Chinese corporations have also issued a challenge to the U.S. in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) smart glasses. According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP), Chinese augmented reality (AR) device startup Rokid plans to start shipping smart glasses from the third quarter of this year.
Rokid founder Zhu Mingming demonstrated the company’s smart glasses at an event held last week in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Zhu wore the glasses while reading a speech and turned virtual pages using a smart ring on his hand. The demonstration video quickly spread online in China, and the related hashtag became the 10th most popular topic on Sina Weibo.
Rokid's smart glasses are equipped with Alibaba's large language model (LLM), providing image recognition, sentence translation, and navigation functions. Weighing 49 grams, they are similar to regular sunglasses and can be used for four hours after charging for 10 minutes in the case. The price is 2,499 yuan (about 490,000 won).
Rokid was founded in 2014 by Zhu Mingming, who left Alibaba. Competing products include Meta's AR smart glasses, Oriyan, and Baidu's Xiaodu smart glasses. The Xiaodu smart glasses have a built-in camera and support voice recognition and conversation functions through Baidu's chatbot, Ernibot. Xiaomi is also planning to release a similar product.