Sometimes, your ears need a break. They support the weight of your glasses, the fit of in-ear headphones, and occasionally even earrings or mask straps.
Consumer electronics companies have caught onto this discomfort and are looking for ways to ease the load on your ears. Their solution? Converting what used to be standalone headphones into the arms of your glasses.
But that’s just the start.
Audio glasses have moved beyond being a niche product. Chinese electronics brands are upping the ante, cramming even more innovative features into these glasses—a smart assistant, a multilingual translator, and even a personal message manager.
Recently, Superhexa, a Xiaomi ecosystem company, launched a new brand called Jiehuan, introducing an artificial intelligence-powered eyewear device that packs numerous functions into a single, sleek frame.
From now on, whether you’re driving, cycling, or working out, one pair of glasses does it all—no need to keep reaching for your phone.
AI glasses: Your new personal assistant
Superhexa’s AI glasses are invented to help tackle information anxiety.
When you’re driving or too swamped at work to check your messages but urgently need to keep up with WeChat, the glasses can step in.
The Jiehuan AI glasses offer two types of message notifications: a basic version that gives you a detailed rundown of all messages, and an AI alternative that delegates an AI assistant to fine-tune settings according to your preferences.
For instance, you could tell it to:
- Block updates from certain sources, like public accounts or contacts you’re not fond of.
- Prioritize messages from your manager.
- Summarize lengthy group chats for you.
Every two minutes, the AI assistant collects messages from various apps and contacts, delivering them to you via audio. This feature works only when your phone is locked.
You can tweak the notification settings and review the history of reports.
But AI glasses aren’t just about managing your messages—they also serve as a handy translator.
For example, while wearing the audio glasses designed by Jiehuan, you can speak Chinese as usual and have conversations with people in eight different languages, including English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Korean.
Or, you can chat with someone who only speaks a dialect—like Cantonese, Sichuanese, or Hunanese—and the glasses will translate the conversation in real-time.
This could lead to a situation where it seems like the two of you are speaking different languages. But in reality, both of you, wearing the glasses, will understand each other perfectly.
For those concerned about others overhearing your translations, the glasses’ anti-sound field structure cancels out sound leakage, ensuring your privacy.
When Her becomes real
When AI features are integrated into glasses, the virtual assistant Samantha from the sci-fi film Her seemingly comes to life. You can ask the smart glasses anything—they are an upgrade from the voice assistants of old.
In the past, most AI search tools were predicated on the search box concept, meant to align with user habits from traditional search engines.
But Superhexa’s founder, Xia Yongfeng, noticed that search boxes were actually limiting user retention—it required users to come up with prompts and convert those thoughts into text before the AI could function.The more complex the interaction, the less patient users become.
Voice interaction with glasses, on the other hand, is more natural—like chatting with a smart friend. When you ask a question, the glasses recognize your intent and delegate tasks to different AI agents, then compile the responses.
In practice, it’s simple. Press and hold the touch-sensitive area on the right arm of the glasses, and speak your request, be it for French media reports about the Olympics, or to monitor Nvidia’s stock price and set a reminder before it hits a certain market cap. The glasses will deliver the response at the right time. You can also ask them to find tourist spots, check recipes, search for weather updates, or look up restaurants.
According to reports, the Jiehuan glasses are connected to multiple large language models. They assess the responses and choose the best one to serve you.
You might remember that in Her, the protagonist had to pull a small box from his pocket to summon his virtual assistant. Now, that small box has become a pair of glasses that you can wear for over ten hours a day. With just a touch and a word, you interact with AI, making the entire process smoother and more intuitive.
The essential function of AI glasses
No matter how many AI features you pack into a pair of glasses, they must first and foremost function as a regular, wearable pair of glasses.
From the outside, the Jiehuan glasses look just like any other pair of glasses, weighing only 30 grams. If the wearer doesn’t mention it, you might not realize they are multifunctional AI audio glasses.
But there’s a twist: the lenses and arms can be separated.
Jiehuan offers prescription lens services and provides 14 different frame colors, so you can pick a pair that suits your style for the day. No matter the style changes, the AI functions remain consistent.
The glasses are also designed for simplicity of use.
There are two raised touch bars on the arms. Sliding your finger along them or double-tapping lets you adjust the volume, switch songs, answer calls, and hang up.
Since this is a product that may be worn for as long as ten hours a day, charging anxiety is a thing of the past. The AI glasses feature four small magnetic charging points on the arms, so you can simply snap them into place to charge.
Fully charged, these glasses are said to be able to last up to 15 days on standby, support 11 hours of video playback at 60% volume, or offer 9 hours of continuous talk time.
The Jiehuan AI glasses aren’t the first AI glasses launched domestically this year. According to 36Kr, after 1.5 million units of the Ray-Ban Meta were sold globally in the first three quarters, over 20 similar products have been launched or are being prepared by Chinese companies.
Glasses have always been an essential part of daily life. In countless sci-fi movies, they’ve carried endless possibilities. Now, with the help of AI, some of these once-fantastical ideas are gradually becoming reality.
This article was written by Qiu Xiaofen in Chinese and was originally published by 36Kr.
