Smart glasses promise to be the perfect complement to a smartphone in the not too distant future. Apple, for example, is developing its augmented reality viewer that could replace the iPhone in the next 10 years. Meanwhile, Xiaomi has already shown its prototype AR glasses. Now, it is Oppo's turn. The Asian company has announced at its annual conference the Oppo Air Glass , an “assisted reality” lens that stands out for its design and operation.
The Oppo Air Glass are, in part, augmented reality glasses, although Oppo prefers to call them assisted reality (aR) lenses . In part, because this device is designed as a complement to facilitate the user's day-to-day life. Unlike Xiaomi Smart Glasses or other AR viewers, the brain of the Air Glass is in a 30-gram module that is attached to the side of the frame and includes a microprojector capable of reflecting the content on a glass that is superimposed on the right lens of the glasses.
A curious detail of this module is that it can be extracted. Therefore, if a person does not need to use the assisted reality functions, but they do need the glasses (because they are prescription), they can simply remove the microprojector and reattach it whenever they want, since it works by means of a magnetic system.
The Oppo Air Glass and its star component: the Spark microprojector
The Oppo Air Glass module integrates all the necessary components for Oppo's assisted reality glasses to work. The one in charge of managing all the tasks is a SoC Snapdragon Wear 4100 , commonly used in smart watches. The visualization of the content in the lens of the glasses, on the other hand, is possible thanks to a microprojector called 'Spark' that has been developed internally by Oppo. This one, in particular, has micro LED technology capable of offering a brightness of up to 3 million nits .
The content is projected on a small multilayer sapphire glass lens and thanks to an optical diffraction waveguide capable of interpreting from 16 levels of gray scale for low light conditions, up to 256 levels. In the latter case, for greater clarity when viewing information outdoors or in settings with greater light.
What uses can be made of these assisted reality glasses?
Oppo highlights the possibility of obtaining relevant information , such as the weather, the calendar, notifications or even the possibility of translating from English to Chinese or vice versa. Another interesting feature of the Oppo Air Glass is the Teleprompter mode, which allows you to display text for speeches. Developers can also make their applications compatible to display information on Air Glass. Oppo, in fact, has partnered with platforms such as Baidu Walk & Bike Navigation, so that they are able to show the routes by bike or on foot through the glasses.
The user can interact with the Oppo Air Glass by voice or through a touch zone located on the side of the frame. The lens also detects head gestures to, for example, remove a notification by a slight turn of the face. Those users who have an OPPO Watch 2 can also use the watch as an intermediary to carry out tasks with hand gestures.
Oppo Air Glass will be available for purchase during the first quarter of 2022. For the moment, they will remain in the Asian market.
