Xiaomi Teases MicroLED Smart Glasses Proof-of-Concept

Xiaomi has revealed a new smart glasses concept that uses a MicroLED display, which looks neat but won't actually be available for sale.

Smart Glasses have been popping up in the news somewhat frequently as of late, so it's understandable if you're thinking, "again?" However, what sets Xiaomi's glasses apart from, say, Facebook's Ray-Ban Stories is the inclusion of an augmented reality (AR) display. Though it bears repeating that, according to The Verge, Xiaomi's glasses are a proof-of-concept and not an actual product intended for sale. At least not right now.

Xiaomi's announcement video claims that its 0.13-Inch MicroLED display is smaller than a grain of rice and has a light output up to 2 million nits. The lens uses reflection and diffusion to produce a larger than average AR display, which can be used for a variety of functions.

Think phone calls, notifications, that sort of thing. A particularly neat moment of the video shows the user translating a restaurant menu in real-time—though again, this is all a concept and not a finished product.

Xiaomi also says that the glasses can be self-contained, meaning you wouldn't have to pair them with any other devices. It even showcases GPS-like navigation with a heads-up display (HUD) shown through the lens.

So this one pair of smart glasses could, theoretically, function as your phone (minus the touch screen games, presumably).

Whether or not anything comes of this remains to be seen, as it's more of a "this is what smart glasses could be" than a "this is what we're making." It will be interesting to see what Xiaomi might do with the concept in the future, at least.