In-Depth with Mike Sullivan: Exploring Meta Smart Glasses with Ray-Ban Rep Melissa Giovanni

Ray-Ban Meta Glasses: The Future of Eyewear

Tune in as long-time Bay Eye Center patient Mike Sullivan and Ray-Ban® rep Melissa Giovanni, discuss the future of eyewear: Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses!

TRANSCRIPT:

(closed captions are available on the video)

Mike Sullivan: Alright joining me now is Melissa Giovanni, she is with Ray-Ban® and she is here to tell us all about a product that is all the buzz right now. It is the perfect blend of designer fashion, iconic style, and state-of-the-art technology with AI. Melissa, thank you so much for joining us today!

Melissa Giovanni:  Thank you!

Mike Sullivan:  It is my pleasure. So we're gonna get into some of the cool features and styles, but for someone like me who doesn't know too much about them—in a few sentences, what are Ray-Ban® Meta glasses?

Melissa Giovanni:  So Ray-Ban, our Meta glasses are smart glasses created by Meta & EssilorLuxottica. They have a camera, speakers, microphone, touchpad—all right in the frame—and with the most popular brand in the world!

Mike Sullivan:  Wow, that sounds amazing! But it also sounds like it could cost about a thousand dollars or more for these glasses. So, what are we talking about for price? And when I say price...investment, because this is a product that is going to serve you in several ways.

Melissa Giovanni:  So, price point is $299 to $379 for the frame. For an additional charge you can add your RX lenses as well

Mike Sullivan:  Excellent, much lower than I would have anticipated. So, that sounds awesome. Let's talk color and style now. I would think with this kind of technology, perhaps there's only a few base models—you get what you get—or are these customizable at all?

Melissa Giovanni:  There are three styles as of right now: the Wayfarer, which is what I have on; there is a round; and a Skyler style, which is like a woman's kind of cat eye. They do come in a few different colors—we have black, caramel, blue, brown—and the lenses used can get sun, transition, and clear. So, they are a little customizable depending on what you're looking for. I'm sure there'll be new models out in the future soon.

Mike Sullivan:  Absolutely. I know there is a growing selection of AI glasses in the market. Why should Bay Eye Center patients choose Ray-Ban® Metas?

Melissa Giovanni:  These Metas have many more features than most smart glasses on the market do. Right now, they have a voice command, so all your hands-free communication, talk, text, video. And the newest update to them was they can actually translate language, which is very cool yeah. So, if you're on vacation in another country, have a family member you know that you need help understanding. And they also can scan a QR code now as well.

Mike Sullivan:  That is impressive! So what do you need to connect the AI glasses to? Do we just link them to a smartphone? Is there a specific app that we need to get them to work properly?

Melissa Giovanni:  Yeah, they do have their own app that you download on your phone. Everything that you take pictures of, video record, will all go right to the app, and then you can choose to post it on social media. You can change the pictures over so that they're in your camera

video roll as well.

Mike Sullivan:  That is so cool! So high tech these days. So yes, say I make this investment. I get all of the cool technology that comes with it, but what about the vision part—the frames, the lenses, the eye protection—are they available in sunglasses too?

Melissa Giovanni:  They are available in sunglasses and you can get all the same eye protection that you get with your regular glasses—blue light filter, AR, transitions—anything that you have on your regular glasses, you can have on these as well.

Mike Sullivan:  Very cool. It was raining this morning when I took my son out to the bus stop, so my question to you is what if my Metas get wet?

Melissa Giovanni:  They are not supposed to get wet. I think a little rain would most likely be okay, but they don't recommend obviously wearing them in the ocean, dipping them in the water is not recommended.

Mike Sullivan:  No alright got it. They are not goggles, they are glasses. So do we charge these glasses and how long does that process take?

Melissa Giovanni:  We do charge them, the case that they come in is actually the charger, which is a super cool feature. So this is the case—you can see the little light is on—it's yellow right now because mine are not all the way charged, but as long as this case is charged, which it takes maybe about a half hour to 45 minutes to fully charge, you can wear the glasses. And if the glasses need the charge, you can put them back in the case, charge them and then put them back on. So they don't need to be plugged in all the time which is really cool.

Mike Sullivan:  Sounds easy enough to me. And what if the technology stops working or something isn't working correctly—is there any kind of warranty that comes with the Metas?

Melissa Giovanni:  There is a 24-month from the date of purchase for repair/replacement due to any kind of manufacturer's defect. Obviously if you drop them in the pool or something like that's not a defect, that's your...but yeah. And as well as if anything breaks, the temple, anything like that, they will replace them for you within 24 months.

Mike Sullivan:  Excellent, that sounds good. Is there anything else that you would like Bay Eye Center patients to know?

Melissa Giovanni:  I think as a person, like I said earlier, who is not into like techy stuff, I was really impressed. I think people should give them a chance, try them out. It's maybe not for everyone, but I think it's for a lot more people than they think, and they're so easy to use. I have a customer that has a Portuguese mother-in-law, and they have been translating language since this started, and she's able to use them. So I think they're really simple. And you might think that's not for me, but I'd say give it a shot because it is really cool. And if you're on vacation, watching your kid's game, you don't have to be looking at your phone. You're actually looking right at whatever you're looking at. And you don't have to be distracted by your phone screen, which I think is really nice cause you know, that's the thing nowadays, everyone's always looking at their phone.

Mike Sullivan:  Absolutely! Melissa Giovanni, you have convinced me. Thank you so much for sharing all about this!

Melissa Giovanni:  Thank you for having me!

Mike Sullivan: I appreciate it! Take care!

Melissa Giovanni: You too.