Meet the Chinese start-up behind Google's Android XR-powered augmented reality glasses
Code-named Project Aura, the product was first announced at Google's annual I/O developer conference in May. Rivalling offerings from Apple and Meta Platforms, Google adopted a strategy from its smartphone playbook: providing the operating system – Android XR – while collaborating with hardware makers.
Project Aura is Google's second XR initiative, following Moohan, a collaboration with Samsung Electronics on a virtual reality headset similar to Apple's Vision Pro.
Aura's field of view (FoV) – the visible area seen through the glasses – exceeds 70 degrees, 'the largest screen we have ever made', according to a statement from Xreal at the Augmented World Expo in June. The device will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset alongside Xreal's own XR-optimised X1S chip.
Wu Kejian, Xreal's co-founder, chief scientist and head of algorithms. Photo: Handout
'This achievement is thanks to Xreal's extensive experience in optical engineering, enabling thinner lenses with broader fields of view,' Wu Kejian, the company's co-founder, chief scientist and head of algorithms, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China's Li, Brazil's Lula pledge joint effort to bring AI to farming in both of their countries
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed to cooperate on bringing artificial intelligence to improve agriculture in both of their countries, and Lula called on his counterpart to join an initiative aimed at saving the world's forests. In a statement issued from the sidelines of the annual Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, the two sides also highlighted the 'excellent moment in bilateral relations' and reaffirmed their 'commitment to multilateralism and peace, underlining the role of BRICS in defending multilateral trade and climate regimes'. Plans for the centre, whose focus will be on farming in semi-arid regions, were initially agreed to in Brasília during a meeting last month between Luciana Santos, Brazil's minister of science, technology and innovation, and Lin Xin, China's vice-minister of science and technology and secretary for technological development. One of the centre's first projects will be the creation of an AI laboratory focused on supporting family farming, through a partnership between Brazil's National Semi-arid Institute (Insa) and the China Agricultural University. According to Insa Director José Etham Barbosa, the joint project aims to find ways to connect AI technologies to machinery commonly used on smaller-scale farms to improve environmental monitoring and soil quality. The Sertão region in Brazil's northeast is home to nearly 22 million people, making it one of the world's most populous and biodiverse semi-arid areas. Covering about 11 per cent of the country's territory, it is characterised by heat, drought and sparse vegetation.
South China Morning Post
10 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Chinese team develops faster, more efficient data sorting system for AI and computing
Chinese scientists have developed a faster and more energy-efficient method to sort data, which could be used to overcome limitations in scientific computing, artificial intelligence, and hardware design. Advertisement Their new sorting system relies on memristors, an electronic circuit component with memory-like abilities, along with a sorting algorithm to enable more efficient data processing. The team built a memristor-based hardware sorting prototype to demonstrate tasks such as route finding and neural network inference, achieving both speed and energy efficiency improvements over traditional sorting methods. 'Sorting is a performance bottleneck in numerous applications, including artificial intelligence, databases, web search and scientific computing,' the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Electronics on June 25. Computing systems are typically based on Von Neumann architecture, which separates data storage – or memory – and processing, such as through the use of a central processing unit (CPU). Advertisement This has led to the Von Neumann bottleneck, a limit on the speed of data transfer between the main memory and processing unit. 'Sort-in-memory using memristors could help overcome these limitations, but current systems still rely on comparison operations so that sorting performance remains limited,' said the researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research.
South China Morning Post
11 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
KFC, Pizza Hut operator Yum China embraces AI to boost efficiency, profitability
Yum China Holdings , the operator of KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in mainland China, will further embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to improve operating efficiency and profitability and allow its store managers to focus on customer service. The firm, which introduced its Q-Smart AI-powered assistant in June, was expected to help reduce waste, improve quality and save labour costs, chief technology officer (CTO) Leila Zhang said in an interview. The AI-powered system could help with staff scheduling, inventory replenishment and meal preparation, she added. 'When we think about AI and robotics, one of our primary considerations is to empower our restaurant managers,' she said. 'We develop systems and AI-powered digital tools to allow them to work more efficiently, freeing up more of their time so they can focus on delivering exceptional customer service.' Yum's Q-Smart management system was able to monitor sales data, adjust preparation plans, and remind staff to confirm orders, Zhang said, a move in line with its past pioneering efforts. Yum China was the first mainland fast-food chain to adopt digital payment systems in 2015. A couple walks out of a KFC restaurant in Chongqing in February 2025. Digital ordering accounted for about 90 per cent of its total sales last year, helped by a loyalty membership programme that had 540 million consumers in mainland China as of March 31. It opened 247 net new stores in the first quarter this year, bringing the total to 16,642 nationwide. Yum China reported a 1 per cent increase in sales to US$2.98 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier, while adjusted net income rose 1.7 per cent to US$292 million. Annual sales in 2024 of US$11.3 billion were the highest since at least 2016.
