The Pulse
Subvocal Opens $499 Preorders for Silent-Speech Glasses
The Subvocal Company is taking U.S. reservations for glasses designed to turn silently mouthed words into text. A refundable $199 deposit goes toward a $499 early-bird price, with shipping estimated for the first quarter of 2027.
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
“We wanted the speed of speech without having to make a sound.”
Aarush Yadav and Arnav Kumar, co-founders of The Subvocal Company
The Subvocal Company opened preorders on October 30 for glasses it says can turn deliberately mouthed words into computer text without audible speech. The company is pitching the device for messages, notes, writing and prompts to AI assistants—situations where speaking aloud is inconvenient. Its preorder page describes the glasses as a product in development, not a finished device available for immediate delivery.
Paid reservations are currently limited to the United States. Buyers pay $199 now toward an early-bird total of $499, with the remaining $300 due later; the company lists a $699 price before the discount. Taxes, shipping and optional prescription lenses cost extra. The company’s preorder terms say the deposit is refundable before final payment.
Silent articulation, not thought reading
Subvocal says its system converts intentional silent articulation into text; it does not read arbitrary or involuntary thoughts. The company says users can mouth words subtly, though slight facial movement may be visible to someone nearby. It also says the glasses do not require a camera or webcam for silent-speech input. A short personal calibration is planned when users set up the device.
The company’s Y Combinator launch description says the glasses use radio-frequency sensing to detect small facial movements and that models decode the signals into text. But a current company job listing on Y Combinator says Subvocal is not publicly disclosing its exact sensing architecture for competitive and intellectual-property reasons. The public material therefore describes the proposed approach without giving a full account of the device’s final technical design.
The 200-words-per-minute claim is a prototype result
Subvocal advertises text input at more than 200 words per minute. Its Y Combinator launch post attributes that speed to prototypes decoding open-ended speech, while also saying the system had a small dataset. The company has not presented that figure as an independently verified result for a finished consumer product, and its preorder page says final specifications are still being developed.
That distinction matters because the product depends on more than recognizing short, carefully formed phrases. The company says it wants a brief calibration process and names uses such as composing messages and entering prompts into existing applications. Its public materials do not establish how accurately the glasses will handle extended dictation, corrections or different users once they leave prototype conditions.
Delivery remains an estimate
The company estimates first shipments for the first quarter of 2027, but says timing may change and no delivery date has been confirmed for an order. Delivery is subject to Federal Communications Commission approval, according to the preorder page. Prescription lenses are planned as an optional paid upgrade, but their exact options and prices have not been set.
For customers, the offer is a reservation rather than a purchase of a ready-to-ship pair. The $199 deposit is applied to the stated $499 early-bird total and remains refundable until the final payment; the product’s performance and final specifications are still unproven outside the company’s own development work.