Dogs Inc, a local nonprofit dedicated to breeding, raising and training guide and service dogs  for individuals with vision loss, veterans with PTSD/disabilities and children with significant challenges—all at no cost to recipients—recently hosted its inaugural hands-on workshop on AI-powered smart glasses. For guide dog recipients, this technology serves as a powerful supplement, not a replacement, to their expertly trained dogs. The workshop introduced five local guide dog recipients, including three from Sarasota, to smart glasses. The AI glasses are designed to fill in details that a guide dog cannot share, such as reading building names, addresses, numbers or describing surroundings. Participants received a complimentary pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer AI glasses, provided by Dogs Inc, to continue practicing outside of the training environment. Dogs Inc plans to continue the sessions and roll out this workshop model to all of the more than 400 guide dog teams it supports nationwide, creating countless new opportunities for the people with vision loss they serve. Each workshop will focus on exploring the built-in Meta AI features and allow participants to connect with a Be My Eyes volunteer—a sighted helper who can see through the camera of the smart glasses and provide visual descriptions and feedback in real time. Participants, accompanied by their guide dogs, will navigate the Dogs Inc campus using voice commands to read documents, identify signs and understand their environment.  Karissa Keller, who leads the virtual learning department at Dogs Inc., is one of the workshop leaders. Since her team creates all of the graduates’ virtual training materials, she says that taking on the AI glasses workshop felt like a natural extension of their work and expertise with adaptive technology. So far, she has observed a positive response from participants, who are excited that the glasses allow them to perform tasks—like reading a sign or identifying a gate number—that would normally require relying on another person to be physically with them. Her team also unexpectedly discovered the glasses have an interpretation feature for other languages, making them valuable to an even greater number of people. "The glasses will actually tell you what kind of obstacle is in your way. All you have to say is 'Hey, Meta.' and it'll activate the glasses and you can then ask it exactly what's happening," Keller explains. "If you ask, ‘what's in front of me?’ it'll tell you what's in front of you. And that it’s a really cool experience because not only does the person know the dog is stopping them, but now they have something to be able to tell them what's actually in their way." For those who are intimidated by the new technology, Keller advises they take the first step and at least try. “The world is ever-changing and technology is evolving. You have to be able to change and grow with technology. Yes, there are going to be drawbacks but the technology is only there to make life better and in situations like this, we're not replacing the dog, we're complementing what the dog can do. We're also providing the glasses and the training at no cost right now.”