XREAL AURA GLASSES LAUNCH THIS AUTUMN WITH QUALCOMM CHIP

Xreal has officially unveiled its Aura glasses, which will arrive this autumn and run Google's Android XR operating system. The device consists of a pair of glasses that connect to a phone-sized processor unit. Xreal is accepting paid reservations for the launch. The glasses integrate Google's Gemini artificial intelligence for real-time analysis of applications and experiences through Gemini Live mode.

The Aura glasses are powered by Qualcomm's newly announced Snapdragon Reality Elite chip, which was unveiled at the Augmented World Expo conference in Long Beach, California. According to Qualcomm, the chip's graphics processor performs up to 60 per cent better than the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 used in the Samsung Galaxy XR. The central processing unit achieves up to 30 per cent better performance, whilst the neural processing unit designed for artificial intelligence tasks reaches up to 160 per cent better performance for AI-related work. The chipset supports display resolution of up to 4.4K per eye for headsets and glasses.

The Aura represents a shift towards artificial intelligence integration in extended reality devices. Most current smart glasses rely on phone-connected artificial intelligence applications for core functions, whilst virtual reality headsets have largely operated without onboard artificial intelligence capabilities. Google has demonstrated that the Aura can perform artificial intelligence-based coding directly on the processor unit. The trend suggests that as virtual reality headsets become smaller and more glasses-like in form factor, artificial intelligence capabilities will become increasingly integrated into the devices themselves.