Xloong, an augmented reality (AR) firm based in Beijing has come out with smart glasses that can help the Chinese police seek out and catch criminals. Based on a brochure of the AR firm, it had already released smart glasses for the police in 2017.
Police can use the glasses to gain access to real-time information regarding the facial, vehicle plate number and ID card of citizens from the national Chinese database. According to Xloong, the augmented reality smart glasses facilitate a hands-free experience for police and enhance the rate at which suspects are discovered.
The new pair of smart glasses are being utilised already by airport law enforcement bodies and highway inspection stations, according to information released by the company. The Xloong headsets are also being used by six public security agencies, situated at key centres such as Tianjin, Beijing and the autonomous Xinjiang Uygur region.
The name Xloong translates to ‘fierce dragon’ in the Chinese language. Shi Xiaogang, a former hardware engineer at Huawei Technologies, founded the company in Beijing. It currently has a workforce comprising of more than 100 employees. It has gained investment amounting to hundred millions of yuan from Gobi Ventures, Beijing Institute of Technology and Hefei BOE Technology, apart from a few provincial governments. The AR firm has also created a smart helmet specifically to aid the Chinese military.
Apart from protecting the heads of wearers, the AR helmet also has some advanced technology functions. These include telecommunications, AR monitoring, geolocation technology, and night vision. According to the company, a contract involving millions of yuan has been signed by it, for the purpose of supplying the hi-tech smart helmets to China North Industries Group, a government-owned security company.
Xloong has stated that the company has several other government clients including the Ministry of Public Security and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.
Based on information obtained from the Chinese Ministry of Finance, China had a domestic security expenditure of US$184 billion in 2017. This figure was lower than the US$150 billion spendings on its external defense. China has had a total of 176 million publicly and privately placed surveillance cameras operational in 2017, far more than the number of cameras in the US during the same time period.
Shi had brushed off concerns relating to surveillance technology eventually resulting in the invasion of privacy, in a Nikkei Asian Review interview given a year back. He acknowledged that the national-level assistance for technology firms, along with the drive of the Chinese central government to enhance social stability and anti-terrorism efforts, were the driving forces helping Xloong prosper.
He emphasised that there were no budget shortages from the authorities backing the company.
Xloong also creates civilian-centric headsets for use in sectors like tourism, health care, and tourism, and also sells its products directly in the consumer market.
The augmented reality firm has SE Asia partners and is also eager to expand to US shores in the future.
