Text VR Gyro.
Every year at CES, it's a tech brainstorm.
With the bustle of Las Vegas, CES 2024 attracts more than 4,000 exhibitors from around the world, with more than 130,000 expected attendees. From exciting innovative technology demonstrations, new product launches to speeches by industry technology leaders, everyone is talking about the "wind direction" of the technology industry in the coming year, trying to "gamble" more and greater business possibilities.
From CES 2024, we can see that this year's main focus is on macro trend themes, including artificial intelligence, digital health, sustainable development, smart cities, space technology, sports technology and other cutting-edge technologies, as well as the field of health around people and digital. Thanks to the promotion of Apple, Meta, and other large manufacturers, and the progress of first-chain technology, many large manufacturers and XR companies at home and abroad have also actively poured into CES 2024 this year to release products and show off their technologies.
According to CES official data, there are more than 350 exhibitors involved in AR VR XR, including Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, Zeiss, Magic Leap, HTC Vive, AAC, Thunderbird Innovation, Hisense, NOLO, Pimax, Xreal, Dapeng VR, Yijing VR and other companies, covering XR core components, XR optical solutions, XR content generation and production, XR human-computer interaction technology and XR hardware brand full link.
The chic AR glasses and VR MR headset have become the integrated carriers of cutting-edge technologies at CES 2024, and we also see the new era trends and technological changes in these cutting-edge technology products.
At 11 a.m. local time in Las Vegas on January 8, 2024, TCL Industries held the TCL CES 2024 press conference at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, officially announcing Thunderbird's innovative new generation of AR glasses, the Thunderbird X2 Lite.
According to VR gyroscope, Thunderbird X2 Lite is a "lightweight" version of Thunderbird X2 released last year, which has been redefined from product design, core optics, performance configuration to application scenarios.
From 119g to 60g, the weight reduction of up to 50% on the Thunderbird X2 Lite is the first most obvious feature of its "lightweight" change. Judging from the real machine on the scene that has been revealed so far, the frame of the Thunderbird X2 Lite still continues the popular "D" shaped design, and the main change is the large "**" of the temples and temples
Behind the opto-mechanical miniaturization, waveguide design, material innovation, new ID design and core processor together bring the limit of product volume "squeezing", so that Thunderbird X2 Lite on the basis of glasses form, product volume, weight and wearing experience are closer to ordinary glasses.
Thunderbird X2 Lite
(1) 60G weight-reducing core "core" factor: Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 blessing
In terms of performance, the Thunderbird X2 Lite uses Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 platform for lightweight AR AI smart glasses, which is the core component to achieve its "lightweight" product volume and "lightweight" application scenarios.
Thunderbird Innovation told VR Gyro that one of the reasons for the extreme weight compression of the Thunderbird X2 Lite is because of the use of the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 platform, so the power consumption has been greatly reduced. Under the low power consumption, in fact, the battery, material, and frame have changed, and the overall weight of the product has been reduced.
At the same time, the Thunderbird X2 Lite has also changed accordingly in terms of memory and storage combination compared with the Thunderbird X2, from 6GB RAM +128GB ROM to 4GB RAM +32GB ROM, so as to focus on the application ecology of lower power consumption. Of course, this does not mean that the overall performance and experience will be reduced, on the contrary, the filling of AI performance will bring more new features.
The AR1 Gen1 platform not only has a smaller and more compact motherboard than the Snapdragon XR2 Gen1, but also has a built-in third-generation Hexagon NPU (NPU stands for Embedded Neural Network Processor) to provide stronger AI computing support for the device.
The platform's built-in device-side AI is also capable of providing "augmented reality" experiences such as sound enhancement, visual search, and real-time translation. The AR1 Gen1 platform supports up to 1280 1280 per eye resolution, binocular full-color display, and supports Wi-Fi 7 with peak speeds of up to 58Gbps, as well as 3DOF interactivity.
AR1 Gen1 can be said to be the most suitable lightweight chip for AR in the current AI era. In September 2023, the first hardware Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses equipped with the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 platform have been released, focusing on photography, audio, AI dialogue, etc., however, the product does not come with a near-eye display light engine, which can be said to have failed to fully unleash the full capabilities of the AR1 Gen1 platform.
Thunderbird X2 Lite is theoretically the first real AR glasses equipped with the Snapdragon AR1 Gen1 platform, which makes the best use of everything to a certain extent, and integrates the AI capabilities on the terminal side of the chip, and realizes a more efficient AI+AR experience through the combination of devices and clouds.
The migration from traditional mobile phone chips, wearable chips to low-power AR glasses chips is an inevitable trend in the market, and in addition to Thunderbird innovation, 2024 is expected to see more all-in-one AR glasses based on the AR1 Gen1 platform.
(b) Same full-color microled, different FOV size
In addition to performance and power consumption, another core focus of AR glasses is near-eye display optics.
In terms of optics, although "Lite" focuses on lightweight AR glasses, while doing subtraction, the core AR optical engine is quietly increasing. From the perspective of hardware parameters,Compared with the previous generation,ThunderbirdX2 Lite has not undergone essential changes in the optical scheme,It is still a binocular full-color MicroLED+diffractive optical waveguide,But on the FOV,ThunderbirdX2 Lite has made the binocular FOV reach 30 degrees through optical optimization。
In the absence of iteration of the full-color microLED light engine and the basic unchanged of the overall visual effect, the author guesses that it may be the improvement of the underlying process technology (such as nanoimprint technology, glass materials, etc.), which makes the refractive index of the optical waveguide increase, so that its FOV can be made larger, so as to improve the final AR imaging effect.
In fact, for near-eye display optics, there are huge difficulties with every increase in FOV. Manufacturers need to consider not only the refractive index of waveguides of different materials (such as the refractive index of the glass wafer itself), but also the grating structure (such as whether to do partition control), waveguide structure (single-layer, multi-layer), and even the process of making waveguides (nanoimprint, etching).
In addition, based on the current full-color microLED color scheme, the VSYNC (frame synchronization signal) and other problems brought about by it are believed that it will also be further optimized in the first hardware products, and it is expected that the product will be officially met in Q3 2024.
Finally, VR Gyro Thunderbird X2 & Thunderbird X2 Lite Parameter Comparison Chart for reference:
Source: VR Gyroscope.
In addition to the all-in-one AR glasses Thunderbird X2 Lite, Thunderbird Innovations also showcased the split XR glasses Thunderbird Air 2 at CES 2024.
As pointed out in the previous VR gyro 2023 AR trend, although the all-in-one AR glasses with MicroLED+ optical waveguide have ushered in great development, the Birdbath freeform split AR glasses cannot be ignored, and they are still the main force in the consumer market.
At this CES 2024, Xreal brought a new split XR glasses, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra, which introduces a titanium ring bezel and weighs 80g;Nimo Planet also showcased the Nimo Glass set, a portable spatial computing device, and the mobile host box is showing its unique charm, and after the Vision Pro sample, "split connection" is gradually being accepted by manufacturers, and it is not impossible to replace spatial computing based on OST.
Of course, for this type of glasses, it's more about the improvement of the optical system and the headset experience. At CES 2024, the Thunderbird Air 2 was also unveiled overseas, and as an example, it was equipped with a 055''The Microoled+Birdbath optical solution supports a 120Hz refresh rate, and the glasses weigh only 76g without cables, which is 11g lighter than the previous generation.
As an entertainment and movie-watching glasses product, the Thunderbird Air series also expands the game scene on the Thunderbird Air 2. With JoyDock, an exclusive accessory for Switch, you can charge your glasses and Nintendo Switch at the same time, so you can enjoy handheld entertainment in your AR glasses.
For domestic manufacturers, participating in the world's largest overseas consumer electronics show, displaying new products is not only a show of brand technology, but also a publicity and marketing for overseas, which is conducive to the operation of the global market.
AI is still a hot topic at CES 2024, and large models have really moved from show parameters to landing, and scene applications have become the common direction of everyone.
Riding the tide of AI models, traditional PCs, smartphones, and smart homes, which have already reached the top of the market, have ushered in the next round of real "intelligent" transformation. A number of research institutions have ** that in 2024, AI+PC and mobile phones will revolutionize the consumer market.
For head-mounted AR glasses, the empowerment of AI large models, to a certain extent, its "value" even exceeds that of traditional PCs, smartphones and other products. It is not only a content generation tool, a natural conversation tool, with the help of TTS deep integration with the system, it is also a human-computer interaction tool, for the current relatively scarce content, limited interaction AR glasses, it brings a subversive experience improvement.
At present, products including Meizu MyVU series, Thunderbird X2, ArkNOVV A1, Li Weike Meta Lens S3 and other products have integrated AI large models, and it is believed that the trend of AI convergence will continue to spread in the next year.
Previously, at the FBEC 2023 held by Gyro Technology, Li Hongwei, founder and CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, also pointed out that AI large models will bring new scenarios and new products, and AR glasses are the best carrier of AI. The information interaction of AR glasses is highly consistent with the human sensory system, with the natural advantage of "seeing what you see, hearing what you hear, in front of your eyes, and in your ears", providing a natural interaction without feeling. The deep integration of AI and AR glasses can make AR glasses become the user's real-time "external brain", which can adapt to more scenarios and become an extension of the user's capabilities.
It is worth noting that on AR glasses, the manifestation of the AI large model is not a traditional APP form, nor is it by any means the AR glasses version of ChatGPT, such a transplant is meaningless, and does not meet the product definition of AR glasses with an efficient and technological sense.
For example, Thunderbird Innovation's recently released self-developed AI large model voice assistant Rayneo AI (Beat Version), which goes directly to the system layer and becomes an interactive way and a content generation method. On the basis of the traditional voice assistant function, it can realize natural language dialogue with context understanding, itinerary planning, convenient encyclopedia Q&A, brainstorming and other capabilities.
If it is a traditional app, the operation cost on AR glasses will be higher, not only does it require users to click twice, but it also cannot directly call the functions of the system layer in the form of voice commands, which has many limitations.
For the use of specific hardware and specific user scenarios, vendors integrating AI large models usually require data training with specific capabilities, so when the official released Rayneo AI, the official said that it adopted the large model central control platform developed by Thunderbird Innovation. In fact, this is equivalent to entering a large number of prompts in advance, and all upload and release data must pass through the central control platform, which is convenient for manufacturers to monitor and tune AI large models, and desensitize and manage user interaction data safely.
Thunderbird Innovation told VR Gyroscope that the essence of central control is to be able to assemble and coordinate algorithm services from different manufacturers, quickly iterate customized AI services, and at the same time ensure user privacy and security.
Based on the self-developed large model central control platform, Thunderbird Innovation also plans to provide users with data context (long-term memory) services in the future, bringing a more personalized and unique AI experience.
At the same time, multimodal AI capabilities will be introduced in the future, enabling AI to interact with users in a variety of ways through core sensors such as first-view cameras, breaking through natural language conversations. Including but not limited to speech recognition, AI image recognition and other technologies, further improving the human-computer interaction ability and practical value of AR glasses.
The combination of AI+AR is driven by the times and required by the product itself, which will help accelerate the AR glasses consumer market.
Chinese XR brands are collectively going overseas to compete in CES 2024, and domestic innovation is making waves in the exploration of "next-generation computing platforms".
At CES 2024, we saw the "extreme challenge" of Thunderbird's innovation - Thunderbird X2 Lite, the biggest highlight of this hardware is that it undertakes so many displays, AI performance, and multi-camera sensing configurations at the same time, and the weight of glasses is about 60g, the form of ordinary glasses.
If the Thunderbird X2 is the ultimate hardware that explores the optical display and performance of AR glasses, then the Thunderbird X2 Lite is a consumer-grade AR glasses designed to balance headset design, performance and battery life, and optical reality, the latter focusing more on lightweight, portable, comfortable wear, and providing a more AI-friendly and convenient AR experience.
Finally, I borrowed a sentence from the recent high-scoring domestic TV series "Flowers" and sent it to XR's dreamers: "The goal is never far away, step by step, day by day." Just give it your all, and leave the rest to time. ”