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Navigating the Shift: Exploring the Transition from Enterprise to Consumer AR Glasses

From enterprise use to personal use

In May 2014, Google launched the Google Glass Explorer edition for consumers. Since then, various new products have been introduced, with enterprise glasses becoming the mainstream.

However, in recent years, the demand for consumer-grade AR glasses has increased, particularly after the metaverse concept gained popularity in 2021. As seen in the figure below, Chinese companies launched several consumer-grade smart glasses after 2021.

Compared to AR glasses used in industries, smart glasses for consumers require larger Fields of View (FOVs), lighter weight, clearer images, and longer battery life.


The smart glasses market is a potential market with few competitors

Different types of AR glasses have varying technical specifications based on their intended purposes. Generally, they incorporate wireless technologies such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS, along with a camera and various sensors (e.g., gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, etc.).

Devices can be tethered to a stationary computer or a smaller device, or they can be standalone. This is a trade-off between computing power and the device's intrusiveness, fashionability, and social acceptability. Typically, tethered devices are larger, binocular AR headsets with larger FOVs, while untethered ones are smaller smart glasses with smaller FOVs, limited AR usability, and fewer sensors.


Types of AR Glasses

Connected glasses: These are displayless glasses with Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity.

Smart glasses: Smart glasses can be divided into two groups based on their displays: rear mirror and monocular smart glasses. Rear mirror glasses have a display discreetly positioned at the edge of the wearer's field of view (similar to a car's rearview mirror). Monocular smart glasses have an optical engine positioned in front of one of the wearer's eyes, allowing them to see reality through the display while projecting digital information directly into their field of view.

l AR HMDs: These are headsets with binocular see-through displays with a relatively large FOV (e.g., 90° for the Meta 2) that can provide true AR and usually have bulkier optics than regular smart glasses.

The Main Hardware Components of AR Products

  • Among all modules in AR glasses, the optical module is the most important, consisting of optical lenses and microdisplays, and directly affecting image quality. Whether AR glasses suit consumers and workers depends on choosing the appropriate modules. 
  • A computing module, an SoC, provides AR input, virtual and real fusion to output computing power support, and supports machine vision and interactive technology. To gather surrounding information in the real world, the camera has become the major sensor in the processing module of AR glasses; usually, AR glasses use several cameras and SLAM technology to model the real environment in virtual form.

Source: Organized based on public information


Displays, Optical solutions, Sensors, and Chips are important components of AR glasses

Composition of AR glasses: An AR glasses is mainly composed of a camera (sensor), an optical module (micro-display, optical solution), a CPU processing center (chip, perception interaction, etc.), a bracket, and other parts.


Micro LED is the ideal solution for AR glasses micro display

AR works in an external environment and requires a microdisplay with strong brightness. Micro LED has become the most ideal solution for AR glasses' microdisplays due to its advantages of high brightness, low latency, and low power consumption. However, it is currently used in near-eye applications.



The optical waveguide solution is gradually becoming the mainstream optical technology of AR glasses

AR glasses need to see the virtual world while seeing the real world, and have high requirements for optical modules. The optical solution involved is the core technology of AR glasses. The optical technology of AR glasses continues to be iteratively upgraded, and the optical waveguide solution has gradually become the mainstream optical technology path in the future due to the advantages of thin lenses, large viewing angles, and high light transmittance.


SLAM is the mainstream tracking and positioning technology of AR, which will enhance the user's overall perception of the environment

During the interaction process of AR glasses, it is necessary to use sensors including cameras to capture various actions of users in real time (including tracking and positioning, interactive gesture recognition, daily shooting functions, etc.). Create a multi-dimensional perception effect, and then present it to the user's eyes through the screen. In terms of tracking and positioning, SLAM (instant positioning and map construction) is the mainstream technology. It calculates its own position and builds a global map of the space based on the visual/motion information captured by cameras and inertial sensors. As the user's mobile range gradually expands, the global map contains more scene information, effectively improving the user's overall perception of the environment.

 
 

Eye Sensor

Built-in external sensor

Inertial sensor

Types

Eye tracking, iris recognition sensor

Traditional cameras, fisheye cameras, infrared ToF sensors, etc

Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Magnetometer

Function

Monitor the movement of human eyes and identify the wearer

Can sense 3D imaging, proximity sensing, ambient light sensing, gesture recognition and other functions

Capture head movements, navigation and positioning

Products

HoloLens 2, Nreal light, etc

Rokid Glass 2 etc

Rayneo air 1s, Nreal Air, Rokid glass 2, INMO Air2


AR chips are gradually developing towards customization, among which Qualcomm is still the main chip supplier


RK3588

SD 820

Zhanrui W517

SD XR2

HPU

Hisilicon XR Chip

Features

It can meet the computing power requirements of most artificial intelligence models and empower various AI scenarios

It can realize relative viewing angle dynamic reflection, HDRR, realistic color and lighting, human eye lighting simulation, temporal anti-aliasing and other functions

Using a quad-core processor, it has the characteristics of high performance, low power consumption, and powerful AI performance to provide more diverse AI application scenarios

Strong GPU processing power, support for eye-tracking visually focused rendering, and enhanced variable-rate shading for smoother refresh rates

Coprocessor chip that can work with CPU and GPU

Can support 8K decoding capability, integrated GPU, NPU (network processor)

Supplier

Ruixinhui

Qualcomm

Zhanrui

Qualcomm

Microsoft

Hisilicon

Products

SeerLens 

HiAR Glasses 2nd

INMO Air2

Rayneo X2

HoloLens 2

Rokid Vision




Optical waveguides and Micro LEDs with superior performance will be the mainstream solutions for future AR products

At this stage, the bottlenecks of AR glasses with different principles mainly lie in the brightness of the eye-catching picture to meet the outdoor strong light environment, a certain level of color reproduction, color saturation, color uniformity, picture distortion correction, and a larger range of orbital movement in the horizontal and vertical directions. Currently, the Micro LED microdisplay + optical waveguide solution is the theoretically best-balanced solution in terms of high light transmittance, high brightness, high picture quality, light weight, and low power consumption, and will become the primary choice for future AR products.




INMO Air 2

TCL RayNeo X2 AR

xiaomi Wireless AR Glass

Discovery Edition

Nreal Air

Rokid Max

Release

2023/07

2023

2023

2022

2023

Using Scenario

calls, translation, navigation, taking photos, inscriptions, voice conversion, movies, games

Intelligent translation, real-time navigation, information reminder, quick photo, etc.

Movie, games, translation, navigation, photography

Watching movies, games, device projection

Watching movies, games, device projection

Micro-Display

Micro-OLED

Micro-LED

Micro-OLED

Micro-OLED

Micro-LED

Optical

Diffractive optical waveguide

Diffractive optical waveguide

Curved prism

Birdbath

Birdbath

Chip

ZhanRui AI chip 4-core 1.8GHz

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 Chip

No

No

Sensor

Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Magnetometer

Key Features

Binocular full-color MicroOLED diffractive waveguide

Wireless connections

8 million pixel high-definition camera

20000:1 contrast ratio

Lightweight SLAM

500mAh battery
AI (ChatGPT built-in)

Binocular full-color MicroLED diffractive waveguide

16 million pixel high-definition camera

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip

100000:1 contrast ratio

Brightness up to 1000 nits

SLAM+ gesture recognition

590 mAh battery

Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 Chip

MicroOLED binocular waveguide

gesture interaction

Brightness up to 1200 nits

126g

Spatial positioning: SLAM+6Dof

Camera: SLAM camera + low-power AON camera

Micro-OLED, 130-inch large screen

108% sRBG

Eye protection

79g

100000:1 contrast ratio

Brightness up to 400 nits

60Hz refresh rate

46 FOV

120Hz refresh rate

Micro-LED

Maximum 215-inch projection screen

50 FOV

1080P FHD

75g

Up to 600 Nits brightness

Eye protection: low blue light, no flicker

2d/3d switching

Source: Organized based on public information


The mass production and launch of INMO Air2 are expected to foster competition and technological innovation in the C-end market. Many AR startups that entered the market last year are anticipated to release related C-end hardware products this year. As AR continues to evolve in 2023, it will pave the way through careful experimentation, exploration, and innovation.

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