Tal Bar-Or

Founder & CEO @Altina.
Hearing eyeglasses made for conversation.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

After two years of building quietly, I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on: a new kind of hearing eyewear, made for conversation.

At @altina, we’re designing eyeglasses with AI-powered hearing enhancement to help people stay engaged, even in noisy environments.

We’re collaborating with the British eyewear brand Cubitts, one of London’s most respected eyewear makers.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@michelle__chiu @Prada Fashionology Summit is also this weekend in NYC! https://t.co/WIENlhDX3a

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@JoannaStern Yikes. Regulators pushed for removable batteries. The market found removable recording lights.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

Looking forward to speaking on the Wearables Worth Wearing panel at FASHIONOLOGY in New York this Saturday with @minafahmi, @lizwandersworld, and @eleelenawa, moderated by @vicmsong.

On the show floor, we’ll also be showing three @Altina pre-production devices publicly for the first time.

See you there.

https://t.co/uTh2mgvcS1

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@markgurman From what you describe, Apple seems to be refining Meta's playbook, with cameras and all.

I don't think the Big Tech approach is the right one for smart glasses. The winning form factor will be one people actually feel comfortable wearing.

More here: https://t.co/wzxL1R74tF

[Chris Hall @chrislukehall]

Nobody wants surveillance on their face.

Tal Bar-Or (@btal), Founder @Altina:

"The big tech approach to smart glasses: cameras, data collection, it makes people uncomfortable. With what we're doing, there's none of that."

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@shiyam_kashfiq @chrislukehall @Altina Definitely. Especially with prescription glasses, privacy-first design matters even more. They’re not something you can just put away.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@chrislukehall @capitanb_sails @Altina Exactly. We’re focused on eyewear that helps, not surveillance.

[Chris Hall @chrislukehall]

Nobody wants surveillance on their face.

Tal Bar-Or (@btal), Founder @Altina:

"The big tech approach to smart glasses: cameras, data collection, it makes people uncomfortable. With what we're doing, there's none of that."

[Ecomm Cowboy @ecommcowboy]

"Fashion-first hearing eyewear." - @btal

Two AI chips. One on each side.
Une 10ms latency.

@Altina's glasses do what hearing aids don't: "They separate the speech from the noise. We just amplify the speech."

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@Nrcoope @Altina Happy to share more. Sent you a DM.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

After two years of building quietly, I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on: a new kind of hearing eyewear, made for conversation.

At @altina, we’re designing eyeglasses with AI-powered hearing enhancement to help people stay engaged, even in noisy environments.

We’re collaborating with the British eyewear brand Cubitts, one of London’s most respected eyewear makers.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

Thanks for having me on @ecommcowboy, @colindougherty & @chrislukehall!

This is exactly why we're building @Altina as fashion-first hearing eyewear.

[Colin Dougherty @colindougherty]

80% of people with hearing loss don't wear hearing aids.

Even when you hand them a $7,000 pair.

"It's stigma. It's comfort. People still are not going to wear it."

@btal left Amazon's smart glasses team to fix that with @Altina.

The answer isn't a better hearing aid. It's deleting the hearing aid entirely.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

Will be on @ecommcowboy this afternoon to share about @Altina! Tune in live at 2:45 pm ET / 11:45 am PT to hear me chat with @chrislukehall and @colindougherty about AI-powered hearing eyewear.

[Chris Hall @chrislukehall]

RUN OF SHOW // 5.27.26

@leacabrini - 12:40pm CT
@willnitze - 1:10pm CT
@btal - 1:45pm CT

News & Views:

+ Figure Humanoids x Catalyst Brands
+ Everlane founder starts over
+ Eli Lilly solves cholesterol?
+ @GhostLifestyle x Yoo-hoo Collab
+ $APP ripping
+ Tom Brady in ATX

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@antoine_os Yes, the glasses that he’s wearing in the photo look like Maison Bonnet. Jony has also gotten bespoke frames at Cubitts.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@DurvidImel Cameras still look like cameras, and don't fully blend in. As the public becomes more aware of cameras in glasses, I expect the pushback to increase. We already saw another wave of Glasshole 2.0 coverage earlier this year.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

I don’t think this is such a hot take. It’s probably the prevailing mainstream opinion outside of tech circles.

The problem isn’t smart eyewear. The problem is smart eyewear that makes everyone around you feel like they might be recorded. Fashion- and privacy-first smart glasses can become daily corrective eyewear.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@pitdesi The main reveal today was style and design. Smart glasses don’t become everyday products unless people actually want to wear them.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

Given how similar the temples appear across the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster versions, my guess is that Samsung drove most of the core architecture and industrial design constraints, while the eyewear partners adapted the front/frame styling around that platform. Smart glasses that start with the eyewear design first end up in a very different place.

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@ecommcowboy Let’s do it

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

@zacharyvalles Great tips. For those visiting Shenzhen for the first time or exploring Huaqiangbei on their own, I highly recommend The New Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen: https://t.co/LyjmUDsto7

[Tal Bar-Or @btal]

Appreciate @OptometryToday covering @Altina.

In collaboration with Cubitts, we’re building hearing eyewear like traditional eyewear. The goal is for Altina to fit naturally into the existing optical ecosystem.

https://t.co/uUU47koSYc