Brilliant Monocle
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| Brilliant Monocle | |
|---|---|
| |
| Basic Info | |
| VR/AR | Augmented Reality |
| Type | Head-mounted display |
| Subtype | AR Glasses |
| Developer | Brilliant Labs |
| Manufacturer | Brilliant Labs |
| Release Date | March 2023[1] |
| Price | US$349 (launch price) |
| Successor | Brilliant Labs Frame |
| System | |
| Chipset | Nordic nRF52832 Bluetooth microcontroller; Gowin GW1N-LV9MG100C6/I5 FPGA |
| Storage | |
| Storage | 512 KB flash (microcontroller); 1 MB SPI flash; 608 kb flash (FPGA) |
| Memory | 64 KB RAM (microcontroller); 64 MB RAM (AP Memory APS256XXN) |
| Display | |
| Display | Single Micro OLED monocular (0.23-inch micro OLED, optically bonded to the housing)[2] |
| Resolution | 640x400 per-eye |
| Image | |
| Field of View | 20° diagonal |
| Optics | |
| Optics | Non-polarized 50/50 beam splitter with a curved mirror |
| Ocularity | Monocular |
| Audio | |
| Microphone | TDK/InvenSense ICS-41351 (PDM interface) |
| Camera | Omnivision OV5640, 5 MP color sensor |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.2, up to 2 Mb/s |
| Bluetooth | 5.2 |
| Power | Charging case with 450 mAh battery, recharged over USB Type-C |
| Battery Capacity | 70 mAh |
| Battery Life | About 2 hours (manufacturer claim) |
| Device | |
| Dimensions | 43 mm wide, 9 mm thick |
| Weight | 15 g |
| Input | Two capacitive touch buttons; microphone |
Brilliant Monocle is an augmented reality head-mounted display released in 2023. Made by the Singapore-based startup Brilliant Labs, it is a small, single-eye display unit that clips onto an existing pair of glasses or can be held up to the eye. It weighs 15 grams and contains a 640 x 400 pixel color micro OLED display, a camera, a microphone, touch buttons, a battery and a Bluetooth link to a smartphone.[1][3]
Monocle was sold as an open-source developer device. It runs a port of MicroPython, and Brilliant Labs published its firmware, FPGA code, schematics and 3D models.[2][4] The device drew attention in 2023 when developers connected it to OpenAI's GPT-4 language model, including the company's own arGPT app and a Stanford student project called rizzGPT.[1][5] Its successor, the Brilliant Labs Frame glasses, was announced in February 2024 at the same US$349 price.[6]
History
In 2023 TechCrunch identified Bobak Tavangar, a former Apple program lead, as the co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Labs.[1] Technology sites reported on Monocle in early February 2023. Liliputing described it on 7 February 2023 as an open-source augmented reality device priced at $349, citing company updates that manufacturing was nearly complete and that the first batch would ship soon.[7] According to TechCrunch, Monocle launched in March 2023 at $349.[1]
In June 2023 Brilliant Labs announced a US$3 million seed round led by Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus; Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri; Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble; and Plug & Play Ventures. TechCrunch reported at the time that the company had close to 2,000 developers in its Discord community and was on track to "far exceed" its sales target for the year.[1]
On 8 February 2024 Brilliant Labs opened pre-orders for Frame, a pair of glasses that TechCrunch described as the follow-up to Monocle. Frame kept the open-source approach and the US$349 price. TechCrunch wrote that Monocle had "attracted a loyal following in the open source hardware community thanks to its programmability and affordability."[6] The company announced a later pair of glasses, the Brilliant Labs Halo, in July 2025.[8] As of September 2026 the Brilliant Labs website offered Halo for order and did not list Monocle as a product for sale.[9]
Design and hardware
Monocle is a one-piece housing 43 mm wide and 9 mm thick. It clips onto common reading glasses and has no wires or external connectors.[3] Brilliant Labs attributes the 15 gram weight to low-power, miniaturized electronic parts.[1]
Display and optics
The display is a 0.23-inch micro OLED with 640 x 400 RGB pixels. It is optically bonded to the main housing, which directs the image into the user's eye. Brilliant Labs describes the result as "a transparent floating display with a 20° field of view", about the size of a tablet display seen at arm's length.[2]
In a 2024 analysis of Frame, display engineer Karl Guttag described Monocle's optics as a "simplistic, non-polarized 50/50 beam splitter" combined with a mostly spherical curved mirror. The splitter sends half of the display's light toward the mirror, which magnifies the image and moves its apparent focus, and roughly 25% of the light finally reaches the eye. Guttag noted that the optics sit below eye level, so the wearer has to look down or position the device higher to see the image. He also wrote that the non-polarized design sends a bright, mirrored image of the display forward, which is often called "eye glow", and that Frame uses the same optical function in a different physical arrangement.[10]
Electronics
TechCrunch reported that Monocle contains five processors, including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) accelerator that handles data from the camera, microphone and capacitive touch sensor.[1] According to Brilliant Labs' hardware documentation:[2]
- The main microcontroller is a Nordic nRF52832 with 512 KB of flash memory and 64 KB of RAM. It provides Bluetooth 5.2 at up to 2 Mb/s.
- The FPGA is a Gowin GW1N-LV9MG100C6/I5 from the Little Bee family, with 7k LUTs, 468 kb of block RAM and 608 kb of flash memory.
- AP Memory APS256XXN RAM chips provide 64 megabytes of addressable memory, and a 1 megabyte SPI flash chip can boot the FPGA or store user data.
- The front-facing camera is an Omnivision OV5640 5 MP color sensor connected to the FPGA over a MIPI CSI-2 interface.
- A TDK/InvenSense ICS-41351 microphone uses a PDM interface.
- Two capacitive touch buttons feed an Azoteq IQS620A touch controller.
- Power comes from a 70 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery managed by a Maxim MAX77654 power management IC.
Launch coverage said the camera can record 720p video.[7][3]
Battery and charging case
Designboom reported a runtime of about two hours from the internal battery. Monocle ships with a charging case that holds a 450 mAh battery and can recharge the device up to six times.[3] The case itself charges from a standard USB Type-C connection.[2]
Software
Monocle is programmed in MicroPython. Developers can use the Python REPL over Bluetooth or through a browser-based REPL provided by Brilliant Labs. Built-in modules give access to the display, camera, microphone, touch pads and the FPGA, which the firmware reaches over an internal SPI bus. If a main.py file is saved on the device, Monocle runs it automatically at startup. Both the MicroPython firmware and the FPGA images can be updated wirelessly.[4]
Brilliant Labs publishes the Monocle MicroPython port under the ISC license and the FPGA application, which contains the graphics, camera and microphone accelerators, under the CERN Open Hardware Licence version 2 (permissive).[11][12] At launch, Designboom reported that the design and software were available under the MIT license.[3] The hardware documentation links PDF schematics for Monocle and its charging case, along with STEP and STL 3D models.[2]
Applications
Brilliant Labs developed arGPT, an app that takes sound from Monocle's microphone and other sensors to hold low-latency dialogue with GPT-4. TechCrunch noted in June 2023 that a smartphone was still needed to relay data between Monocle and cloud-based AI services.[1] Brilliant Labs' Monocle documentation also describes Noa, an app that shows ChatGPT's answer in front of the wearer's eye after a tap and a spoken command.[13]
In early 2023 Stanford computer science and electrical engineering student Bryan Hau-Ping Chiang built rizzGPT, which combined Monocle with ChatGPT, OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition and a smartphone. Chiang used it during a mock job interview, a chance meeting with a friend and while choosing dishes at a restaurant.[5] TechCrunch described the project as a group of Stanford students turning the eyepiece into a display for GPT-4 that listened to conversations through the phone's microphone and could suggest what to say on a date.[1]
Specifications
- Display: Single Micro OLED monocular
- Resolution: 640x400 per-eye
- Field of View: 20° diagonal
See Also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Rita Liao (2023-06-27). "Brilliant Labs puts AI in front of your eye with its tiny open source AR lens". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/27/brilliant-labs-puts-ai-in-front-of-your-eye-with-its-tiny-open-source-ar-lens/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Monocle Hardware". Brilliant Documentation. Brilliant Labs. https://docs.brilliant.xyz/monocle/hardware/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Christina Petridou (2023-02-10). "meet monocle, the world's smallest AR device that clips onto your glasses". Designboom. https://www.designboom.com/technology/monocle-world-smallest-ar-device-clip-glasses-brilliant-labs-02-10-2023/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "MicroPython - Monocle". Brilliant Documentation. Brilliant Labs. https://docs.brilliant.xyz/monocle/micropython/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mark Tyson (2023-04-20). "ChatGPT Glasses Bring AI Into Your Real Life". Tom's Hardware. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/chatgpt-glasses-bring-ai-into-your-real-life. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Rita Liao (2024-02-08). "AR glasses with multimodal AI nets funding from Pokémon GO creator". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/08/ar-glasses-with-multimodal-ai-attracts-funding-from-pokemon-go-founder/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brad Linder (2023-02-07). "Brilliant Monocle is an open source augmented reality device that clips onto your glasses". Liliputing. https://liliputing.com/brilliant-monocle-is-an-open-source-augmented-reality-device-that-clips-onto-your-glasses/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Daniel Cooper (2025-07-31). "Brilliant Labs launches its second-generation smart glasses". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/wearables/brilliant-labs-launches-its-second-generation-smart-glasses-130000032.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Brilliant Labs". Brilliant Labs. https://brilliant.xyz/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Karl Guttag (2024-05-09). "Brilliant Labs Frame AR with AI Glasses & a Little More on the Apple Vision Pro". KGOnTech. https://kguttag.com/2024/05/09/brilliant-labs-frame-ar-with-ai-glasses-a-little-more-on-the-apple-vision-pro/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "monocle-micropython". GitHub. Brilliant Labs. https://github.com/brilliantlabsAR/monocle-micropython. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "monocle-fpga". GitHub. Brilliant Labs. https://github.com/brilliantlabsAR/monocle-fpga. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Monocle". Brilliant Documentation. Brilliant Labs. https://docs.brilliant.xyz/monocle/monocle/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.