Xiaomi presented his Smart Glasses, glasses with display MicroLED capable of taking us into augmented reality. The Chinese company’s smart glasses are not for sale and there are no plans to bring them to market. But I’m a concept that shows the future of smart glasses for the company. As well as an indirect response to the glasses that Facebook and Ray-Ban recently presented.
Xiaomi Smart Glasses: AR smart glasses, with MicroLED display
Unlike the Facebook and Ray-Ban glasses, the Xiaomi Smart Glasses have a rather conventional look. Devices that care more about content than form. But compared to the collaboration between the social network and the Wayfarer producer there is one more essential element: the MicroLED display in the lenses of the glasses.
Xiaomi has decided to use only one color for the screen, which therefore allows you to show writings and signals in green while you continue to see the world around you transparently. The choice of single color on a MicroLED screen it allows to have “a higher pixel count and a longer life while maintaining a simple structure” compared to OLED displays.
The choice of MicroLEDs also allows for a “more compact display and easier integration with the screen”. Furthermore, many manufacturers have started to see MicroLEDs as a natural successor to OLED, allowing you to have great quality without having the maintenance problems of OLED. However, the technology for the moment is still very expensive compared to the alternatives.
A very small but very bright screen
The screen MicroLED inserted in the Xiaomi Smart Glasses is “as big as a grain of rice”, by measuring only 2.4 by 2.02mm. But it has a maximum brightness that comes up to 2 million nits. Don’t worry, all this light won’t blind you. Indeed it serves to make the indications of the smart glasses visible even when you are in direct sunlight.
Light passes through one optical lens that refracts and directs the light so that you can see the indications even against the light, without any risk to your eyes. This way you can see the navigator arrows when you are in the car or on a bicycle. But Xiaomi mentions other applications such as the simultaneous translation: instant subtitles in everyday life. Then all notifications of your connected smartphone, so that you are always on the spot.
Xiaomi Smart Glasses, independent from your smartphone
You can connect your smartphone through the Bluetooth to have a complete experience. But Xiaomi specifies that his glasses will be independent of any other Android device. Indeed, perhaps one day they will be able to replace your smartphone, according to the company.
This is possible thanks to the power of an unspecified one processore quad-core Arm, with the form Wi-Fi in addition to the Bluetooth one. In the glasses we then find one 5MP camera and the battery to power all the intelligence on board. Still, the burden will be lonely of 51 grams according to Xiaomi.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Xiaomi Smart Glasses they are not planned for sale. So the great technology promised by Xiaomi for the moment does not have to meet the market needs. In fact, if we do not doubt that the Chinese company can build glasses of this invoice, the difficult part would be to do it to a price that convinces users to try them.
For the moment, Xiaomi is content to promise a future where glasses are as smart as phones. In the meantime, removing the stage for Facebook and its collaboration with Ray-Ban. And also making tech lovers talk about something else on the day of the new iPhone’s launch.
So let’s not expect to see these smart glasses in the near future. But in the more distant future, maybe really could Xiaomi’s augmented reality replace smartphones?