AR Eyewear
AR Eyewear
AR glasses are electronic devices that look like regular eyewear and add a layer of digital information over the user’s real-world vision. They can display anything from 3D images to text and video.
They’re a little larger than normal sunglasses to accommodate the battery, speakers, and tiny display that beams content directly in front of your eyes. But at 134g, they’re hardly heavy.
The Rokid Air AR Glasses
The Rokid Air is a pair of portable smart glasses that look a lot like sunglasses. They connect to your smartphone using a USB-C cable, use it as the processing unit and then mirror content like holograms onto a screen inside the glasses. The screen is a pair of Micro OLED projectors with a resolution of 120 Hz that offers super-bright colors and a great picture, even in bright sunlight. They also have HDCP support so you can watch Netflix and other apps that need it at high quality.
They’re designed to be easy and fun to use, letting you watch movies, follow recipes in the kitchen, or even just have some fun with your friends as you play video games. The design is stylish and comfortable enough to wear all day, although the heavily sci-fi inspired style might draw some looks from people around you.
Unlike other AR glasses, the Rokid Air doesn’t have a built-in camera so you can wear them without worrying about privacy concerns. The camera is hidden in the hinge of the left temple and only enables video and image capture when you activate it by pressing a button on the right frame. The device also features a microphone, enhanced 9-axis IMU sensors, 3DoF head tracking, and wearing detection to ensure the glasses fit well and stay in place.
The Rokid Max AR Glasses
The Rokid Max is an AR smart glass that focuses on providing an immersive audiovisual experience. The device is a great choice for those who need to watch movies or ar eyewear play video games while on the go. The glasses offer a comfortable and private viewing experience as they reduce forward light leakage by 90% and feature HDCP support, which allows them to stream content from popular streaming services without restrictions.
The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 CPU and features an optical system that uses “bird bath optics” to reduce eye strain. It also has a built-in microphone and supports voice control for simple functions. It is lightweight (75g/2.6oz) and has a pair of Micro-OLED displays that are used for displaying visuals in front of the user’s eyes.
The device is equipped with a high-resolution 1920x1080p micro OLED screen and supports up to 600 nits brightness. It also has a 120 Hz refresh rate, which ensures that the images displayed are smooth and clear. Its display has a wide viewing angle, which provides an optimal viewing experience for users of all sizes. It is available for preorder on the Rokid website for a price of $439. The glasses are expected to begin shipping in May. They can be connected to smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles via a USB-C cable.
The Tooz AR Glasses
With a design that looks more like regular glasses than any other smart device I’ve seen so far, Tooz’s ESSNZ Berlin AR glasses are also the first to be designed for prescription. The company says this is because it believes “all future consumer augmented reality glasses will be powered by individual vision correction.”
Basically, they work by sandwiching a curved waveguide between two lenses and an invisible combiner, which projects virtual images onto the eye. All the components are coated to make them resistant to wear and tear, too. Then, a normal optician can apply an individualized prescription directly ar eyewear on the lens using standard processes that are already established for regular eyeglasses.
The result is a pair of smart glasses that don’t need a camera, which immediately eliminates privacy concerns for the user and anyone else who might be around them. The company also claims that they don’t use any gyroscopes or accelerometers so the device doesn’t track motion as the user moves around.
They also don’t have a microphone, which should help with noise cancellation as well. They do connect to smartphones via a hidden USB-C port that’s located on one of the arms. That means you’ll need to keep your phone close if you want to access any AR experiences on the go. And the audio performance is fine – not the best, but it’s certainly better than I expected from a pair of glasses that are supposed to be more unobtrusive than anything out there.
The Vuzix M100 AR Glasses
The Vuzix M100 is the first consumer ready ar glasses to hit the market. It interfaces with your Android or iOS smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to reap information, projecting a full colour screen directly in front of one of your eyes. Unlike some previous video eyewear, this model offers a 15deg field of view, which is more natural than the immersive experience you get from the best VR headsets on the market.
The tiny optical display emits a WQVGA screen that sits in the upper right hand corner of your vision. The miniature computer and display are attached to a thin adjustable headband that rests at the top of your head, like Google Glass, but without the bone conduction audio feature. There’s 4GB of onboard storage, and a microSD card slot to expand it.
There are several ways to control the M100, including four on-board buttons, a traditional smartphone software interface running remotely on your phone, voice navigation and gesture controls. It’s also compatible with a wide range of existing Android apps.
The M100 is designed for professional and prosumer use, with pre-installed apps that allow users to record and playback still pictures and video, track timed events, manage their calendar and link to their phone. The M100 also allows for hands free mapping and email and text notifications, as well as capturing POV photos and video.