Rokid’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered smart eyewear is now available in Canada through an exclusive partnership with Markham, Ont.-based Ming’s Optical.

Rokid Glasses, from Chinese company Rokid, offers a multitude of features, such as instant translation of 89 languages, video recording and answering questions instantly via AI interface.

The glasses weigh 49 grams and are equipped with a 12 MB camera. Its display model offers a micro-LED optical display and comes in prescription lenses as well as non-prescription.

Rokid was founded in Hangzhou in 2014 and its products can be found in more than 100 countries today. In 2016, it introduced an AI-powered speaker, known as Rokid Alien, and in 2018, it introduced the first-generation augmented reality glasses, Rokid Glass 1.

In 2024, its first AI glasses were released and now the company offers Rokid Glasses, with or without a display.

“For me, every time I’m doing some presentation, I don’t need to recite the notes,” Ben Liu, Rokid's head of global communication and brand, said in an interview with TechNX.

Ideal for business, personal uses

The glasses provide a teleprompter function, making demonstrations or meetings easy, he said. That functionality is ideal for travellers as well. “What’s the weather look like? What’s your recommendation about the food in Toronto?” Liu gave as examples of the questions it can answer.

Users can choose which AI agent to use, such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, or another one via Rokid's AI agent store, he explained. 

“Rokid is one of the most open brands in the world. The user can select their own preference," Liu said. "They can use Gemini. They can use ChatGPT. They can, for example, in China, they can use Zigzag."

The AI-powered glasses can provide AI tools in 18 different languages, he said, making it ideal for business purposes and helping to bridge cultural differences when exchanging business cards, for example.

“In Japan there was one developer, who created an agent that can use our glasses because there’s a name card culture in Japanese," Liu said. "You always give the name card to the other person, and then using the app, just take a photo of the name card, and then the Rokid gasses will tell you all the background about the company," Liu said. It can even give suggestions about topics to discuss, he added.

The company has received more than 3,000 submissions for new AI agents, with more 400 approved and published through the Rokid Agent Store. It will soon be available to the international market, according to Liu.

“We were not only selling an electronic product; we are also building an ecosystem.”

Product launched in Canada

For new users, setting up the high-tech AI glasses is easy, Mickey Ming, owner of Ming’s Optical, told TechNX in an interview.

“When you open the app, they have a tutorial inside there. They will show you how to talk, how to use it, so you don’t need help from people. Just watch the video inside the app."

Canada is an ideal place to use the product, Ming said, especially with its language translation functionality. “We think Canada is a really great market because a lot of people they speak Chinese, they speak French, or maybe Spanish."

As well, Rokid Glasses can provide instant feedback and information for travellers when visiting a new attraction.

“For example, if going to Montreal. I see some church. What’s this one? They will tell me. You want to go to the Parliament Hill? Okay, what’s the story? I don’t need guides now,” Ming said.

The glasses can help those who are vision or hearing impaired, he said. “They can ask AI to read, and also they summarize and (provide) more efficiency than before.”

“This is not a toy, not a fashion," he said. "This tool can change their life, and make life easier."

The company is working on offering the glasses to organizations that help those with hearing or vision issues. “We are now talking to some organization. We want to do charity for that too because we are to try to benefit the whole of society,” Ming said.