News

Dubai Startup Creates Iron Man-Style Smart Contact Lens

XPANCEO’s futuristic eyewear can be controlled using voice, gestures, glances, and “probably later, your mind”, according to the company’s founder.

Published

1 year ago

December 7, 2023

Nour Nasir

dubai startup creates iron man style smart contact lens

Antonie Robertson / The National

Dubai-based tech startup XPANCEO has revealed prototypes of its smart contact lens system, which aims to mimic the technology used by Tony Stark in the famous Marvel Iron Man and Avengers movies.

After a seed funding round this October, the company has already raised $40 million and plans to put the device on the market by 2027 if human trials are successful.

xpanceo founder roman axelrod smart contact lens

Founder Roman Axelrod explained the motivation behind the project, saying, “Now, we have our laptops for the office, smartphones for daily activities, and smartwatches for training … a real computer of the future is an ecosystem of software. Think about it as a Tony Stark computer”.

xpanceo smart contact lens

XPANCEO has built three prototypes, offering an “infinite” extended reality view where tasks from documents, meetings, social media, and gaming will be shown in the user’s field of view and visible only to the wearer.

The lenses are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning and will also include night vision, voice, gesture, and glance control. Mr. Axelrod even believes that later versions will be controlled by the user’s mind. The company is also developing a charging case similar to those used by wireless earbuds.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

Ultimately, XPANCEO aims to replace all the devices consumers currently use with this hyper-miniaturized gadget. The company has yet to decide on a price for its smart contact lens, but “it has to be no more than an expensive smartphone”, Mr. Axelrod explained.

That would imply a four-figure sum in US dollar terms: for reference, the most expensive version of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is priced at $1,599.

News

Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users

The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

Nour Nasir

Google

Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.

Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.

Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.

Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.

Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide

To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.

While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.

Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.