AI meets AR: How Rokid Glasses bring multilingual, real-time intelligence to smart eyewear globally
Updated
March 3, 2026 3:50 PM
Rokid's smart glasses. PHOTO: ROKID
Rokid, a Chinese company specializing in AI-powered smart eyewear and human–computer interaction, has rolled out a major software update for the international version of its Rokid Glasses. This update makes it the first smart glasses manufacturer to natively support Google’s Gemini, alongside three other leading large language models: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Alibaba’s Qwen and DeepSeek.
The integration is powered by Rokid’s device-to-cloud architecture, which enables users to switch between AI models on the fly. In practice, this means a traveler can receive a real-time translation in Japanese using one AI model, then quickly switch to ChatGPT to answer a technical query—without noticeable delay. The system also supports multi-modal inputs like voice and gestures, making interactions more intuitive for everyday use.
This is more than a routine software update. By combining AI models from both U.S. and Chinese developers, Rokid is making its smart glasses relevant to global users, with features that adapt to local languages and preferences while maintaining high performance.
These technological advancements have directly fueled Rokid’s international growth. Between November 2024 and October 2025, Shangpu Group data shows Rokid Glasses ranked No.1 in global sales for AI glasses with display functionality. Crowdfunding milestones further reflect this momentum: the product became the fastest smart glasses to raise over 100 million Japanese Yen on Japan’s MAKUAKE platform and broke Kickstarter records for smart eyewear.
Taken together, Rokid’s update highlights a shift in the smart glasses space: success increasingly comes from openness, flexibility and localized AI experiences rather than closed, single-platform ecosystems. By giving users choice, integrating global AI capabilities and bridging cultural and linguistic gaps, Rokid is positioning itself as a serious contender in the international AR and AI wearable market.
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Sensing technology is facilitating the transition of drone delivery services from trial phases to regular daily operations.
Updated
January 23, 2026 10:41 AM
A quadcopter drone with package attached. PHOTO: FREEPIK
A new partnership between Hesai Technology, a LiDAR solutions company and Keeta Drone, an urban delivery platform under Meituan, offers a glimpse into how drone delivery is moving from experimentation to real-world scale.
Under the collaboration, Hesai will supply solid-state LiDAR sensors for Keeta’s next-generation delivery drones. The goal is to make everyday drone deliveries more reliable as they move from trials to routine operations. Keeta Drone operates in a challenging space—low-altitude urban airspace. Its drones deliver food, medicine and emergency supplies across cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai. With more than 740,000 deliveries completed across 65 routes, the company has discontinued testing the concept. It is scaling it. For that scale to work, drones must be able to navigate crowded environments filled with buildings, trees, power lines and unpredictable conditions. This is where Hesai’s technology comes in.
Hesai’s solid-state LiDAR is integrated into Keeta's latest long-range delivery drones. LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. In simple terms, it is a sensing technology that helps machines understand their surroundings by sending out laser pulses and measuring how they bounce back. Unlike GPS, LiDAR does not rely solely on satellites to determine position. Instead, it gives drones a direct sense of their surroundings, helping them spot small but critical obstacles like wires or tree branches.
In a recent demonstration, Keeta Drone completed a nighttime flight using LiDAR-based navigation alone without relying on cameras or satellite positioning. This shows how the technology can support stable operations even when visibility is poor or GPS signals are limited.
The LiDAR system used in these drones is Hesai’s second-generation solid-state model known as FTX. Compared with earlier versions, the sensor offers higher resolution while being smaller and lighter—important considerations for airborne systems where weight and space are limited. The updated design also reduces integration complexity, making it easier to incorporate into commercial drone platforms. Large-scale production of the sensor is expected to begin in 2026.
From Hesai’s perspective, delivery drones are one of several forms robots are expected to take in the coming decades. Industry forecasts suggest robots will increasingly appear in many roles from industrial systems to service applications, with drones becoming a familiar part of urban infrastructure rather than a novelty.
For Keeta Drone, this improves safety and reliability. And for the broader industry, it signals that drone logistics is entering a more mature phase—one defined less by experimentation and more by dependable execution. Taken together, the partnership highlights a practical evolution in drone delivery.
As cities grow more complex, the question is no longer whether drones can fly but whether they can do so reliably, safely and at scale. At its core, this partnership is not about drones or sensors as products. It is about what it takes to make a complex system work quietly in real cities. As drone delivery moves out of pilot zones and into everyday use, reliability matters more than novelty.