Tal Bar-Or, Founder and CEO of AI listening to eyewear startup Altina, says massive tech is constructing sensible glasses the fallacious approach – and mainstream adoption will stay out of attain till the business places design first.
Good glasses are having a second. Meta’s Ray-Ban line shipped 6.5 million items in 2025. Google confirmed Android XR audio glasses for autumn 2026, partnering with Warby Parker and Mild Monster. Amazon’s Echo Frames have been out there for years.
But stroll down any road and also you hardly ever see somebody sporting a pair.
Tal Bar-Or, Founder and CEO of Altina, is aware of why. He labored on Echo Frames at Amazon earlier than founding his personal startup. He has watched massive tech pour sources into sensible glasses — and miss the identical fundamentals every time.
“They’re compromising on privateness, compromising on model and style,” Bar-Or informed UC In the present day. “I believe it’s solely actually a half step from what I’ve seen.”
Design Like Eyewear, Not Like a Gadget
Bar-Or’s argument is easy. Good glasses have to compete with common glasses on their very own phrases – aesthetically and virtually – earlier than any know-how layer issues.
One missed problem is bodily match. Conventional opticians provide 1000’s of body kinds to go well with completely different face shapes. Most sensible glasses manufacturers provide a handful.
“A nostril in Europe is completely different than a nostril in East Asia,” Bar-Or mentioned. “When you put glasses made for any individual in Europe on a face of any individual in East Asia, they’re simply going to slip off.”
Altina has no electronics within the entrance body — a deliberate selection that permits far higher selection in kinds and sizing.
Listening to Enhancement because the Killer Use Case
Fairly than chase the “substitute the smartphone” narrative – a imaginative and prescient Bar-Or noticed fail first-hand at Magic Leap – Altina is targeted on listening to enhancement. Beamforming microphones assist wearers give attention to voices in noisy environments.
“There will likely be a cause for them to put on our glasses,” he mentioned. Privateness considerations already canine camera-forward rivals, making a non-camera strategy more and more engaging.
