Xiaomi unveils its smartglasses

Just after Facebook has launched Ray-Ban Stories smartglasses developed in collaboration with Luxottica and just before Apple Event, Xiaomi has entered the smartglasses field with its own product, just announced on its blog.

Specifications

• Display: single microLED-based waveguide display, monochrome (green), up to 2M nits
• Processor: quad-core ARM
• Weight: 51g
• Camera: 5MP
• Audio: integrated speakers and microphone
• Connection: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
• Interaction: Touch, voice
• Operating system: Android

Functionalities

Xiaomi has announced its pair of smartglasses, which mainly work connected to a phone to give you an interesting set of functionalities. From the above video and the press release, we know that they can:

• Show you important notifications from the phone (e.g. messages)
• Show the navigation directions in front of your eyes to let you reach your destination easily
• Let you answer phone calls
• Shoot photos and videos
• Perform real-time translation of text

all of this with you interacting with the device by tapping your finger on the frame of the glasses or by using your voice, through which you can summon Xiaomi assistant. The company claims that the XiaoAi AI Assistant is the primary interaction method so that the glasses can “display the most important information at the moment it is needed”.

This is a welcome good set of features, that can make people interact with their phones without taking them out of the pocket for the most important thing they need while going around. I am particularly impressed by their promise of offering a real-time translation of text, which could be very useful while going abroad (as soon as this damn virus dies): according to the announcement video, you can look at a writing in a language, and ask the glasses to translate it into your own language and see the translation as an overlay in front of your eyes.

It is also notable that these are not only an accessory for the phone: unlike Ray-Ban Stories, Xiaomi glasses are a standalone device, with their own processor and Wi-fi connection. This lets the glasses perform some independent computation and offload some operations from the smartphone processor. Despite the claims, I think that anyway they are highly dependent on the phone, first of all, because they have to show you the phone’s notification (so there must be a phone), and then because they don’t have an LTE connection, so they need a phone to connect to the internet.

The glasses have only one display: this means that they have not a “3D screen”, but just one notification display on the right lens. Xiaomi underlines how it has been difficult to miniaturize the display and how they designed the waveguide accurately so that the light bounces multiple times until it reaches the eye of the user. “The grating structure etched onto the inner surface of the lens allows light to be refracted in a unique way, directing it safely into the human eye. The refraction process involves bouncing light beams countless times, allowing the human eye to see a complete image, and greatly increasing usability while wearing” says the company on its announcement blog. The display is only monochrome, but thanks to its 2M nits, it is perfectly usable outdoor.

Commentary

It seems to me that someone in Beijing decided to launch these device 很快很快 (very fast) because Facebook has just made its move, who knows what Apple will say today, so it was time for Xiaomi to answer immediately. I say that because… we know very little about these glasses. We don’t know the price, the availability, the battery duration, the exact set of features. We don’t even know their name! And the video looks like a concept video… no one has seen these glasses and there are no real photos around.

Even the promised features are very vague: “Xiaomi Smart Glasses selects and pushes the most important messages […] to avoid excessively disturbing users”… but what are these most important messages? How do I select them? And to give me navigation instructions, where does it take from? From Google Maps? I have a hard time thinking that these glasses have been made in collaboration with Google and that this would be possible. The automatic translation of text sounds cool, but will it work well? Usually, it’s a bit unstable with the phone, I imagine how shaky it can be with a device attached to my head, not to mention the fact that I can’t imagine how the glasses can show me a long test in such limited space in front of my vision. It seems everything is a bit too vague now.

I’ve criticized Ray-Ban Stories for their lack of features, but at least they are glasses that promise few features but they implement them well. Plus, they are already on the market, they are not just a concept. Ray-Ban Stories also look much cooler and trendier than these smartglasses… Xiaomi glasses look nice, but still a bit too techie, while Ray-Ban stories are very cool to wear. I would love to wear Ray-Ban glasses, while I think these ones wouldn’t suit me very well. The monochrome green display is also very practical, but is not sexy at all, and reminds me of the times where I used monochrome screens on my PC (the good old ’80s).

Since they feature only one display, it has to be understood how it is comfortable the user experience of wearing for a long time something that shows us elements only on one eye: I guess the brain of the user won’t be happy of trying to create stereoscopy with spurious elements on one eye… but it is also true that it is not the first device of this kind. What is bad about the design, IMHO, is that the camera looks very visible, and this may scare people around the user: in Ray-Ban Stories the cameras fit well inside the overall design, while here you are clearly showing that you have a camera through which you can film people. I think many people won’t be happy of this.

To express a final judgment, I wait for a full release of the device, but by experience, I imagine that these glasses will be “nice to have”, but nothing special, and its most advanced features won’t work well as expected at launch. But I would be happy to be surprised: if Xiaomi implements all that it promises perfectly, these glasses may be a great accessory to wear every day.

It is anyway very positive news that Xiaomi, which is one of the top 3 worldwide smartphone makers, has entered the smartglasses sector. Facebook has just launched its device, too. We know that Google has bought North, so probably it has the intention of entering the market as well… and some weeks ago we had the leak of an internal Samsung video with a concept about its own smartglasses.

It seems that many consumer-oriented brands are willing to enter the glasses market, and this will be good to start creating awareness towards smart glasses, and to starting creating the market. It is just the beginning, it is just with very limited devices, and the road in front of us is still many years long, but this anyway puts a smile on my face.

…and if you want me to smile even more, why don’t you subscribe to my newsletter to receive XR articles straight in your inbox? 😉

(Thanks to Kun Dong for the tip!)

(Header image by Xiaomi)