A new entrant has emerged in the race to develop smart glasses that provide consumers with mixed and augmented reality experiences.
The Indian Jio, part of the Reliance Industries conglomerate, announced a new mixed reality headset at its annual general meeting on Wednesday called Jio Glass.
Kiran Thomas, President of Reliance Industries, said Jio Glass already works with more than 25 applications. The black headset connects to the internet via a cable that must connect to the owner’s smartphone, he said. It weighs 75 grams and has a camera between the left and right lenses. It is unclear how much the device will cost or when it will go on sale.
The executive demonstrated that Jio Glass was used to hold a business meeting in a virtual office with two colleagues. One of them appeared as an avatar, while the other appeared in 2D form.
Thomas also showed how technology could be used in an educational setting.
“With Jio Glass, the traditional way of learning geography will now be history,” he said, showing how students and teachers could make virtual visits to the Taj Mahal in India, the Giza pyramids in Egypt and the Colosseum in Rome.
Jio is entering a market that others have failed to decipher.
Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, and Snap Spectacles are arguably the three best-known efforts, while Magic Leap has also been secretly working on a device for years. None of the offers has gained mass adoption.
The beast of trust
Reliance Industries is a large expanding company owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia. Traditionally a petrochemical company, today it has many subsidiaries, including a technology arm firm called Jio Platforms.
In recent months, Ambani has been selling large portions of Jio rigs to clear Reliance Industries’ debt pile. Facebook invested $ 5.7 billion in April, while Google announced a $ 4.5 billion investment on Wednesday. In total, investors have purchased more than $ 20 billion in Jio Platforms shares.
“Reliance is truly a zero net debt company well ahead of my March 2021 target,” Ambani said at the AGM on Wednesday. “We now have an extremely strong balance sheet that will underpin all of our hypergrowth plans.”
He added: “I think the time has come for a truly global digital products and services company to emerge from India and be among the best in the world.”
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