Tang Dynasty poet Jia Dao has a famous poem: ten years to sharpen a sword, frost blade has not tried. The development of smart glasses has undergone exactly a decade of change and iteration. It’s been a tumultuous decade for the industry, and it’s been a dramatic one on film.
Google Glass caused a stir in the early 2010s, and millions of people were aroused by the “smart glasses”, a simple wearable device, by Google’s press conference. However, two years after the product was released, the market gradually became silent and cooled down. Then around 2015, the sudden drop in temperature, and finally everyone like birds and beasts, crazy pursuit of the crowd, what is the cause of this scene? Today, after the iteration of technology development, what are the new changes of smart glasses and whether the definition of business scene and value is clear? This article wants to discuss the ten-year iteration of smart glasses today.、
The story of smart glasses has resurfaces in the last two or three years after years of silence, and while there is still no blockbuster product for the consumer market, the power to redraw the story is still online.
Innovation is a process of education market
The representative of the first generation of smart glasses is Google Glass, when the scenery, people all over the world are looking forward to, waiting for Google smart glasses to ignite the new intelligent terminal reform road, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
Contain technology developing, conference Demo cool again, truly implement, is also a feather, the most let a person remember example is the magic leap products, the jump of the whales to orgasm at the same time, the brain science and technology circle of people excited, everyone regrets AR first finally arrived, visual interaction has set the prairie ablaze fire of revolution. But the end result is that the gimmicks go off, the product fails to deliver, and the reputation of a liar is a shame to mention.
In the promotion demo of Google Glass, apart from the ambition of being a search engine, it also wants to destroy apple’s iPhone and become the interface of everything. In video conference, Google glasses equipped with optical head-mounted display (ohmd), can display all kinds of information, the wearer can interact through natural language instruction, Internet, film, the functions such as communication, navigation, whether the user interaction or information absorbing, almost nod to blink voice operation can be completed, for ten years ago, the Internet technology development level, Many people are excited about the convenient intelligence that Google Glass will render in an interactive way. But the ideal is very plump reality is very skinny.
Everyone expects the scenes in the demo to be delivered with the product, but the post-launch video conference and voice interaction are still in development and cannot be delivered. In the actual operation process, when users need to view or focus, they have to keep moving their head to focus. The cross-eye operation is also slow and has a poor experience. It is not as convenient as taking pictures with mobile phones. The chip and battery are located on the mirror leg. Considering the weight of the all-in machine, it is also very simple and simple. The equipment has rich functions but is also weak.
The only camera and video features that are useful are also being resisted by some consumers on ethical grounds. The potential surveillance equipment and the danger of privacy leakage caused by unreasonable application scenarios are not accepted by the society, and all kinds of doubts make Google Glass open higher and lower in the consumer market. The high cost of Google Glass is also a good medicine to discourage, and the technology, cost, and experience resulted in the glass market education was stillborn before it could be rolled out. The closure of the physical experience store and the stop of taking orders was interpreted as a complete failure of Google Glass, and Google eventually canceled the research and development work of the Explorer division.
Google is not the only failure, in the consumer electronics field invincible Apple is also in the market cold, deferred development of AR glasses, according to foreign media reports, Apple’s AR glasses team after the dissolution was also reassigned to other product development departments.
Google as a representative of the early generation of intelligent glasses, its development path is almost a microcosm of the intelligent glasses, view and the early generation of intelligent glasses good predicted the future of some usage scenarios, but the data structured intelligent processing technology, speech recognition, pattern recognition, early in the development of technology, the data transmission delay, power consumption big, poor experience, Unable to do fast processing and rapid response, the limitations of computing algorithm, chip limited processing power so that the first generation of smart glasses can not achieve the ability to depict the scene.
Dimension reduction technology, conversion track self – rescue
After two or three years of market cooling and silence, a number of manufacturers have helped themselves, with some choosing to focus on b-end scenes from consumer grade to industrial grade track. The enterprise version of smart glasses is designed and marketed to solve problems. The main function is to reduce costs and increase efficiency for enterprises and institutions. Google’s smart Glasses, for example, went back on sale in 2017 and are only available to businesses, including healthcare and factories. Domestic enterprises liangfengtai and ROKID are also representative enterprises facing B and G terminals.
Under the epidemic, smart glasses, such as Bright Wind platform and ROKID’s AR products, are not only used in non-contact temperature measurement scenarios, but also play a very good role in medical consultation and remote diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. After wearing glasses, the CT images and 3D models of COVID-19 patients’ lungs can clearly show the microscopic structures such as the shape and volume of the lesions at 360 degrees, which is very intuitive and improves the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment.
The new generation of smart glasses in addition to low power consumption and long endurance, display brightness, permeability, FOV and so on have taken a qualitative leap. The core technology, which has been criticised for causing too high a delay and a poor experience, seems to have been accompanied by the giant’s technological breakthrough, which has all but eliminated the sensation of vertigo during wear.
In the cloud, the VR content of some smart glasses previously runs locally, which requires a large amount of data transmission, storage and operation capabilities. After being equipped with cloud VR, these data and computation-intensive tasks can be transferred to the cloud and the data storage and high-speed computing capabilities of the cloud can be utilized.
With the development of 5G network, rendering and content transmission are transferred to cloud processing through uWB network. Terminal equipment equipped with cloud VR also eliminates the need for traditional helmets and bulky mirror legs. Users’ wearing and action are more comfortable and convenient, users do not need to buy high-performance host, and terminal cost is reduced.
In terms of computing power, the support of AR dedicated chips in smart glasses, such as Hsi XR chip, supports 8K decoding capability. The XR chip integrating high-performance GPU and NPU can better adapt to the high resolution, wide viewing Angle and low latency features of AR/VR scenes.
Enterprises and chip manufacturers work together to optimize the dedicated algorithm and scheme of the platform, and do a lot of optimization work on AI computing capabilities such as voice, vision and environment perception, so that core basic capabilities such as AI interaction and multi-person collaboration can be realized.
In terms of optical technology, the lightness of optical waveguide and the high penetration characteristics of external light are considered to be the required optical solution for consumer AR glasses, but they are also prohibitive because of their high price and high technical threshold. In a word, the display system used by AR glasses on the market at present is the combination of various miniature displays and optical components such as prisms, free-form surfaces, BirdBath and optical waveguides. The difference of optical combinators is the key part to distinguish THE AR display system. This is the selection of optical device combination in the new era of smart glasses. However, for the selection of smart glasses that just started in 2010, industry insiders use a comparison to say that it is equivalent to the gap between the screen of smart phones and the display in the Nokia era. The resolution is low, the light is dark, and the field of view is small, which cannot support the desired effect in demo.
The update and iteration of technical capabilities make the balance of price and performance reach a critical point, and the business value appears. At the consumer level, some manufacturers choose dimension reduction technology, overlay an audio function, and package smart glasses as smart headphones and glasses with the function of taking photos. Amazon’s Echo Frames, which debuted in November 2020, features voice interaction to control smart homes, get voice notifications, listen to music, and make phone calls. With Snap’s Spectacles, users can take photos, socialize and even broadcast live through the lens.
The technology of dimension reduction mainly focuses on function, cutting off the original visual interaction of the lens, that is, in the aspect of augmented reality. The sharp drop in data and computing power reduces the weight of the product, making the endurance weight smaller and more comfortable to wear. In terms of intelligence, audio interaction is widely touted. AI voice assistants such as Amazon Echo, Siri and Google Assistant are bundled with hardware products. The content pool of hardware products is deep, and AI voice services are provided by wake-up and command to improve the efficiency of daily activities. Such as changing music, answering and making phone calls, real-time translation, exercise instruction and so on.
These slimmed smart glasses are all lightweight, ready for consumers and affordable. The main functions are integrated solutions at the existing technology level. By carrying cool glasses, it is also a good fashion and intelligent item for consumers. To some extent, the giant is also backward compatible and focuses on more suitable consumer scenes.
The new top stream starts the midfield war,Compete for the best business value
In this fully competitive commercial market, whether for government enterprises or ordinary consumers, the enterprises behind these smart glasses, their main businesses and products, can clearly feel that the market has entered a white-hot halftime stage. The participation of technology giants and the focused innovation of entrepreneurship have led to the explosive growth of commercial applications. Since 2020, the commercialization of smart glasses has opened up more possibilities.
A large number of technology companies in the technology and market under the common development of nourishing, like the mushroom after generally all take out, mysteriously give you surprise at the news conference, technology giant layout AR glasses, in addition to show technology muscle, also see the future of computing terminal, screens, early bet on the commercial value of the future.
For start-up companies, the addition of tech giants has made the market more active, bringing more opportunities and challenges to the industry. Operating system and device terminal are the strengths of technology giants. The technology giants that go deep into the market make the industry more lively, and the capital also enjoys the hot market. We build an ecosystem based on our ability to develop and promote products.
At present, all the contestants have passed the preparatory work of the early industry reshuffle, and are preparing for the sprint. The war in the middle of the field has been opened. Everyone is showing their differentiated products and solutions, creating the key points of the road to break through, and highlighting the commercial ability.
In general, THERE are two ways for AR devices to create business value. One is to become a part of the product itself to create value, such as products for consumer applications, and the other is to use AR terminal products to develop, manufacture, marketing, service and other fields of product chain value. For example, the AR+ scene that has been landed at present: intelligent medical treatment, intelligent industry, intelligent marketing, intelligent logistics and other imaginative scenes.
L d space Internet, enterprise remote collaboration, intelligent glasses application scenario is under the market rhythm of ebb tide, companies have been focused on deep field and outbreak of special dark horse, became the most powerful market catalyst, allows businesses to remote collaboration scenario once the softer demand, become the B side the rigid demand of the enterprise.
Manufacturing supply chain equipment, quality inspection, after-sales service and so on are very important links. According to industry insiders, the travel industry top ten enterprises must level can be achieved, especially in the outbreak of this particular juncture, equipment debugging, long-distance maintenance on-site limited, for the production line, the use of smart glasses realized remote supervision, for the enterprise to save tens of millions of travel expenses, and the implementation process of traceability, truly realized the authors efficiency of the enterprise.
In a variety of practical scenarios, smart glasses need to customize the key elements of different industries to design content, which is rich in ecology and unlimited in commercial value and imagination.
Fire inspection, public security police emergency command, security scenic spots and parks and other scenes are gradually used. During the outbreak, we have heard news that security personnel and police officers wear smart glasses on patrol. In terms of retail shopping, construction companies and home furnishment companies can use smart glasses to watch the appearance or function of products in the actual environment, reduce the uncertainty of customers in choosing products and shorten the sales cycle.
At present, domestic express storage logistics accounts for a huge output value, which itself has a very large demand for cost reduction. In most warehouses, staff can only search through the list of items, which is slow and easy to make mistakes. Smart glasses can guide the selection of goods, plan the best route, and even optimize the layout of goods and machines in the warehouse, which is the best helper in addition to warehousing and logistics robots.
It can be found from the above cases that smart glasses have been launched and fully blossomed in the industrial field. In the whole industrial ecosystem, people are making full use of their strengths and customizing integrated solutions in different vertical fields. In this tortuous process, technology, content and cost constrain the ability of all competitors. We all know that the industrial chain of the whole industrial system is long and complex, the development of technology can not be achieved overnight, and the war in the middle of the field is ultimately a long and winding march. Fortunately, we still have the opportunity to stay at the table, want to fight for a male and female from this middle war, priority, is also a test of everyone’s ability and endurance challenges full journey, who the response speed, solution ability is faster and better, the price is more fragrant, who can run out from this long war in the middle of the first.
However, the imagination of AR glasses replacing mobile phones will not happen immediately. In order to challenge and overturn mobile phones with complete ecosystem, it will take at least ten years of development to start, and the aggregation of the whole ecosystem: Chip manufacturers, ICT manufacturers, ODM, software developers, content producers and other partners to enable the cooperation of the various ecological participation, establish new industrial rules, complete market education, to completely change the life of mobile phone.
But for some people, the fragmented flow of information on a phone can be overcome by throwing away the phone or not paying attention to the barrage of information in the stream, but will it be all right to take it off once the smart glasses are on? Attention is completely invaded as soon as you open your eyes to work, and there may be the problem of relying on the functions of smart devices, which may also become a new ethical topic to discuss.
Post time: Aug-20-2021