Omi vs Ray-Ban Meta in 2026

Omi

Omi, by Based Hardware (founder Nik Shevchenko, San Francisco), is a shipping AI necklace in the ambient-recording 'second brain' category: a small circular orb on a neck lanyard that captures conversations and runs them through GPT-4o for ambient transcription in 25+ languages, auto-summaries and tasks, a searchable memory database, daily recaps, and a 'Brain Map'. It sells for $89 as a consumer unit (about $70 dev) one-time, with a free tier (unlimited on-device transcription plus 1,200 cloud minutes a month) and an optional Omi Unlimited plan from $16 a month; the user owns the device.

It is one of the few genuinely open-hardware entries in the cohort: an MIT-licensed GitHub repo of about 12,700 stars with firmware, apps, and open hardware designs, maintained into 2026. The AI is genuine cloud functionality, not veneer. One significant cap-flag: the aspirational brain-interface and EEG 'reads-your-mind' marketing is not the shipping product, which is audio-only; the BCI module is roadmap with no code, and TechCrunch could not verify it. (Omi is distinct from Friend, Avi Schiffmann's pendant; Shevchenko's device was originally also named Friend and was renamed Omi.)

Ray-Ban Meta

Ray-Ban Meta is Meta's line of AI-augmented smart glasses (with EssilorLuxottica), and the clearest case in the wearable cohort of a product that shipped what it promised: Meta AI voice, photo and video capture, live translation, and Look-and-Ask generally deliver as marketed. The lineup runs from about $299 (the 2023 Ray-Ban Meta) and ~$379 (Gen 2) up to $799 for the Ray-Ban Display with Neural Band, descending from the camera-only Ray-Ban Stories (2021). EssilorLuxottica reported about 7 million smart glasses sold in 2025 (a manufacturer-reported figure).