TIANJIN, May 23 (Xinhua) -- North China's Tianjin municipality plans to expand the use of mixed-reality technology in powerline inspection after its pilot area Binhai New Area began to use mixed-reality headsets for daily inspection on Tuesday.

Based on the blending of augmented reality and virtual reality, powerline inspectors use smart glasses to overlay the virtual real-time data, parameters of electric equipment onto a real-world environment, greatly improving their work efficiency, said Zhou Haobing with State Grid's Tianjin Binhai branch.

The mixed-reality technology can also offer technicians visualized alerts of the electric parts of the machines and provide them with operating procedures, which greatly enhance the work safety, said Zhou.

More technologies such as 5G and satellite navigation will be introduced in the smart glasses to improve the scheduling service and holographic training of the electric sector, according to the company co-developing the mixed-reality glasses.

Tianjin plans to expand the service in the maintenance and overhaul of the citywide electric power system in the near future, said Zhou.