Reliance Jio unveils JioGlass to expand presence in virtual reality space

Reliance Jio on Wednesday unveiled JioGlass to strengthen its presence in virtual reality space and capitalise on remote working culture triggered by Covid-19 pandemic.

The concept of digital glass and product was started by Google a few years back. The unveiling of Jio Glass coincided with Google's Rs 33,737 crore investments in Jio Platforms for 7.7 per cent stake.

"Jio Glass comes with a convenient cable that you can attach to your phone and thus connect to the internet. It is at cutting edge of the technology that provides best in class mixed reality service," Reliance Jio Infocomm President Kiran M Thomas said at RIL annual general meeting (AGM).

It has an in-built audio system and it can make calls to contact on voice command.

"In times of Covid-19, ways of working and workspace have completely changed and digital collaborations have seen an exponential growth. We can completely imagine this in mixed reality space. With Jio Glass, you could be sitting at home and join a meeting in your office with your colleagues in three dimensions," the presenter said.

While Thomas did not disclose the price of JioGlass, e-commerce platforms show similar digital glass with access to apps and internet in the price range of around Rs 37,000- Rs 40,000 a unit.

"While you are chatting with your colleagues, you can also share presentations that you will be able to view and present on a large virtual screen in any virtual environment you want with the help of JioGlass," he noted.

JioGlass is enabling teachers to conduct hologram class in 3D virtual rooms, Thomas said.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) director Isha Ambani said that Jio is committed to solve the problem being faced in education and health space though.

"With Jio meet you can conduct daily online assemblies for your entire schools and hold full day sessions as there is no limit on number of students or call duration," Isha Ambani said.

The company is also working to resolve the issue of shortage in teachers as well issues around untrained teachers through the "Embibe" platform where students can pick content of any class and improve their learnings, she added.

The company also announced making television watching interactive, as Jio TV plus users can now participate in TV programmes for voting etc in real time.

"We believe interactivity on the TV or two-way communication is the future of consumption," RJIL director Akash Ambani said.

Jio has brought in all the major over-the-top video entertainment apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar etc on its Jio TV plus which users can access through a click of button on the remote doing away with the need for separately logging in to each application.