Former Oppo executives target travelers with a different take on AI glasses

A group of previous Oppo executives is establishing expert system glasses for tourists, with functions concentrated on photography, live translation, and AI-guided trips.

The business is narrowing the pitch for clever glasses to a particular usage: assisting tourists record their journeys and comprehend unknown environments without consistently grabbing their phones.

L’Atitude 52 ° N is owned by APOM Optical Technology, a Shenzhen-registered business established in 2024 by mobile phone market veterans. Its very first set of glasses begins at USD 399, and the business has actually raised almost USD 400,000 through crowdfunding, according to 36KrAPOM anticipates to equip around 20,000 sets in 2026, mainly for the European and United States markets, and is looking for a brand-new financing round.

The launch comes as contending techniques to wise glasses continue to progress. Early efforts fixated enhanced truth, utilizing screens, optical elements that direct light towards the eye, and spatial computing to produce a brand-new computing platform. Weight, power intake, expense, and producing restrictions restricted those aspirations. Generative AI brought a various proposal: glasses that might use access to AI assistants on the fly and analyze the user’s environments.

Meta has actually moved beyond video camera glasses without display screens to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which includes a screen and wristband controls. Google has actually likewise revealed strategies to release Gemini-powered clever glasses in fall 2026. Start-ups with restricted resources deal with an option: establish a general-purpose gadget or concentrate on a particular usage individuals will spend for.

Gary Chen, creator and CEO of APOM, brings almost 18 years of mobile phone market experience. He started in Android advancement and dealt with phone software application and system structures at HTC. After signing up with OnePlus in 2016, he moved from R&D into item and operations, later on managing operating-system work. Following OnePlus’combination into Oppo, he managed software preparation throughout brand names and added to research study on software application and AI.

Co-founder and CTO Zheng Xiaohua formerly led imaging R&D for OnePlus phones and Oppo’s flagship gadgets.

Structure on standard eyeglasses

Years invested dealing with smart devices persuaded Chen that AI and systems integrating voice, images, and other inputs would alter how individuals connect with innovation. That experience likewise made him cautious of attempting to develop a completely brand-new item classification.

The group has actually rather embraced a pared-down technique to item style. L’Atitude 52 ° N leaves out audio recording, conference transcription, and voice notes, concentrating on first-person photography and video, live translation, and AI-guided trips.

APOM has actually rather focused on water and drop resistance, a one-piece injection-molded front frame, eyeglasses style, and the charging case. These less obvious functions show Chen’s view that clever glasses must enhance on traditional glasses without asking individuals to adjust to an unknown item classification.

Numerous extensively embraced wise gadgets have actually followed that pattern. Wireless earbuds eliminated the cable televisions without altering the standard method individuals listened to music. Chen sees wise glasses likewise: included abilities matter, however individuals will decline them if they make the glasses much heavier, bulkier, or more vulnerable.

That likewise suggests the mobile phone playbook does not move straight. A phone is a general-purpose gadget; individuals do not change phones for travel, running, or work, Chen informed 36KrGlasses, nevertheless, should fit an individual’s face, clothing, and activities. The marketplace might for that reason accommodate more than a handful of general-purpose items, with start-ups discovering chances in particular, distinct usages instead of straight difficult Meta or Google.

APOM picked to concentrate on travel in Europe and the United States, where it sees more recognized routines of using sunglasses. Travel likewise makes the benefit of wise glasses much easier to value. In a workplace, a phone, computer system, and power supply are close at hand, leaving glasses with less distinct worth. In a museum, an unknown city, or on an outside path, tourists wish to tape-record and comprehend what they see and interact throughout languages. Consistently grabbing a phone can disrupt the experience.

That thinking led APOM to focus on trips and translation. Chen desires users to see the glasses as helpful travel devices, instead of a gadget with lots of functions that do bit well.

Linking photography, translation, and trips

Photography, translation, and AI-generated responses are not distinct to L’Atitude 52 ° N. APOM’s goal is to make them collaborate throughout a journey.

It begins with the cam. AI glasses usually utilize cams generally to offer designs a view of the items in front of the user. Image quality has actually been a lower concern, partially due to the fact that frames leave little space for big sensing units or complicated optics.

L’Atitude 52 ° N sets a 12-megapixel cam module with a devoted AI imaging chip, in addition to the typical system-on-chip and image processing hardware. According to Chen, pushing the shutter on the frame lets the chip determine the scene and enhance texture, edges, sound, color, and light and shadow in genuine time.

He stated the chip enhances low-light pictures of structures, streets, and natural landscapes, while minimizing sound, flicker, and wind sound in recordings. The group is attempting to move the smart device market’s computational photography experience to the smaller sized, more constrained format of glasses.

The AI-guided trip function constructs on what the user sees. In a museum, historical district, or city tourist attraction, users can tap the arm of the glasses to recognize an art work or structure and hear a description through open-ear speakers.

To make responses more particular, APOM constructed an understanding base covering art, historical structures, and cultural topics. Its tourist guide utilizes retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, to make use of that product when making up actions.

The AI guide is called Goya, after the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. It is meant to discuss not just what an art work is, however why it was developed and what makes it worth seeing.

Live translation addresses more instant interactions: purchasing food, requesting instructions, or checking out lodging. These exchanges might be easy, however language barriers can interfere with a journey.

A five-microphone selection records the user’s voice, the other speaker, and surrounding noise. APOM established voice-separation and ecological noise-reduction algorithms to lower the possibility of unassociated noises being misinterpreted for speech in loud settings.

According to 36Krthe system is likewise planned to integrate APOM’s brand-new audio compression algorithm with Google’s Gemini 3.5 Live Translate voice design for real-time streaming. The technique utilizes context to change significance and phrasing, going for more natural discussion than word-for-word translation.

Together, the functions let tourists tape-record what they see from their own viewpoint, ask AI to discuss unknown sights, and hear translations when speaking to somebody in another language.

APOM has actually likewise constructed an intercom into a glasses strap. It is developed to let groups of tourists link immediately and remain in touch where mobile reception is weak. Connecting the strap to the rings at the ends of the glasses’ arms triggers integrated sensing units and sets it with the glasses, without a different power-on action or manual gadget search.

According to APOM, the glasses are developed to hold up against drops of about 1.8 meters and fulfill IP65 dust and water resistance requirements. A one-piece injection-molded front frame decreases the variety of signs up with and prospective points for water to go into.

Creating the frames and charging case

Chen acknowledged that a group with a smart device background required to much better comprehend traditional eyeglasses, consisting of design, face shapes, and fit.

He made duplicated journeys to Germany to discover individuals with years of experience in the glasses market. The partnership ultimately settled into a department of work: groups in Germany and Italy dealt with design, visual appeals, and traditional eyeglasses fit, while the Shenzhen group took obligation for electronic devices, structural engineering, software application, and volume production.

Their top priorities in some cases clashed. The European groups believed some frames were too thick or the colors looked abnormal. The Shenzhen group required area for electronic cameras, batteries, and circuitry. The job was to stabilize parts, structural strength, and frame percentages.

The group produced almost 100 models and utilized feedback from European users to decide on 3 frame designs: Berlin, Antwerp, and Milan.

Forming and fit were just part of the style. A travel item likewise required a method to shop and charge it on the relocation. Smart glasses consist of fragile electronic devices, require power, and need more defense from compression, effects, and wetness than regular eyeglasses. APOM desired a protective case that matched the glasses’ style.

The case has a transparent shell that likewise communicates details: users can examine the glasses’ charging status without opening it, and a shake exposes the case’s staying battery level.

Chen informed 36Kr that the motivation originated from a lunchbox whose contents can be translucented the cover: users can inform whether it holds chicken and rice or pork ribs and rice without opening it.

The case has no different button. Its internal lights switch on when the glasses are put within, revealing that charging has actually started. That interaction was motivated by a Squid Game-themed transit card on which a character’s eyes illuminate after an effective tap.

L’Atitude 52 ° N stated it is moving from crowdfunding to retail, however sustaining business will eventually depend upon whether tourists stay engaged with the glasses, utilize their functions routinely, and think they deserve the cost.

KrASIA functions equated and adjusted material that was initially released by 36Kr. This short article was composed by Qiu Xiaofen for 36Kr.