Breaking the industry's "impossible trinity", why can AR + AI glasses become the next-generation translation hardware?

Standing in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, Shibuya, Tokyo, or Nanjing East Road, Shanghai, Cantonese, Japanese, English, Mandarin, and Shanghainese blend and rise and fall, outlining the unique soundscape of international cities. However, only the languages you understand can serve as bridges for communication, while unfamiliar languages can instantly erect barriers.

Currently, language barriers remain a key bottleneck in global business communication and cultural dissemination. Driven by technological advancements, many enterprises have launched various electronic translators and translation pens. According to market research institutions, the global market size of translation pens alone reached hundreds of millions of dollars in 2023.

Consequently, on social media, discussions about translators and translation apps are frequent, with low accuracy and the inability to provide real-time translation being the main complaints from users.

Compared with translators and translation apps, the real-time translation effect of AR + AI glasses has begun to surprise users.

The combination of the augmented reality display capabilities of AR glasses and AI technology enables the glasses to translate speech or text into other languages in real-time and project the translations onto the lenses, thus facilitating instant cross - language communication.

Not long ago, Liangliang Vision, an established AR glasses company from Beijing, held a new product launch event for Leion Hey2 in South Korea. At the event, Wu Fei, the founder and CEO of the company, used the teleprompter function of the AR glasses to deliver a "script - free speech" in Chinese on stage, while guests from around the world off - stage conducted a two - hour "on - site test with a hundred people" using the real - time translation function of the glasses.

A German girl is experiencing Leion Hey2 on the streets of Seoul, South Korea.

In the past, such a scene was hard to imagine. Cross - language communication was often hindered by "translation waiting." However, with AR glasses, cross - language communication has become simple and convenient.

More importantly, the convenient functions such as real - time translation provided by AR glasses are increasingly being accepted by consumers.

After years of development in the AR industry, with technological breakthroughs and a mature supply chain, AR glasses have significantly improved in terms of portability, lightweight design, and functionality. Their product positioning has gradually shifted from "technology exploration" to "mass consumer goods."

According to Omdia data, the global shipment of AR glasses reached 553,000 units in 2024, and it is expected to increase significantly to 2.956 million units by 2028 - with a compound annual growth rate of 50%. AR glasses are entering daily life at a remarkable pace. Moreover, as a device close to the human audio - visual center, AR glasses are one of the ideal hardware carriers for AI. Therefore, the industry generally believes that AR glasses are expected to become the next - generation computing platform.

The translation function has become one of the important opportunities for AR glasses to enter the mass market.

Deconstructing the "Impossible Triangle" of AR Glasses

Nowadays, the translation function has almost become a "standard feature" of AR glasses products.

However, translation places high demands on device battery life. The length of battery life directly affects the user experience, especially when the translation function needs to be used for an extended period. A continuous working capacity of more than 6 hours is considered an ideal battery - life standard, and a standby time of 7 days can meet most daily needs.

This is precisely a major pain point for AR glasses. In the AR glasses industry, there is the concept of the "impossible triangle," which means that an AR glasses product cannot simultaneously achieve "performance, light weight, and long battery life." Usually, a trade - off has to be made among these three factors, sacrificing one or two of them.

The battery life of mainstream consumer - grade AR glasses is concentrated between 2 - 4 hours, only meeting users' short - term and fragmented usage needs. Some manufacturers have introduced "external" power - supplement solutions, such as neck - ring power banks and magnetic small batteries, to solve the battery - life problem. However, these solutions significantly increase the weight of the glasses and affect the wearing comfort.

Previously, many AR glasses had problems that affected the user experience, such as "rainbow streaks" and excessive weight. Rainbow streaks, like water ripples on glass, can interfere with the user's vision and affect the immersive viewing experience. In terms of appearance, many AR glasses look very different from ordinary glasses, making users look like "science - fiction characters" when wearing them. The overall weight is also a major factor affecting the actual experience. Although the size of many AR glasses is gradually decreasing, their weight remains relatively high, making them difficult to wear for long periods.

In response to the "impossible triangle" of AR glasses, Liangliang Vision has made many technological adjustments and breakthroughs in the newly launched Leion Hey2.

Wu Fei told 36Kr: "We focus on the core translation function and try to eliminate redundant functions unrelated to translation to reduce energy consumption. We have independently developed an operating system that significantly reduces the overall power consumption of the device and can deeply optimize translation and voice processing at the system level."

Moreover, Liangliang Vision has designed multiple microphone arrays for it, enabling 360° surround sound field perception. This allows the glasses to locate the speaker with centimeter - level accuracy and only enhance the voice signals from the target translation direction.

Rendering of the Leion Hey2 microphones

"This ability is crucial for translation in noisy environments. It's like helping users 'pick out' the voices they want to hear from background noise, ensuring fast and accurate translation," said Wu Fei.

36Kr learned that even in a noisy environment where the voice signal is 6 decibels lower than the background noise, the recognition accuracy of Leion Hey2 still reaches 98%. It supports real - time translation of over 100 languages, covering most communication needs. Importantly for the translation experience, the subtitle delay is less than 500 milliseconds - approaching the human perception limit of "real - time" and achieving the effect of "seeing what you hear." Users can see the corresponding translation subtitles on the floating screen in front of the glasses while listening to the voice content. In addition, the glasses also support intelligent sentence segmentation and voice recognition during the translation and transcription process.

Notably, the overall working battery life of Leion Hey2 has exceeded 8 hours. When used with a portable charging glasses case, the overall battery life of the glasses reaches 96 hours. Compared with similar products, the battery - life of Leion Hey2 has been increased several times.

Leion Hey2 is equipped with a single - optical - engine binocular diffractive waveguide and Micro - LED display technology, with a peak on - eye brightness of the screen reaching 2500 nits. The product allows users to clearly see subtitles in strong outdoor light, completely solving the long - standing problem of AR glasses being "too dim to see clearly."

In addition, the optical display of Leion Hey2 uses diffractive waveguide technology. Its micro - optical design significantly reduces the common glare and rainbow - streak phenomena in traditional AR glasses and eliminates light leakage from the front of the lenses, providing a purer visual experience.

In terms of mass production, with high - end optical technology, Liangliang Vision has increased the mass - production yield rate of the waveguide module to 98%. The diffractive waveguide it uses is the development trend of AR optics. Different from Birdbath and free - form surface technologies, which have problems such as large volume and low light transmittance, the lenses made of diffractive waveguide are thinner, have higher light transmittance, and provide a better wearing experience.

After multiple optimizations, the overall weight of Leion Hey2 is only 49 grams. It looks similar to ordinary sunglasses and can provide users with an almost imperceptible immersive AR translation experience.

In other aspects, Leion Hey2 is also equipped with practical functions such as the AI voice assistant "Hey Agent," intelligent memo, meeting minutes, AR navigation, and teleprompter.

More Immediate Translation, More Current Needs

Compared with Liangliang Vision's previous - generation products, Leion Hey2 is a comprehensively upgraded product: it has a more fashionable appearance, is lighter in weight, and has significantly improved brightness and display indicators. It is not only a product with greater potential but also a new manifestation of the company's technological accumulation over the years.

As a national - level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprise, Liangliang Vision has been deeply involved in the AR + AI field for 11 years. Since 2014, it has been engaged in the research and development of geometric - array waveguide technology. Its products achieved large - scale mass production in 2018. Its products and solutions are widely used in enterprises in industries such as industry, energy, aviation, security, and manufacturing, and it has maintained the top position in China's shipment volume in the enterprise - level market for many consecutive years.

In 2022, Liangliang Vision entered the consumer - grade market and applied the technologies accumulated in the enterprise - level market to consumer - grade products. The sales volume of its first consumer - grade product, Leion Hey, exceeded 30,000 units. More importantly, different from "exploratory" products, the average daily usage time of this product by users reached 150 minutes, promoting the transformation of AR glasses from "exploratory" to "essential." This product can help business people conduct cross - language negotiations and also help a large number of hearing - impaired people "see sounds."

In addition, Leion Hey won the "Top Ten Global Science and Technology Innovation Awards" selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Recently, Leion Hey2, as a representative of Chinese innovation, participated in the exhibition themed "Accessibility for All: Building an Inclusive Future" held at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Wu Fei told 36Kr: "Liangliang Vision has pioneered a new product category in the industry, and the term 'subtitle glasses' has been included in several industry standard documents. This term was first proposed by Liangliang Vision."

In Wu Fei's view, it took three years to iterate from Leion Hey to Leion Hey2. This is because Liangliang Vision is not eager to create "all - encompassing" glasses but rather wants to perfect a single scenario to win consumers' favor. Translation may seem like a single function, but when delving into numerous segmented scenarios, it is found that there are many problems to be solved. The translation needs vary in different scenarios. Only by solving the detailed translation problems can a qualified translation glasses product be created. "Rather than creating many products that score 70 points, it's better to polish a single product that scores 95 points."

In fact, translation is a function that seems simple but has extremely high requirements for segmented scenarios. Language translation is the most basic ability, but the sense of delay in human - to - human interaction caused by machines can prevent in - depth communication.

Subtitle - translation glasses represented by Leion Hey2 bring new possibilities: when ordering food in a Tokyo restaurant, you can understand what the other person is saying through the real - time subtitles of Hey2; in a crowded and noisy Seoul subway, Hey2 can accurately identify the person talking to you; at an international industrial exhibition in Munich, Chinese engineers can use Hey2 to discuss technical drawings with foreign counterparts in real - time... The boundaries of communication will be infinitely expanded by technology, achieving the ideal cross - language communication experience of "continuous, real - time, and head - up" interaction.

Compared with the high - end version of the previous - generation product Leion Hey, the price of Leion Hey2, which supports global use, multi - language recognition, and real - time translation of over 100 languages and dialects, has been significantly reduced by more than 60%. This is due to the rapid development of China's AR glasses supply chain.

The maturity of the supply chain is an important factor driving the development of the AR glasses industry. The mass production of core components such as flexible printed circuit boards and SoC chips has reduced the production cost of AR glasses by more than 30%. Large - scale production has made the prices of these core components more affordable and improved the consistency and stability of the products.

Also benefiting from China's supply - chain advantages, Liangliang Vision is able to continue to explore global markets such as North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia while expanding its presence in the South Korean market.

At the Vivatech exhibition in France, users are experiencing Liangliang Vision's Leion Hey2 AR translation glasses.

In the past two years, the AR glasses industry has witnessed a "battle of a hundred glasses." While leading brands are performing strongly, new - comers are also catching up in terms of technology and applications.

According to data from iResearch, the market volume of AR glasses in China reached 286,000 units in 2024. The AR glasses industry is leveraging new technologies such as optical waveguides and large AI models to drive products towards being thinner, more intelligent, and more shareable in terms of experience.

A research report from Huajin Securities points out that the market for intelligent audio glasses is growing rapidly. It is estimated that the shipment volume will exceed 5