Oppo’s new AI-powered AR smart glasses give us a glimpse of the next technological revolution
- Oppo has shown off its Air Glass 3 AR glasses at MWC 2024
- They are powered by the AndesGPT AI model and can answer questions
- It’s still just a prototype, but the technology may not be far away from launch
While there’s a bit of an oddity to the Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses – it’s a wearable camera, after all – the built-in AI is pretty neat, even if some of the best features are still in beta. So it’s not surprising that other companies are looking to launch their own AI-powered specs, with Oppo being the latest to unveil its new Air Glass 3 at MWC 2024.
In a demo video, Oppo shows how the specifications have seemingly radically changed someone’s working day. When they boot up, the Air Glass 3’s 1000-nit displays show the user an overview of their schedule, and while they’re making coffee before a meeting, they’ll get a message that the meeting has started early.
During the meeting, the specs will address a question that was asked, and Oppo’s AndesGPT AI model (which runs on a connected smartphone) may provide some possible answers. Later, the design details discussed are used to create an image of a possible prototype design that the wearer then brings to life.
After a good day of work, they can relax with some of their favorite songs, played through the glasses’ built-in speakers. All this is crammed into a 50 gram design.
The big caveat here is that the Air Glass 3 AR glasses are just a prototype. Furthermore, none of the previous Air Glass models have been released outside of China – so it’s more likely than not that the Air Glass 3 won’t be either.
But what Oppo is showing isn’t exactly being imitated by its rivals, and much of it is pretty much possible in technology you can buy today – including those Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses.
The future is now
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses already have an AI that can answer questions such as a voice-controlled ChatGPT.
They can also scan the environment around you with the camera to get context for questions – for example, “what meal can I make with these ingredients?” – via their ‘Watch and Ask’ feature. These tools are currently in beta, but the technology works and the AI features will hopefully be more widely available soon.
They can also alert you to texts and calls you receive and play music, just like the Oppo Air Glass 3 concept.
Then there’s the
If you combine these two glasses, you are already very close to Oppo’s concept; you’d just have to clean up the design a bit, and probably splurge a bit more, as I expect lenses with built-in displays won’t be cheap.
The only thing I don’t see happening anytime soon is the AI creating a working prototype of a product design for you. It may provide some inspiration for a designer to get started with, but reliably creating a fully functional model seems to be more than a little beyond the capabilities of existing AI image generation tools.
While the Oppo Air Glass 3 certainly looks like a promising look at the future, we’ll have to see what they’re actually capable of if and when they launch outside of China.