Just yesterday, Baidu's Xiaodu Technology's first native AI glasses with built-in Chinese large models were officially unveiled!
Since last year, innovative AI hardware devices such as Ai Pin and Rabbit R1 have emerged, creating a new trend in large-model smart terminals. Among them, the AI glasses track has suddenly emerged. The annual sales of AI glasses jointly launched by Meta and Ray-Ban are expected to reach 2 million units.
At the same time, according to the Burgess smart glasses market research report, it is expected that the global smart glasses market will reach 106.778 billion yuan by 2029, with an average annual compound growth rate of 18.56% during the period.
On the eve of the market explosion, Xiaodu is the latest company to officially announce its entry into the market. The new product launched this time integrates large models and glasses in a deeper way.
Xiaodu's native AI glasses weigh 45g and can support continuous listening to music for 5 hours. Users can interact with AI at any time and become AI tour guides, AI encyclopedias, AI translators, AI assistants, and AI music DJs.
Xiaodu, which is backed by Baidu and has been in the smart hardware track for many years, has strong AI capability support, a diversified smart hardware product line layout, and a complete ecosystem and content resources, which have become its entry into AI glasses. The differentiated advantage of the track.
There are currently three types of players that are deeply involved in the AI glasses track: start-ups focusing on AI glasses, AR/VR manufacturers, and major mobile phone and Internet manufacturers. But overall, Xiaodu is currently one of the few that has integrated software and hardware capabilities. enterprise.
So, why did Xiaodu enter AI glasses at this point? What are the differentiated advantages of Xiaodu AI glasses? What new story will Xiaodu tell about the smart hardware industry in the era of large models? We try to find answers to these questions from its historical layout.
The first and third types of players are competing fiercely, and Xiaodu officially announced that they have entered the game. What are the differentiating advantages?
So-called "new species" such as Ai Pin and Rabbit R1 have frequently overturned since their release. It can be seen that it is not easy to fit large models into hardware. Against this background, more mature AI glasses have flooded into people's horizons and become a focus of attention in the AI hardware industry.
In September last year, Meta teamed up with Ray-Ban to release the second generation of Meta smart glasses. Market research agency IDC predicts that its annual sales this year are expected to exceed 2 million units, which is a significant growth rate compared to the first generation of smart glasses.
At the same time, there are frequent domestic players actively participating in this track, and the entire industry can be roughly divided into three types of companies.
The first is the latest startup focusing on AI glasses, including Xiaomi ecological chain company Honeycomb Technology, which has launched Jiehuan AI audio glasses equipped with multiple large models; in addition, former Nut Projection CPO Wang Xiaoyi has also been exposed to starting a business before. The entrepreneurial project Even Realities launched its first smart glasses G1 in July this year.
▲Jiehuan AI audio glasses
Another type of company is AR glasses manufacturers, such as Thunderbird Innovation, Li Weike Technology, Xingji Meizu, etc. Li Weike Technology launched the first AI glasses MetaLensChat in the first half of this year, and Xingji Meizu’s StarV Air2 smart glasses have launched many AI Function.
The third type of players are major mobile phone and Internet manufacturers. Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, and Xiaodu have all increased their presence, including Huawei Smart Glasses 2, Xiaomi MIJIA Smart Audio Glasses, OPPO’s smart glasses Air Glass 3, and Honor has also been revealed to have applied. Multiple smart glasses related trademarks. Xiaodu is the latest company to officially announce its entry into this field.
▲Xiaodu native AI glasses
Among this type of equipment, the most talked about are AR glasses and AI glasses. The main difference is that AR glasses mainly rely on optical display technology and spatial perception technology, while AI glasses are supported by AI technology. The latter has also become the current market A track with broader development prospects and higher popularity.
In the field of AI glasses, the specific forms of the final equipment are also different, mainly including "AI+ hardware" and "AI native hardware". "AI + hardware" is better understood as traditional glasses products with AI functions directly added to them.
"AI native hardware" turns the AI technology base system into an engine driven by a large model. On this basis, it is equipped with hardware applications, so which models are placed on the end and which ones are placed on the cloud. How to make the hardware sensors, The combination of chips and storage is more suitable for our needs, and how to balance cost and performance.
Xiaodu is taking the second route. This is also a more natural way to integrate glasses and AI in the context of large-scale models penetrating into thousands of industries. This is because compared to smart glasses in a broad sense, AI glasses have stronger intelligent attributes and are more consistent with user needs.
2. AI native DuerOS is used as the base, and the large model allows the glasses to see and take pictures, as well as AI real-time Q&A
First, let’s look at the capabilities of Xiaodu AI glasses from the fundamentals.
The glasses weigh only 45g, have a battery life of 56 hours, can listen to music continuously for more than 5 hours, and are equipped with physical buttons that support custom functions. At the same time, in order to ensure the user's voice interaction experience, it is also equipped with a four-array microphone and a customized open leakage speaker unit.
The advantages of these hardware capabilities have become the key to carrying the advantages of its AI functions.
The AI capabilities of Xiaodu AI glasses have been directly integrated into them. The base is the DuerOS operating system that Xiaodu reconstructed based on the Wenxin large model in April this year.
The most basic ability of glasses is "seeing". The 16-megapixel camera equipped with these glasses has become one of the important bridges linking user needs and the AI functions of glasses. Users can also use voice interaction anytime and anywhere to ask the glasses to take photos and record videos.
On top of this, based on large model capabilities, the capabilities of Xiaodu AI glasses have been extended in five major aspects.
Wearing these glasses, users can ask questions while walking. The AI tour guide will integrate the location service capabilities of Baidu Maps and combine visual and positioning technologies to answer users' questions.
Not only during travel, users can get answers to everything they see casually on the roadside in daily life through "AI Q&A". Xiaodu AI Glasses joins forces with Baidu Search and Baidu Encyclopedia to allow users to truly realize "what you see is what you know" .
In addition, Xiaodu AI glasses can also become an ambience-enhancing artifact for users during their travels. They can intelligently recommend music that suits the situation based on the scene in front of the user at that time.
For work and study, this pair of glasses also integrates AI capabilities, which is reflected in two scenarios: translation and note-taking.
For example, in cross-language communication scenarios, Xiaodu AI glasses can translate in real time and intelligently analyze the content of photos to help users quickly summarize and refine; and during meetings or reading, if users need to excerpt and record, there is no need to use other devices , you can add this key content to the memo with just a click of your finger.
It can be seen that the functions of Xiaodu AI glasses not only broaden the application boundaries of glasses as a hardware device and extend people's senses, but also fully integrate the functions of large models, integrating AI capabilities with original hardware functions. Together.
Behind this is its consideration of the product form of AI glasses and its insight into people's needs. It is also the key reason why it chose to make native AI glasses. At the beginning of research and development, Xiaodu fully considered the product design of integrated software and hardware, deeply integrating software and hardware to realize the intelligence and optimization of application scenarios, thereby providing a better product experience.
Based on this, having more diversified AI functions may become the key for Xiaodu AI glasses to gain a foothold in this market.
3. Glasses are deeply bound to AI, and Xiaodu has demonstrated its software and hardware integration capabilities
In fact, Xiaodu, which has been in the smart hardware track for many years, is still a beginner on the road of AI glasses. So why is Xiaodu the first company in the world to come up with native AI glasses equipped with Chinese large models?
To answer this question, we can look at it from two aspects.
First of all, from the perspective of the entire field of head-mounted smart devices, AR and VR devices are limited by product form, wearing comfort, price, etc. For example, some VR devices need to connect to external devices and have limited usage scenarios; the appearance design of some AR devices It is not fashionable and light enough, which affects the user’s willingness to wear it. Therefore, this market is far away from a large-scale outbreak.
In contrast, AI glasses show unique advantages. The unique advantages of AI glasses, such as their portability and impressive intelligence capabilities, make them appear more frequently in users’ daily lives.
Therefore, in the current market environment, there is an urgent need for a representative AI glasses product for the head-mounted smart device market.
The second is Xiaodu itself. Xiaodu has been following the development path of "AI + hardware", and its entire series of products has launched large model capabilities.
The DuerOS AI native operating system built by Xiaodu has significant improvements in natural language interaction, multi-modal perception, and anthropomorphic presentation. Taking AI dialogue chat as an example, after applying large model capabilities, the number of multiple rounds of interactions between users and Xiaodu has increased by 700% compared to traditional voice conversations.
From AI safety monitoring, AI health consultation, AI smart recipes to AI teacher assistance, Xiaodu's companionship has penetrated into all aspects of people's family life.
Xiaodu, which firmly holds the top spot in the domestic smart speaker market, has launched its layout in the smart hardware market with this category. Today, its product line spans girlfriend phones, smart learning machines, fitness mirrors, smart headphones, etc.
Xiaodu is well versed in the changes in the smart hardware market and entered the game decisively. Its AI hardware industry development trends and product definition capabilities integrating software and hardware also determine whether Xiaodu can occupy a place.
Xiaodu, which possesses the two core capabilities of AI + hardware, is unique in understanding user needs and integrating software and hardware capabilities.
This is also the key for companies to win in the field of AI hardware.
As mentioned at the beginning, some AI hardware has repeatedly overturned after being released. In Xiaodu's view, it is due to the immaturity of its own technology and the mismatch between software and hardware capabilities that its product functions cannot fully release AI capabilities and the experience is poor; another reason is that the company does not understand the core needs of users thoroughly enough. It has not fully considered whether its products have application scenarios and application value.
Only by understanding these two points can AI hardware be "value for money."
Therefore, after fully understanding the maturity of the software and hardware industry chain and consumer demand for portable smart products, Xiaodu officially announced that it will release its AI glasses in the first half of next year.
However, it is worth mentioning that for consumer-oriented devices, the actual user experience is the ultimate test. It is still unknown whether Xiaodu AI glasses can be accepted by users in terms of interactive response speed and smooth dialogue.
But what is certain now is that the deep binding of AI to hardware such as glasses has become inevitable, and it has become a consensus to let AI reshape its functional experience from the bottom up.
Conclusion: On the eve of the outbreak of AI glasses, Xiaodu enters the game
Future AI hardware will no longer be a single-function device, but will integrate multiple functions into one. As an innovative and practical smart wearable device, AI glasses have huge market potential.
Xiaodu has accumulated experience in large-scale model capabilities and intelligent hardware. Although it is its first entry into AI glasses, its product definition capabilities integrating software and hardware will inject new vitality into this track.