Students Undergrad’s Start-Up Lets You ‘Hear’ through its Eyeglasses Stories You May Like This Holiday Season, Try Shopping for Experiences (not Stuff) Alum Helps Kenyan Villagers Earn a Living from their Handicrafts ‘Two Truths and a Lie’: Big Red Celebrity Edition The company makes a smart accessory that uses AI speech-to-text technology to project subtitles viewable only to the wearer By Melissa Newcomb To the casual observer, they seem like a typical pair of eyeglasses with stylishly thick black frames. But for the wearer, they offer a different perspective—one that, essentially, narrates the world. Created by a start-up called TranscribeGlass, the smart accessory generates instant, accurate text, viewable only by the wearer—offering a way for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to better understand spoken communication. “Our smart glasses are like having subtitles for a movie,” says current student Nirbhay Narang ’25, the company’s co-founder and lead engineer, “except instead of a movie, it’s real life.” Our smart glasses are like having subtitles for a movie—except instead of a movie, it’s real life. When the function is activated, spoken words appear in real time in green lettering on the glasses’ right lens. The transcription is adjustable, so the wearer can decide how quickly it appears—from several lines to just a single word at a time. The glasses connect to an app on an iPhone—Android isn’t yet supported—whose microphone captures the speech that AI translates into text. The battery in the frames can transcribe for six hours on a single one-hour charge; prescription lenses and clip-on sunglasses are available at an additional cost. The glasses, with the transcription box visible in the right lens. Stories You May Like This Holiday Season, Try Shopping for Experiences (not Stuff) Alum Helps Kenyan Villagers Earn a Living from their Handicrafts “Most face computers are graceless and heavy, but these glasses are light, only 36 grams,” observed an article in Wired. “There are no cameras, microphones, or speakers in the frames, just a small waveguide projector in the rim of one eye that beams a 640 x 480p image onto the glass.” A computer science major in Arts & Sciences and the Bowers College, Narang is on track to graduate in December 2025. He has been working on TranscribeGlass—which has also been featured in other major media, including the New Yorker, Forbes, and Scientific American—since his junior year. “This is a really innovative technology with many potential applications,” Tapan Parikh, an associate professor of information science at Cornell Tech and the Bowers College, told the Cornell Chronicle, which featured Narang and his work in November 2024. “And Nirbhay has been resourceful in finding external collaborators both within and beyond Cornell.” Most face computers are graceless and heavy, but these glasses are light, only 36 grams. Wired Still in its early stages, TranscribeGlass has so far sold several hundred pairs of the glasses, which are manufactured in Rochester, NY. They’re currently priced at $377, plus a $20 monthly subscription for the transcription app. Narang and his co-founder spent summer 2025 in San Francisco, working to raise their next round of funding. After graduation, he’ll devote himself full time to the start-up—aiming to develop additional features like translating between languages and even analyzing a speaker’s tone to indicate their emotional state. “There’s a lot of space for people to solve real human problems with technology,” says Narang. “That’s what motivates me.” (Top: Illustration by Ashley Osburn / Cornell University. All photos provided.) Published August 6, 2025 Comments Roberta Walcer, Class of 1974 7 Aug, 2025 Need a test subject – I’m local in Ithaca. I have hearing loss. Reply Cathy Sweeney 18 Aug, 2025 Where can I purchase these? This is amazing! Reply Rebecca Miller, Class of 1991 7 Sep, 2025 Would love to purchase these for my aging father who struggles with hearing aids Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Cornelliana Colors of the Wind: Dragon Day Beast Gets an Artistic Twist Alumni Reunion ’22 Photo Tour: The Hill Is Alive with Big Red Spirit Alumni Bill Nye, the Frisbee Guy