Google's annual I/O showcase focused heavily on AI news, but the event also contained some exciting developments in the XR glasses front.
Namely, Xreal used the event as a way to show off Project Aura, an ambitious new pair of XR glasses that were originally announced in December. They offer a massive 70-degree field of view, the biggest of any Xreal glasses, and have plenty of nifty-sounding XR capabilities. Some media members, including Mashable alum Ray Wong writing for Gizmodo, got to try Project Aura out and gave us a decent idea of what to expect when the glasses launch later this year.
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The first thing to know is that these are more advanced than the Meta Ray-Ban glasses that have been en vogue for a while now, in the sense that they offer a visual display inside the glasses, rather than relying entirely on audio cues from an AI voice assistant. Project Aura actually occupies an interesting middle ground between the Ray-Bans and something like Apple's Vision Pro headset, in the sense that it comes with a small computing puck that is attached to the glasses via a wire. According to Gizmodo's preview, you can wear the puck around your neck via an attached lanyard.
Previously, Xreal has focused on augmented reality glasses, which project a virtual display into the world around you. With Project Aura, Xreal is moving into new territory — the Android XR platform.
Like a Vision Pro, Project Aura makes use of hand tracking to interact with augmented reality elements in the display. Unfortunately, there's no eye tracking, which is definitely a compromise compared to a full headset. However, Gizmodo said the hand tracking worked well enough, and the 70-degree field of view was enough to fit at least three app windows next to each other, with Xreal claiming as many as five could fit in the field of view.
Other interesting nuggets included the ability to play video games like Demeo, a tabletop role-playing-like experience that's been available in VR for some time. Like other Xreal AR glasses, you can also connect the glasses to a laptop to make them act as an external monitor.
Overall, press previews sounded pretty positive about most aspects of Project Aura. If Xreal can figure out how to make a Vision Pro-like experience in a more convenient and less cumbersome form factor, that could be huge.
Just as long as it doesn't also cost $3,500.
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