Chinese language tech big Xiaomi right this moment confirmed off a prototype AR headset at Cellular World Congress (MWC) that wirelessly connects to the consumer’s smartphone, making for what the corporate calls its “first wi-fi AR glasses to make the most of distributed computing.”
Known as Xiaomi Wi-fi AR Glass Discovery Version, the gadget is constructed upon the identical Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 chipset as Meta’s just lately launched Quest Professional VR standalone.
Whereas specs are nonetheless skinny on the bottom, the corporate did supply some information on headline options. For now, Xiaomi is couching it as a “idea know-how achievement,” so it might be some time till we see a full spec sheet.
Packing two microOLED shows, the corporate is boasting “retina-level” decision, saying its AR glasses pack in 58 pixels per diploma (PPD). For reference, Meta Quest Professional has a PPD of twenty-two, whereas enterprise headset Varjo XR-3 cites a PPD of 70.
The corporate hasn’t introduced the headset’s area of view (FOV), nonetheless it says its free-form light-guiding prisms “minimizes gentle loss and produces clear and shiny photos with a to-eye brightness of as much as 1200nit.”
Electrochromic lenses are additionally mentioned to adapt the ultimate picture to completely different lighting circumstances, even together with a full ‘blackout mode’ that ostensibly permits it to work as a VR headset as nicely.
As for enter, Xiaomi Wi-fi AR Glass contains onboard hand-tracking along with smartphone-based contact controls. Xiaomi says its optical hand-tracking is designed to let customers to do issues like choose and open apps, swipe by way of pages, and exit apps.
As a prototype, there’s no pricing or availability on the desk, nonetheless Xiaomi says the light-weight glasses (at 126g) shall be accessible in a titanium-colored design with help for 3 sizes of nosepieces. An attachable glasses clip will even be accessible for near-sighted customers.
In an unique hands-on, XDA Builders surmised it felt close to production-ready, nonetheless one of many points famous throughout a seemingly bump-free demo was battery life; the headset needed to be charged in the midst of the 30-minute demo. Xiaomi apparently is incorporating a self-developed silicon-oxygen anode battery that’s supposedly smaller than a typical lithium-ion battery. Whereas there’s an onboard Snapdragon XR 2 Gen 1 chipset, XDA Builders additionally notes it doesn’t supply any storage, making a suitable smartphone requisite to taking part in AR content material.
This isn’t the corporate’s first stab at XR tech; final summer season Xiaomi confirmed off a pair of client smartglasses, known as Mijia Glasses Digital camera, that featured a single heads-up show. Xiaomi’s Wi-fi AR Glass is nonetheless a lot nearer in perform to the idea it teased in late 2021, albeit with chunkier free-form light-guiding prisms than the extra advanced-looking waveguides teased two years in the past.
Xiaomi is actively working intently with chipmaker Qualcomm to make sure compatibility with Snapdragon Areas-ready smartphones, which embody Xiaomi 13 and OnePlus 11 5G. Potential different future contributions from Lenovo and Motorola, which have additionally introduced their intentions to help Snapdragon Areas.
Qualcomm introduced Snapdragon Areas in late 2021, a software program instrument package which focuses on efficiency and low energy gadgets which permits builders to create head-worn AR experiences from the ground-up, or add head-worn AR to current smartphone apps.