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Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

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11–20 of 34 posts

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#11

I'm surprised no one has tried to skip cameras all together and use ultrasound. mics use two or maybe even three orders of magnitude for an audio -> object inference stack vs visual. of course you can't detect colors or do A LOT of things, but hey, you could make glasses really look like regular glasses, especially if you got rid of the screens too.

Glasses as a computer form factor is not really proven out yet, but cameras on the glasses are one of the things that people are actually using the Meta Raybans for. One of the primary things people do with them is capture POV video. Take away the cameras and you're left with what. ChatGPT on command and headphones and that's it? The Humane Pin would like a word. People buy smart glasses specifically for a rich feature set, the more the better (because it's a nerd/early adopter product as of now).

And also in the real world people just do not care about cameras on glasses as much as people on HN trot out the glasshole articles from a decade ago. Both smart glasses and phones that are actively recording are everywhere already.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#12

I'm surprised no one has tried to skip cameras all together and use ultrasound. mics use two or maybe even three orders of magnitude for an audio -> object inference stack vs visual. of course you can't detect colors or do A LOT of things, but hey, you could make glasses really look like regular glasses, especially if you got rid of the screens too.

Glasses as a computer form factor is not really proven out yet, but cameras on the glasses are one of the things that people are actually using the Meta Raybans for. One of the primary things people do with them is capture POV video. Take away the cameras and you're left with what. ChatGPT on command and headphones and that's it? The Humane Pin would like a word. People buy smart glasses specifically for a rich featu…

I've yet to see someone wear meta ray bans at work, so at least for me DoA. you're right tho. as for use case, more so a better type of Siri. presumably mics would make it much cheaper as well, on the order of a regular watch (~$100)

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#13
It seems to be the same with the immersed visor. Lots of promises, one barely functional demo in 2024 and they said mass production was delayed to "after summer 2025" but still nobody has one yet.

I was thinking of backing it and I'm so glad I didn't. Immersed has a great app so I don't think this was a blatant con but I do think they bit off more than they could chew.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#14
I have a degree in Computer Vision, and, whether Pickle is lying about various capabilities or not, this guy is talking completely out of his ass and a whole lot of what he says is just extremely idiotic.

> tracking blah blah 6DoF blah blah IMU

This whole section is just wildly false. Tracking like shown in the video is easily done with just a camera, 1980s-era sparse optical flow, and basic fucking geometry. No IMU needed. People have been doing far more complex and stable motion tracking with no more input than single camera video for literally decades. And this device doesn't just have a camera; it has two HD stereoptic cameras, so they also get a depth map. You can absolutely do what they show with the hardware that Pickle claims is in the glasses.

(If you want a fantastic example, see the intro sequence to the movie Stranger Than Fiction from 2006.)

> It would take time to affix an open source SLAM pipeline and even more for them to build their own.

And this is a complete non sequitur, as SLAM is also not needed for what they show in the video. Nothing shown requires mapping the area. It's also a joke to say that it would "take time to affix an open source SLAM pipeline" unless by "time" he means a few minutes.

> This would indicate either the software is using real-time depth tracking blah blah

The glasses have fucking binocular cameras in them! What the fuck else would they be for?

> But in the photos of Pickle 1, there is no sign of any spot to charge the device.

There is zero reason whatsoever to believe that those images are photos of the final product and not renders or props. It's like he's never seen marketing material before.

I can't even with this.

This guy's LinkedIn bio says "Aug 2022 - Mar 2023: Attended UVA as a first year studying economics and commerce before dropping out to build in VR full time." So it seems he's a self-important child with zero background. That explains a lot tbh.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#15

I'm surprised no one has tried to skip cameras all together and use ultrasound. mics use two or maybe even three orders of magnitude for an audio -> object inference stack vs visual. of course you can't detect colors or do A LOT of things, but hey, you could make glasses really look like regular glasses, especially if you got rid of the screens too.

Glasses as a computer form factor is not really proven out yet, but cameras on the glasses are one of the things that people are actually using the Meta Raybans for. One of the primary things people do with them is capture POV video. Take away the cameras and you're left with what. ChatGPT on command and headphones and that's it? The Humane Pin would like a word. People buy smart glasses specifically for a rich featu…

Well yeah because the rayban has a camera that's what people buy it for. It hardly does anything else (at least the one without screen).

I'd explicitly want one without camera to avoid the 'glasshole effect'.

And yes people do care at least here in Europe. The meta glasses are banned at a lot of events now.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#16
I've run into similar companies like this in the past in a few different niches and what they were doing are just repeating specs from Chinese OEM suppliers. They were not making their own hardware at all, just reselling it with custom branding and sometimes styling.

It could be the case here? What would explain the accelerated development timeline, it is possible because it isn't their timeline at all, it is someone else's who started a long time ago. And it may be they are talking about their supplier's two year roadmap or something similar.

PS. One of the companies (or more specifically its owners) that was doing did was eventually charged with fraud.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#17

I have a degree in Computer Vision, and, whether Pickle is lying about various capabilities or not, this guy is talking completely out of his ass and a whole lot of what he says is just extremely idiotic. > tracking blah blah 6DoF blah blah IMU This whole section is just wildly false. Tracking like shown in the video is easily done with just a camera, 1980s-era sparse optical flow, and basic fucking geometry. No IMU…

[deleted]

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#18

I have a degree in Computer Vision, and, whether Pickle is lying about various capabilities or not, this guy is talking completely out of his ass and a whole lot of what he says is just extremely idiotic. > tracking blah blah 6DoF blah blah IMU This whole section is just wildly false. Tracking like shown in the video is easily done with just a camera, 1980s-era sparse optical flow, and basic fucking geometry. No IMU…

SLAM is needed for world locked content.

>1980s-era corner feature detection, and basic fucking geometry

Which are pieces of how SLAM works.

>You can absolutely do what they show with the hardware that Pickle claims is in the glasses.

World locked content is not novel. Existing glasses can do it today. The claim is that Pickle didn't build it. The obvious answer would be that they are using what Qualcomm or someone else built it as opposed to Pickle building all of this within a month.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#19

I've run into similar companies like this in the past in a few different niches and what they were doing are just repeating specs from Chinese OEM suppliers. They were not making their own hardware at all, just reselling it with custom branding and sometimes styling. It could be the case here? What would explain the accelerated development timeline, it is possible because it isn't their timeline at all, it is someone…

They were not making their own hardware at all, just reselling it with custom branding and sometimes styling.

Probably 99% of the electronics industry these days is like that. Laptops are one of the most commonly OEM'd products.

Re: Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

#20

I have a degree in Computer Vision, and, whether Pickle is lying about various capabilities or not, this guy is talking completely out of his ass and a whole lot of what he says is just extremely idiotic. > tracking blah blah 6DoF blah blah IMU This whole section is just wildly false. Tracking like shown in the video is easily done with just a camera, 1980s-era sparse optical flow, and basic fucking geometry. No IMU…

Well I hope you never get into this business because I doubt your glasses will work in the dark or on red eye flights.
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