Xiaomi has presented its new concept Xiaomi Wireless AR Smart Glass Discovery Edition, the company’s first wireless augmented reality glasses. These glasses use distributed computing, offering a retina-level adaptive display that adjusts to the lighting in the environment. Through enhanced connectivity with a Snapdragon Spaces-ready smartphone, it enables more accurate hand tracking, supports a wide range of apps for larger screens, and delivers innovations in cross-device compatibility.
Wireless, low latency and no cables
The glasses have been designed with the individual user experience in mind. Instead of relying on a wired connection to a computer, this device adopts high-speed interconnect buses developed by Xiaomi to achieve high-speed data connection from the smartphone to the glasses. They have been developed on the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 platform and incorporate Xiaomi’s proprietary low latency communication link. Supported by the Snapdragon Spaces XR developer platform, they offer wireless latency as low as 3ms between smartphone and headset, and a wireless connection with a full link latency as low as 50ms that is comparable to wired solutions. These goggles feature a design that incorporates a number of lightweight materials, including a magnesium-lithium alloy, carbon fiber parts, and a self-developed siloxygen anode battery. Weighing only 126 grams, these glasses are designed to minimize any physical burden on the user. Additionally, by analyzing tens of thousands of head tracking data, the glasses have been precisely calibrated, taking into account details such as center of gravity, leg span, angle, nose rest and other factors that contribute to an optimal experience.
“Retina level” display
Xiaomi engineers believe that in order to achieve seamless integration between the digital and the real, users need to perceive virtual objects with the same intensity and clarity as physical objects. To meet this need, the device must offer display quality of the highest caliber. It is one of the first glasses in the sector to achieve a “retina level” device. As with high-end visualization concepts, there is a quality threshold of “critical value” for augmented reality glasses. When the angular resolution or PPD (pixels per degree) approaches 60, the human eye cannot distinguish the granularity. The PPD of Xiaomi Wireless AR Glasses is 58, which is the closest the industry comes to meeting this quality specification. Taking advantage of an optical module comprising a pair of MicroOLED screens, the glasses also incorporate a light guide to achieve a sharp image. These free-form prisms are capable of complex light refraction in a limited volume. The content displayed on the screen is reflected from three surfaces within light guide prisms.
The smart glasses’ optical module design minimizes light loss and produces clear images with brightness up to 1200 nits, providing a solid foundation for augmented reality applications. Additionally, smart glasses come equipped with electrochromic lenses that can adapt to different lighting conditions. These lenses enable a blackout mode that offers an immersive experience when viewing content, while transparent mode produces a more vivid augmented reality experience that combines real and virtual elements.
Xiaomi augmented reality gesture control
Xiaomi’s wireless AR glasses also feature an innovative micro-gesture interaction that enables highly precise one-handed gesture interaction. This type of interaction shows one of the directions that Xiaomi believes the relationship between people and computers will take in the future. In this way, Xiaomi uses the user’s finger joints as a gesture recognition area for Xiaomi’s wireless augmented reality glasses. The directional is oriented from the second joint of the middle finger with the second joint of the index finger representing the upward direction. When combined with the surrounding areas, it forms a four-way directional key for basic movement operations. Also, sliding your thumb over your index finger is used to log in and out of apps. Going forward, Xiaomi hopes to be able to perform swipe and tap operations by randomly moving the thumb in the palm of the hand.
Micro-gestures on Xiaomi’s wireless augmented reality glasses allow users to perform operations such as selecting and opening applications, turning pages, and exiting applications to return to the home page. All this without the need to use a smartphone for the controls. They also incorporate a low consumption AON camera that allows prolonged gestural interaction and facilitates functions. In addition, users can also opt for conventional smartphone controls, which can be paired and used as a gesture or touch control.
A new and more connected experience
Xiaomi’s extensive experience in interconnection between devices has led to many innovative interconnection experiences in wireless augmented reality glasses. The device is compatible with a wide variety of big screen applications available across the ecosystem, thanks to the application casting capability of Mi Share. Apps as popular as TikTok and YouTube can optimize the use of the viewing area of the glasses, essentially turning them into one large portable screen. In addition, the augmented reality capability allows users to place apps anywhere in the display space and adjust the size of their interface using spatial gestures, thus improving efficiency and the overall information access experience. As the world’s largest smart home platform, Xiaomi has integrated augmented reality to offer a unique experience for users. For example, Xiaomi’s wireless augmented reality glasses allow users to “grasp” a typical television screen and continue to view it on the glasses. In addition, Xiaomi has extended the usual operations of smart devices, allowing users to operate them through augmented reality scenes.
For example, when looking at a lamp, users can use spatial gestures to press a virtual button to turn it on or off. Likewise, it has integrated a spatial audio experience, which allows linking virtual speakers with the real environment. Xiaomi Wireless AR Smart Glasses Discovery Edition need to be paired with Xiaomi 13 or other Snapdragon Spaces ready device. The glasses are available in a titanium-colored design and accept three nose bridge sizes. For their part, myopic users can use an attachable myopia clip. Software-wise, the glasses support Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces, OpenXR, and Microsoft’s MRTK development framework. In this way, Xiaomi intends to collaborate closely with developers to accelerate the arrival of augmented reality.
