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‘What if AI had eyes’: meet Chinese firm Xreal, Google’s partner in AR glasses project
Project Aura provides a big boost to Xreal’s credentials in the smart glasses arena, while widening its reach in the international market
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Wency Chenin Shanghai
Chinese augmented reality (AR) firm Xreal is back in the spotlight via a partnership with Google to create the first eyewear powered by the US tech giant’s Android XR operating system, intensifying competition in the nascent market for spectacles supported by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The start-up’s venture with Google, dubbed Project Aura, was among the key announcements made on Tuesday at the opening of the US internet search company’s annual I/O developer conference, which concluded on Wednesday.
Project Aura – with the tagline “what if AI had eyes” – features a pair of lightweight, tethered Xreal AR glasses powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.
The smart glasses will offer a dual-mode augmented reality experience; optical see-through, which is a direct overlay of digital content onto a real-world view; and virtual see-through, which blends camera-captured images with digital elements, according to Google and Xreal.
Without providing more details, Xreal founder and chief executive Xu Chi said the new AR glasses are expected to hit the consumer market later in 2025 or early next year, according to his interview with Bloomberg.
The Project Aura eyewear is expected to compete with AR spectacles from the likes of Meta Platforms, Orion and Artemis.
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