00:02At a meeting, eating out, or hailing a taxi, I would always wear them.
00:08We can speak our own words in our own language. It's amazing.
00:11Hello and welcome to Crossing Cultures.
00:14In this series we look at new technologies that are changing everyday life.
00:18And our first topic is AI glasses.
00:21My co-host Yang Zhao went to one of the largest electronics markets in the world here in Shenzhen.
00:28Yang, over to you.
00:35More than half of the world's AI glasses are made here in China.
00:39And if you want to see how fast China reacts to this new piece of tack, this is a pretty
00:44good place to start.
00:51Every day, thousands of visitors come to Huaqiangbei to try out AI glasses.
00:57Wanita was one of them, although buying a pair wasn't part of her plan.
01:02I really struggled without an interpreter here in China.
01:06And someone had suggested I look at the new smart glasses, AI glasses, that could actually do the translation in
01:12real time.
01:13We can speak in our own language and to see if this interview could go on.
01:17Excellent.
01:18Okay, let's give it a go.
01:20Let's try this.
01:23We can speak our own words in our own language. It's amazing.
01:31But many people worried about privacy. The more AI glasses look like ordinary glasses, the harder it is for people
01:39nearby to know when they are in use.
01:42There has been a lot within the local news about breaches of privacy, where you should or shouldn't be able
01:48to use them. It's more for the recording function.
01:52Smart glasses aren't new.
01:54Smart glasses are new. For more than a decade, companies have been trying to make them smaller, lighter, and easier
01:59to wear. But making glasses wearable wasn't enough.
02:03AI has given them something more important. A reason to wear them.
02:10These things bring in more function to the eyeglasses. Okay, not only taking a video, listening to the music, but
02:18help you to solve the day-to-day problem.
02:24So AI glasses are ready to become part of a daily life here, and manufacturers hope they could replace smartphones
02:31some days in the future.
02:32But for someone, that could also mean much more than convenience. Dennis?
02:37Yes, indeed, Yang Zhao. We often see AI glasses as just another gadget, something you would use for work or
02:45for entertainment.
02:47But for some people, people with impaired vision or hearing, this technology can be life-changing.
02:53Let's meet someone who is testing that here in Shenzhen.
02:57Let's go.
03:03This is Liu Shenzhen. She comes from eastern China.
03:06When she was three, she lost her hearing due to a high fever.
03:10Today, her work is to help other people with disabilities find a job.
03:15But in a fast-paced city like Shenzhen, communication can be difficult.
03:24If there's an obstacle, I would use an app on my smartphone for voice transcription.
03:34Today, Liu Shenzhen is visiting Rayneo, a company that develops AI glasses with speech-to-text transcription.
03:42Microphones on the glasses pick up the words spoken nearby, and software displays them as captions, almost in real time.
03:49We'll try to test them.
03:50We can try to test this one.
03:52You can see it.
03:54You can see it.
03:55Let's test this.
04:24Lüchenchen says she liked that this smartphone
04:26Our glasses are faster and more accurate than lip-reading and they don't disrupt the conversation like phones do.
04:33At a meeting, eating out or hailing a taxi, I would always wear them.
04:40Next time on Crossing Cultures, we'll continue exploring new technologies that are making people's lives better.
04:47We'll look at green buildings and how they are changing cities in China, in Europe and around the world.
04:54Join us.
04:56We'll be right back.
