Smart Glasses || Xiaomi Smart Glasses ||

Xiaomi, the world's largest smartphone maker, wants to draw your attention away from the iPhone 13 unveiling, to a new pair of augmented reality goggles named "Xiaomi Smart Glasses." This is a "concept" device, according to Xiaomi, yet past "concept" devices have transformed into real, for-sale products. 

Smart Glasses || Xiaomi Smart Glasses ||

There's no word on a release date or pricing, but it appears to be functional. Xiaomi's feet are firmly planted on the ground, and there isn't much about the product that Google Glass or Snapchat Spectacles haven't already done. 

The Smart Glasses have a 5MP camera in one corner and a display system in the other, and they resemble a slightly heavy pair of prescription spectacles. A micro LED display fires into a sequence of lenses, then into a waveguide lens that is exclusively visible to the right eye.

Smart Glasses || Xiaomi Smart Glasses ||

 It appears that cramming a micro LED into a pair of glasses wasn't easy—the chip measures 2.4 mm x 2.02 mm, with individual pixels measuring4 m, according to Xiaomi. The key tradeoff is that the micro LED system is actually monochrome: 

The glasses can only display green, so if you used a computer in the 1980s, you'll feel right at home. Snapchat Spectacles are the most popular AR glasses on the market, and they take a more advanced approach to vision with two full-color wave guide lenses. 

Smart Glasses || Xiaomi Smart Glasses ||

Xiaomi is pushing the boundaries with micro LEDs, while Snapchat looks to be using miniature DLP projectors that project into waveguides. Snapchat was so delighted with its display provider that it chose to purchase "Wave Optics" for $500 million in March. 

The Xiaomi Smart Glasses don't appear to place much emphasis on 3D object capabilities—the glasses can't display 3D anyway because they only have one display lens. By , Snapchat Spectacles are a real augmented reality platform with two lenses, stereoscopic vision, and 3D placement of virtual items into the actual world based on the wearer's perspective. 

Smart Glasses || Xiaomi Smart Glasses ||

The majority of  Xiaomi demoed interfaces were more akin to Google Glass, a 2D smartwatch-style interface that floats in front of your eyes. The translation mode, which, like Word Lens, may overlay translated text on top of foreign text in the actual world, was the one exception. 

Software is what makes a device usable, and one of the biggest issues with AR glasses is that there is no AR operating system, app store, or ecosystem. In the video, Xiaomi demonstrated a total of five functions: notifications, phone calls, maps, picture-taking, and translation. 

There was no such thing as an app store or a developer API. Xiaomi's operating system is based on a substantially customized version of Android, with voice commands handled by the "Xiao AI AI Assistant." The glasses can be interacted with in a variety of ways. 

Smart Glasses || Xiaomi Smart Glasses ||

The glasses are powered by a quad-core ARMCPU. There's a touchpad on the side, as well as three buttons along the right arm's bottom border. The nose pad neatly conceals what appears to be a microphone. 

Again, it's difficult to say how much of this is true or whether Xiaomi is attempting to promote a new product. However, no far-fetched ideas are being promoted here. The glasses are regrettably realistic and limited, leading us to believe they exist somewhere in Xiaomi's laboratories.