Xreal unveils the Aura smart glasses powered by Google's Android XR
Google has been working on an Android-based operating system for XR ( Extended Reality ) that it showed off last year. Xreal — a brand known for its discreet AR glasses — will be one of the first to release a pair of glasses that will be powered by Google's Android XR.Called Project Aura, these glasses will continue the company's tradition of XR products that don't stand out in public. Due to running Android XR, Project Aura will also be one of the most capable and versatile XR products hitting the market this year.Aura is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR chips, which are specifically designed for glasses and headsets built for spatial computing. Xreal's new glasses, thanks to Android XR, will be able to send and receive messages, take pictures or record videos, and give you directions in MR ( Mixed Reality ).
Project Aura is an OST ( optical see-through ) device, so users will be able to see their surroundings as well as the virtual elements being projected on top. Android XR uses Google's flagship AI model Gemini to carry out complex tasks. One of the most exciting features, in my opinion, is being able to talk to someone speaking a different language and seeing the translation as real-time subtitles.
Google's Android XR providing directions in MR. | Image credit — Google Xreal will share more details about Project Aura at the AWE ( Augmented World Expo ) in June and later in the year as well. This means that the glasses are still a few months away before being available for purchase.Project Aura will also need to be tethered to a device, very much like multiple previous Xreal glasses. Though this seems a bit inconvenient at first, it means that the glasses don't run out of battery after just a couple of hours of operation. This is, for the time being, a necessary step as XR looks to usurp the smartphone as the computing platform of the future.
More details about Xreal's Project Aura can be found here. Aura will be one of the earliest adopters of Android XR, and I cannot wait to see what Xreal has in store for those of us who have our fingers crossed for a VR future.
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