Best Live-Captioning Smart Glasses (2026), WIRED tested

Best Live-Captioning Smart Glasses (2026), WIRED tested

2026年最佳实时字幕智能眼镜:WIRED 深度测评

People with hearing loss have relied on hearing aids to communicate more effectively and comfortably. But there’s now a new tech, live-captioning eyeglasses, that could be an additional accessibility tool to treat hearing loss. Instead of amplifying speech, however, these gadgets turn it into subtitles. Even if your hearing is fine, you may still find this type of device to be helpful in everyday life.

听力受损人士一直依赖助听器来更有效、更舒适地进行交流。但现在出现了一项新技术——实时字幕眼镜,它有望成为辅助治疗听力损失的额外工具。与助听器放大声音不同,这些设备将语音转化为字幕。即使你的听力正常,你可能也会发现这类设备在日常生活中非常有用。

Captioning glasses are a distinct subset of smart glasses, and they work exactly as the name suggests, displaying real-time subtitles in front of your eyes—transcribing everything you hear (or can’t hear) into text, whether it’s face-to-face chitchat or movie dialog at the cinema. There is a tiny display embedded in each lens, though these are single-color screens designed specifically to display captioned text, invariably in a vibrant shade of green. Don’t expect typical smart-glass features like camera recording or music playback, though there are helpful functions like live translation, navigation, and other information. Fundamentally, captioning glasses are designed to do one thing: turn dialogue into readable text.

字幕眼镜是智能眼镜的一个独特分支,正如其名,它们能在你眼前实时显示字幕——将你听到(或听不到)的一切内容转录为文字,无论是面对面的闲聊还是电影院里的对白。每片镜片中都嵌入了一个微型显示屏,这些单色屏幕专为显示字幕而设计,通常呈现出鲜艳的绿色。不要指望它们具备摄像头录制或音乐播放等典型的智能眼镜功能,尽管它们确实提供实时翻译、导航和其他信息等实用功能。从根本上讲,字幕眼镜的设计初衷就是为了做一件事:将对话转化为可读的文字。

To find out how effective captioning glasses are and if they’re worth investing in, I tested several models for this story. While they all worked as advertised, I found only the Even Realities G2 to be the best in this category. For other types of smart glasses and wearables, check out the Best Meta Glasses and the Best Virtual Reality Headsets.

为了探究字幕眼镜的实际效果以及是否值得投资,我为本文测试了几款产品。虽然它们都能实现广告中所宣传的功能,但我发现只有 Even Realities G2 是该类别中的佼佼者。若想了解其他类型的智能眼镜和可穿戴设备,请查看我们的“最佳 Meta 眼镜”和“最佳虚拟现实头显”指南。

What Can Captioning Glasses Do?

字幕眼镜能做什么?

Two features are ubiquitous across the category: 该类别产品普遍具备两项功能:

Transcription/captions: The bread and butter of all captioning glasses, they don’t just display captions in real time but also archive them on your mobile phone for future reference. You can use captioning glasses to record meetings or other conversations, but remember you’ll need to be close to the action to get a good recording. 转录/字幕: 这是所有字幕眼镜的核心功能。它们不仅能实时显示字幕,还会将其存档在你的手机上以备日后查阅。你可以使用字幕眼镜记录会议或其他对话,但请记住,你需要靠近声源才能获得良好的录音效果。

Translation: Language translation services are common, adding a key feature that even users without hearing issues may benefit from. With a pair of captioning glasses, you can turn a foreign speaker’s language into your own via real-time subtitles. The only catch is that they probably won’t be able to understand you. Most captioning-eyeglass apps include a basic two-way translation system to allow for rudimentary back-and-forth. 翻译: 语言翻译服务非常普遍,这一关键功能即使是听力正常的用户也能从中受益。戴上字幕眼镜,你可以通过实时字幕将外语转化为你熟悉的语言。唯一的不足是对方可能听不懂你在说什么。大多数字幕眼镜应用程序都包含基础的双向翻译系统,以实现简单的交流。

Many (though not all) captioning glasses also have AI features. Some can work as AI-powered voice assistants, letting you ask questions and get LLM-driven answers. Many will also turn transcripts into summaries, emulating the features of AI notetakers. 许多(并非全部)字幕眼镜还具备人工智能功能。有些可以作为 AI 语音助手,让你提问并获得由大语言模型(LLM)驱动的回答。许多设备还能将转录内容总结为摘要,模拟 AI 笔记工具的功能。

Do Captioning Glasses Require a Subscription?

字幕眼镜需要订阅吗?

The good news is that all captioning glasses should work out of the box without a subscription, and the free tier of service is generally capable of covering the basics of both transcription and translation. 好消息是,所有字幕眼镜开箱即可使用,无需订阅,且免费服务层级通常足以覆盖转录和翻译的基本需求。

However, they almost all offer upsell plans—sold by the minute, month, or year—that provide higher-quality captioning and more translation languages (sometimes vastly more), and unlock some of the AI services mentioned above. Check the fine print to see what you have to pay extra for. 然而,它们几乎都提供增值计划(按分钟、月或年计费),这些计划提供更高质量的字幕和更多的翻译语言(有时多得多),并解锁上述部分 AI 服务。请查看细则,了解哪些功能需要额外付费。

Do Captioning Glasses Work Offline?

字幕眼镜可以离线工作吗?

This varies by vendor, but those that do offer offline support often don’t work as well when disconnected. Even vendors that tout this capability tend to strongly recommend using the glasses while connected (via a phone or Wi-Fi) to improve the quality of transcriptions and (especially it) translations. 这取决于供应商,但即使提供离线支持的产品,在断开连接时效果往往也会大打折扣。即便是那些标榜此功能的供应商,也强烈建议在连接状态下(通过手机或 Wi-Fi)使用眼镜,以提高转录(尤其是翻译)的质量。

Are Captioning Glasses Medical Devices?

字幕眼镜属于医疗设备吗?

Captioning glasses fall into two medical categories: hearing support and vision support. As such, most vendors allow you to pay for these devices with vision insurance and FSA/HSA plans. 字幕眼镜属于两个医疗类别:听力辅助和视力辅助。因此,大多数供应商允许你使用视力保险以及 FSA/HSA(灵活支出账户/健康储蓄账户)计划来支付这些设备的费用。

Remember, captioning glasses can also function as actual glasses, and in fact, if you have poor eyesight, you’ll need to fit them with prescription lenses if you want to be able to read the captions. (You can also wear contact lenses to bypass this need.) Most captioning glasses use a magnetic or clip-on system that adds a second lens behind the primary lens with the integrated display, which can get bulky. 请记住,字幕眼镜也可以作为普通眼镜使用。事实上,如果你视力不佳,想要看清字幕,就需要为其配上矫正镜片。(你也可以佩戴隐形眼镜来省去这一麻烦。)大多数字幕眼镜使用磁吸或夹片系统,在主镜片后方增加第二层带有集成显示屏的镜片,这可能会显得比较笨重。

The effectiveness of these products as eyeglasses will vary based on your particular vision needs, and I don’t know if I’d recommend investing in expensive progressive lenses for captioning glasses. The captioning overlay interferes with up-close computer work or reading, so I regularly switched back to standard eyeglasses if I didn’t need captioning. 这些产品作为眼镜的有效性取决于你的具体视力需求,我不确定是否建议为字幕眼镜配置昂贵的渐进多焦点镜片。字幕叠加层会干扰近距离的电脑工作或阅读,因此如果不需要字幕,我通常会换回普通眼镜。

What’s the Catch?

有什么缺点吗?

Captioning glasses, like all smart glasses, aren’t perfect. They can be extremely heavy—up to three times the weight of my regular glasses—and I found they usually sat on my face in an odd position, much too high on the bridge of my nose, with no way to adjust them. While captioning glasses generally have a battery life measured in hours, not days, that’s actually not as big a problem: I found most glasses were too heavy and uncomfortable to wear for more than about an hour at a time. 像所有智能眼镜一样,字幕眼镜并不完美。它们可能非常重——重量可达我普通眼镜的三倍——而且我发现它们戴在脸上时位置很奇怪,在鼻梁上架得太高,且无法调节。虽然字幕眼镜的电池续航通常以小时而非天来计算,但这其实并不是最大的问题:我发现大多数眼镜太重,佩戴超过一小时就会感到不适。

For the style-conscious, my wife was not shy in letting me know that these glasses looked “ridiculous.” Her words. I included a pic to run with this roundup. You decide. 对于注重时尚的人来说,我妻子毫不客气地告诉我,这些眼镜看起来“很滑稽”。这是她的原话。我在本篇综述中附上了一张照片,由你来评判。

The Only Captioning Glasses I Would Buy

我唯一会购买的字幕眼镜

Even Realities G2 Smart Glasses ($599) Even Realities G2 智能眼镜(599 美元)

Even Realities G2 are the best captioning glasses I tested, and no other option comes close. Available in two frame styles and three colors, it’s the only pair of captioning glasses that even hints at stylishness. Its lighter weight and thinner profile are due in part to not using clip-on lenses for prescription users; you set your vision details when you order, and they arrive ready to wear with the lens modified (prescription starts at $159, and progressive lenses are available). To be fair, the 43-gram frames… Even Realities G2 是我测试过的最好的字幕眼镜,没有其他产品能与之媲美。它有两种镜框款式和三种颜色可选,是唯一一款称得上时尚的字幕眼镜。它重量更轻、外形更薄,部分原因在于它没有为近视用户使用夹片式镜片;你在订购时设置视力参数,收到时镜片即已定制完成(配镜费用 159 美元起,并提供渐进多焦点镜片)。平心而论,这款 43 克的镜框……