A passenger tries out a pair of Rokid AR glasses on a Hainan Airlines flight in China.
Rokid
BEIJING — Hainan Airlines this week began letting passengers on some routes use Rokid’s augmented reality glasses without spending a dime for in-flight entertainment, the tech startup announced Thursday.
Chinese start-up Rokid claimed it’s the primary time AR glasses — which permit computer-generated images to be superimposed on the actual world — have been used at scale on flights. Passengers can watch 3D movies, read e-books and play easy games using the glasses, as a substitute of doing so on a built-in monitor.
Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset, which is not available in China yet, comes with a motion-stabilizing “travel mode” to be used on airplanes. The device allows wearers to see the actual world using what the corporate calls “spatial computing” technology.
Rokid’s cope with Hainan Airlines is more of a marketing effort to spice up consumers’ awareness of AR glasses, slightly than a big industrial deal, the startup’s founder and CEO Misa Zhu told CNBC in a phone interview Wednesday.
He claimed Rokid was in talks “with a lot of airlines” for similar partnerships, including at the very least one major international operator. Zhu said he wasn’t authorized to reveal details, but expects more announcements in the following few months.
Hainan Airlines is considered one of the most important flight operators in China, and offers international routes as well. The corporate released a brief video to advertise its collaboration with Rokid.
Zhu said the airline bought tons of of Rokid AR glasses for passengers to make use of without spending a dime on greater than 20 flights. Each pair retails for just over 3,000 yuan ($420) and weighs 75 grams.
For comparison, Apple’s Vision Pro costs about $3,500 and weighs 600 grams to 650 grams.
Hainan Airlines first tested Rokid’s AR glasses on a industrial flight from Shenzhen to Xi’an on Wednesday, and is rolling out the devices on many other flights starting Thursday, Rokid said.
The initial trial period is about for a month, coinciding with the weeklong Lunar Recent Yr holiday in China that officially kicks off on Saturday, during which tons of of thousands and thousands of locals travel domestically.
“Airlines are quite excited because they’ll offer more services, and it’s extremely competitive,” Zhu said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
He said Rokid is in talks to include AR glasses into other technique of transit, similar to high speed trains.
