Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd, doing business as Oppo (Dongguan, China) has announced a new smart glasses product called Air Glass. The product is reminiscent of Google Glass in that it is in the form of a monocle. The device is designed to provide what the company calls “assisted reality.” More on that below.
Advantages claimed for this approach include that it enables a device that is “portable, practical and accessible.”
Before discussing the Air Glass, here are a few words of introduction about the company. Oppo was founded in 2004. It is a consumer electronics and mobile communications company with over 40,000 employees. Some of the company’s major product lines include smartphones, smart devices, audio devices, power banks and other electronic products.
Air Glass comes in two parts: a detachable monocle waveguide assembly and an eyeglass frame. The monocle waveguide is designed to be attached only to the frame, it is not possible to attach it directly to a user’s personal eye glasses. The monocle waveguide is available in black or white. There are two frame designs, a silver half frame and a black full frame. Each frame is available in two sizes. Presumably, the full frame can include lenses for users that require corrective eyewear.
The detachable monocle waveguide assembly includes a so called “Spark Micro Projector” developed by the company. The projector is represented as among the most compact in the industry with a volume of just 0.5 cubic centimeters (about the size of a coffee bean). The projector is based on microLED technology and projects an image through a five element glass lens.
Air Glass is not connected by a wire to any other device. It is paired via Bluetooth to an Oppo Watch 2 or to any Oppo smartphone (such as the Reno6 Pro) as long as the device is running ColorOS 11. (ColorOS 11A is a highly customized, efficient, intelligent Android-based mobile OS by Oppo. The OS supports multiple languages.) The required Smart Glass app comes with these devices. Air Glass does not currently support iOS or Android phones.
A video appended to the end of this article demonstrates the capabilities of Air Glass. The figure below illustrates the Air Glass.
The Air Glass by Oppo.
The specifications and features of the Air Glass include the following:
- Diffraction waveguide optical system
- Monochrome green microLED microdisplay
- Image resolution: 640 x 480
- Two display modes: 16 level greyscale and 256 level grayscale
- Brightness: 1,400 nits when used in average lighting conditions. Capable of up to 3 million nits to assure that the projected image can remain visible under a wide range of lighting conditions.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 chipset
- Battery life: 3 hours during active use and 40 hours while on standby
- Weight: 30 grams
- Microphone and speaker
- Bluetooth and WIFI
- The Air Glass does not have a camera
The use cases proposed by Oppo for the Air Glass are relatively modest. Applications include weather, calendar, health, notifications and teleprompter. In addition, there is a built in translation function that enables cross cultural communication between two people wearing Air Glass. Mandarin Chinese – English two way translation is built in. Mandarin Chinese – Japanese and Korean is expected to come at a later time. Also available are the Baidu Walk & Bike Navigation and the Explore Nearby apps.
When using these apps with Air Glass, the company has taken pains to make clear that the user should not expect to see sophisticated graphics. An Oppo press release explains that Air Glass is not a pair of VR glasses and does not cut off the user’s view of their real world surroundings. Neither does the Air Glass attempt to take the user into a virtual world. Instead, the device strives to “assist reality rather than augment it.”
Air Glass can be controlled by swiping the touch bar on the right side of the monocle waveguide assembly. In addition, control input is possible with head movement. Voice command is also supported, presumably only in Chinese. Finally, control by hand gesture is also possible when the Air Glass is paired with an Oppo Watch 2.
Oppo has stated that Air Glass will be launched exclusively in China and only in a limited quantity. Each Air Glass will be labelled with a unique edition number on its package. Based on current plans, it will never be a mass produced but, rather, will remain more of a “novelty concept product.” In any case, the Air Glass is planned to ship in Q1 2022 for a yet-to-be-announced price. -Arthur Berman
