Work on high-tech AR & VR park commences in Hainan

Work on the Haikou XLoong AR & VR High-tech Park began at the Haikou National High-tech Zone in Haikou, Hainan province, on Wednesday.

The high-tech park, which is the first of its kind in the China (Hainan) Free Trade Zone, was launched in Hainan after the central government decided to transform the Hainan island into a pilot free trade zone in April and gradually explore the building of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics.

In its package of guidelines designed to support Hainan's comprehensive reform and opening up, Hainan was encouraged to further develop augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to further its advances in next generation of information technologies.

"We are confident that the AR and VR high-tech park will succeed in Hainan," said Gray Lyu, president of Beijing Xloong Technologies Co Ltd and chairman of the Hainan Century Xloong Optical Technologies Co Ltd, which will jointly develop the Haikou park.

"Beijing Xloong will provide the technology, while Hainan Century Xloong Optical Technology will be responsible for developing an industrial chain," said Zhao Bo, general manager of Hainan Century Xloong.

Spread over 3.3 hectares, the park will be built with an investment of 250 million yuan ($38.6 million) and will be operational in two years, with its annual production value expected to reach 350 million yuan by 2020.

To meet demands from various customers, the park's business will cover design, display and production of optical modules, mainboards, video modules, mould design, assembly and comprehensive and aging tests, according to Zhao.

Established by frontier technology pioneer Shi Xiaogang in 2015 as a one-stop AR & VR solution provider, Beijing Xloong Technologies has acquired multi-core technologies as well as patents. It was also the winner of a number of national honors for high-tech innovation.

The company has developed a number of AR products including sports AR smart glasses, Techlens 2 AR smart glasses, AR individual combat helmets and gained around 100 million yuan funding from listed groups including Luxshare-ICT, BOE, and Gobi Venture Capital.

While its sports goggles can assist cyclists with AR-based digital maps, Xloong's Techlens T2 glasses enable remote equipment maintenance by scanning machines and sharing real-time video feeds with engineers. They can examine the feeds and input their feedback, in the form of AR-based marks and drawings to show malfunctions more clearly and allow for remote assistance.

"AR and VR technologies have huge potential and numerous applications that can help raise efficiency and reduce costs," said Lyu.

"The park will be built as a platform with advanced AR and VR technologies to serve cooperation between not only upstream and downstream domestic enterprises but overseas research bodies and producers as well," he said, adding it will also be an incubation center in Hainan for nurturing and promotion of advanced technologies to other parts in the world.

Liu Ying, an expert on brand value appraisal and management, said the introduction of Xloong AR and VR technologies will help boost the social effects of quality brands in the Haikou high-tech zone and its products will help enrich and upgrade the structure of tourism products in Hainan.

Established in 1991, Haikou National High-tech Industrial Development Zone is the only State-level one in Hainan. It focuses on healthcare, low-carbon manufacturing and high-tech industries. Covering 55.42 square kilometers, the zone has attracted 1,500 enterprises, with 56 of them engaged in high-tech sectors.