In a space where tech giants are eyeing the gold rush of augmented and mixed reality dream, OPPO is taking a detour of its own to craft assisted reality display that looks more exciting and practical for heaven’s sake!
At the annual INNO Day 2021 event, the Chinese company has introduced a cool-looking wearable that takes a very distinct approach to the concept of smart glasses. In fact, it is a monocle worn on one side of the custom glass frame to interact with the world around in a non-intrusive manner. Called the OPPO Air Glass, the lightweight wearable is built to display important information at a glance, not obstructing the real-world view in any way. OPPO likes to categorize this smart glass as an assisted reality (or aR) wearable rather than one that’s close to augmented reality. That’s because of the 2D information projected in the field of view of the user as opposed to overlaying the 3D objects.
Air Glass will be a more practical option for the speculated Apple Glasses, and the Google Glass which didn’t entice geeky users that much. The OPPO’s version is made for delivering simpler but timely information in a very non-obstructive way by attaching (via magnetic ports) to a more conventional glass frame. Things like step-by-step navigation while biking, real-time translation (for Chinese, English and Japanese), calendar alerts, weather updates, fitness tracking data, and even teleprompter applications. Users can interact with the monocle glass with voice, hand gestures, head movements and the touch of the fingers.
According to OPPO the lens measures just 0.7mm thick and is inspired by the wings of a cicada. Waveguide display on the Air Glass has a tiny projector -measuring the size of a coffee bean – with Spark Micro Projector to beam monochrome content (in 16-level grayscale or 256-level grayscale) that won’t hurt your eyes with constant usage. The wearable weighing just 30g is powered by the Qualcomm Wear 4100 SoC. It has a battery backup of three hours on active usage and 40 hours on standby.
The cool monocle glass will come in two frame design options, a silver half-frame or a black full-frame in either black or white color options. OPPO Air Glass will be available initially only for Chinese users in limited numbers by the Q1 2022 for an undisclosed price tag.
Designer: OPPO
