A couple of augmented
reality-focused reference designs showcased at CES 2018 demonstrate how
the barriers to entry are coming down for smart glasses and head-mounted
displays (HMDs).
Some
industry watchers call augmented reality (AR) glasses and HMDs the
future of the smartphone. But high development costs and
cross-disciplinary design expertise have been the major stumbling blocks
in realizing the potential of smart glasses and HMDs in healthcare,
logistics, manufacturing, and other industries.
The
splash of AR technologies and products at the CES 2018 shows that
barriers to entry are finally coming down, and it's partly due to
customizable hardware and software platforms. Here is a sneak peek into
two AR reference designs showcased at the mega event in Las Vegas.
OmniVision's ASTRI
First, OmniVision has joined hands with Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) to create a complete turnkey design solution for AR glasses with Wi-Fi connectivity to any mobile device or personal computer.
The
reference design employs ASTRI’s expertise in optics and sensing
technologies to facilitate a 60-degree-wide field of view (FOV)
immersive solution. While the immersive AR designs have the potential
for a 110° FOV, the current designs have been able to accomplish the FOV of 60°.
ASTRI is licensing the wireless reference design to OEMs and ODMs for quickly developing AR glasses. Image courtesy of OmniVision Technologies Inc.
On
the imaging front, OmniVision brings to table a single-chip, 1080-pixel
high definition (HD) liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) display that
features integrated driver and memory buffer. OmniVision claims that its
OP02220
LCOS display simplifies design, shrinks form factor, and lowers power
consumption by up to 40 percent as compared to display systems that use
two or three separate driver and memory-buffer chips.
The AR design, which emulates
reality with a greater level of visual details, requires a display that
nears the resolution of the human eye. Here, OmniVision contributes the
OV9282 image sensor that can capture 1280x800-pixel images at 120 frames per second with low latency.
These
two devices from OmniVision enable inside-out tracking tasks like
simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), 3D room scanning, and
hand-and-tool tracking. ASTRI’s reference design has also integrated the
802.11ac Wi-Fi link to connect AR glasses to other devices like a
smartphone.
Flex's HMD Reference Design
Another notable effort to reduce development costs and accelerate time-to-market for AR glasses comes from Flex, which calls itself the sketch-to-scale solutions provider. At the CES 2018, the company unveiled an AR reference design that encompasses an HMD, an external processing unit (EPU), and a gesture-based software platform to manage interaction.
The HDM design is targeted at enterprise-grade AR applications. Image courtesy of Flex Ltd.
The AR design is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processor
that's built on 10nm process and facilitates full-color, 1080-pixel
augmented reality experiences. And it's complemented by AR interaction
module and enterprise software from Atheer.
The
user interface of the Flex reference design supports gestures, voice,
head motion and Bluetooth wearables for hands-free operation. Its
processing operation is designed to power the system throughout the
workday and can be charged by plugging into a power adaptor or by
swapping out the rechargeable battery.
Do you think AR and HMD reference designs like these are promising? Or is the specter of the oft-maligned Google Glass still too near?
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