Oppo Air Glass 3 XR Eyewear Prototype Powered by Its ‘AndysGPT’ AI Model Showcased at MWC 2024

At the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2024 (MWC 2024) in Barcelona, ​​Spain, smartphone giant Oppo showcased a new product that is still in the prototype stage. Called Air Glasses 3, the augmented reality eyewear aims to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into Oppo’s product lineup, while opening the doors to the world of augmented reality. Indeed, this appears to be Oppo’s bet on augmented reality and AI after Apple released its Vision Pro headset for the US market earlier this year.

Oppo’s Air Glass 3 is not a completely new concept from Oppo. The Chinese smartphone giant showcased a similar concept called Air Glass with a unique cicada wing design and a micro-projector at its INNO Day conference in Shenzhen in 2021. The company also showcased Air Glass 2 at MWC 2023. It seems that the ideas have been developed over the years and are being showcased at the currently ongoing MWC 2024.

The Air Glass 3 eyewear looks like a regular pair of glasses but has a built-in display that lets users view digital content pasted over real-world settings. The augmented reality bit can be used for navigation or even to view incoming messages or calls.

Interaction with the wearable occurs through both voice and touch. Oppo claims to have successfully used its in-house large language model (LLM) called AndesGPT to power its voice assistant and essential generative AI features. The voice assistant is only available in China for now, but can search basic information and have appropriate conversations to assist the wearer.

Another way to interact with the Oppo Air Glass 3 wearable is through touch. According to Oppo, users will be able to touch the frame stalks on the sides to interact and navigate with onscreen content that appears on the full-color display. The eyeglasses weigh 50 grams and the display has a maximum brightness of over 1,000 nits. There are also four microphones on the frame to aid with sound functions and speakers for audio output.

Recently, Meta also launched smart sunglasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban. While these appear to be similar to those announced by Oppo, they rely on cameras and AI to capture photos or videos and primarily use the ‘Hey Meta’ command to capture what the user is seeing with the glasses. It is designed for streaming. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses lack a display compared to Oppo’s smart eyeglasses as it relies entirely on voice commands and gestures for control.