wearables is because I do think people want to be part of the world. They actually don't want to be holding boxes walking around. They actually really want to be able to talk to their family, take a picture, take a video, listen to music, and be hands-free.

6. 38:02

   We have Oakley's that are really, really cool for extreme sports. So, the use cases are just everyday life. And I think you're going to show a video. The thing that surprised us was one use case that we hadn't anticipated, and that blind veterans. Actually, somebody was joking with me. They said, how are you getting blind people to wear glasses? That doesn't make sense to me. Can we show this video?

7. 38:25

   It is such an honor to be here. We're in Austin, Texas at a BFW hall where MetaMates are sitting down with amazing men and women who've served our country and who lost their eyesight. They have just been telling us they feel like they're getting their independence back and we're so proud to be giving them Meta glasses. I took them to church. They have the scriptures on the screen in front. I've never been able to read that, but I asked Meta and it read it word for award for men. Seeing these extraordinary servicemen and women, all we've been saying is thank you. Thank you. We don't have America without all of them. And as a big surprise, we are about to introduce them to Chris Stapleton. I just want to come by and say thank you for all your service. I'm so grateful for you. Chris Stapleton's the best. He came and

8. 39:12

   joined us. It was actually on 9-11 just a couple days ago. And what we learned is that a group of blind veterans from the organization that supports them came and actually worked with the meta engineers and designed specific features. And it just turns out, obviously, the glasses can see for you and read to you. One of the gentlemen I was sitting next to put the glasses on and he said, hey, meta, call John. And I was sitting there. I couldn't hear, obviously, what he was hearing.

9. 39:40

   And he just started sobbing. And I said, is everything okay, sir? He said, that's the first time I've ever called my son on my own independently. Oh, that's cool. Wow. So we're seeing these kinds of use cases, of course, that we're incredibly proud of. I guess AI creates the unlock for the glass form factor. That makes a lot of sense.