Whether it's AR or VR, an important key is "display". During CES 2022, it is also an important node for the release of AR and VR products and technologies, in addition to the actions of XR companies, the actions of upstream manufacturers in the display field are also worthy of attention, and TCL is the representative of the past two years.
According to Qingting Network, TCL began to explore XR technology many years ago, and TCL NXTWEAR G smart glasses were released on MWC 2021, actively laying out in the direction of lightweight XR glasses.
At this year's CES 2022 conference, TCL once again released two new smart glasses products: TCL NXTWEAR AIR and TCL LEINIAO AR, the former for micro OLED+ polarized BirdBath optical solution, the latter for MicroLED+ optical waveguide. It is understood that both products are independently developed by Thunderbird Innovation, an AR cutting-edge company jointly incubated by TCL Electronics (01070.HK) and TCL Industry. There are many highlights, let's take a look.
TCL NXTWEAR AIR
The lightest polarized BirdBath solution, the whole machine is only 75g
As we all know, BirdBath Optical Solution (referred to as BB) with its advantages in display effect, cost, weight, etc., has been favored by AR glasses companies in the past two years, and there are some different ways to play in product form, and the ultimate purpose is to look stylish, light body, and clear vision.
TCL NXTWEAR AIR can not only be seen as an iterative upgrade of the TCL NXTWEAR G launched during MWC last year, but also can be said to be one of the representative models of the BirdBath program, because it has changed greatly in terms of light weight, clarity and fashion.
First of all, the appearance, TCL NXTWEAR AIR uses a black appearance and front lens, the lens not only has a variety of collocations, the visual effect is also very light, the overall appearance is very close to the sunglasses shape, daily wear will not look too abrupt.
Secondly, the lightweight aspect is also very noteworthy. The standard version of the TCL NXTWEAR AIR plus front lens weighs 75g, which is currently the lightest XR glasses in the industry based on the BB solution.
The purpose of stylish appearance and lightweight design is to ensure the comfort of long-term wearing, and another basis for long-term wearing is visual clarity. In terms of optics, TCL NXTWEAR AIR is equipped with two Micro OLED micro-displays with a resolution of 1920×1080, combined with a BB module can bring a 4-meter distance equivalent to 140 inches of ultra-clear movie viewing experience.
It is not difficult to see that the main function of TCL NXTWEAR AIR is still to watch movies, but with excellent portability, especially the smaller storage space after the mirror leg is folded, it solves the contradiction between the large screen of electronic devices and the portability of the past, just like the smart phone, you can "put the theater in your pocket", the experience is very different.
Front end lenses are available in multiple versions to meet the individual needs of the user. At the same time, because XR glasses have transparent characteristics, when wearing, they also see the virtual large screen and the surrounding environment at the same time, and the sun-colored lenses can protect privacy and have transparency, such as watching movies comfortably on high-speed rail, and can also see people around to ensure safety.
In terms of user experience, TCL NXTWEAR AIR supports both 2D and 3D viewing modes, and can be connected to DP-enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. Whether it is in the daily movie watching, game entertainment, or AR office have a good experience.
At the same time, TCL NXTWEAR AIR also won the Most Innovative Product Award from the authoritative body IDG. It is understood that this polarized BirdBath product will be listed globally in the first quarter of 2022, and will be released under the Thunderbird brand in China, please pay attention to the follow-up report of Qingting Network on product experience.
The first binocular full-color Micro LED holographic optical waveguide AR glasses
If BirdBath represents the exploration of fashion and lightweight for AR glasses at present, then AR glasses based on Micro LED+ optical waveguides represent the direction of high-end lightweight AR glasses in the next few years.
TCL LEINIAO AR, the domestic version is Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition, which was released in October 2021. This AR glasses is characterized by the use of Micro LED + holographic optical waveguide solution, from micro-display, optical module, and then to the whole machine design have innovations.
In terms of optical solutions, although several companies have announced AR glasses based on Micro LED and optical waveguide, the optical machine is almost a single green solution, and TCL LEINIAO AR is a full-color solution, which is also the industry's first AR glasses with a bi-binocular full-color Micro LED + holographic optical waveguide solution. TCL and Thunderbird innovation combined with its own "full-color micro-display engine" in brightness and power consumption to balance, because of its self-luminous, high brightness, high color gamut and other characteristics, excellent imaging quality, Micro LED can also be said to be an important technical direction of high-end AR glasses in the future. At present, including Meta, Apple, etc. have invested or acquired in Micro LED, we can also see the importance of this technical direction.
TCL LEINIAO AR
Micro LED solutions have obvious advantages, but there are also challenges at present, mainly in terms of coupling with holographic optical waveguides. Because of lightweight considerations, Thunderbird innovation uses a single-layer diffractive holographic optical waveguide. The design of single-layer gratings is full of difficulties, so Thunderbird innovates its self-developed light wave coupling analysis and optimization algorithm, develops a special grating structure, and continuously optimizes to achieve a balance in vision, optical efficiency and mass production. At the same time, it is combined with high refractive index glass wafers to achieve better transmission efficiency, especially for light at large angles. In the end, the full-color Micro LED is paired with a single-layer diffractive holographic optical waveguide to achieve a good display effect.
In terms of functions and application scenarios, TCL LEINIAO AR can achieve more interesting applications because of its lightweight and full-color characteristics, and will successively realize information prompts, photo translation, IoT intelligent linkage, photo sharing, multi-screen mode, real-life translation, car mirror linkage and other gameplay in the future.
It can be seen that TCL LEINIAO AR positioning ultra-lightweight level, not only the glasses themselves are light and fashionable enough, to solve the previous "light" and "clear" difficult to coexist many problems, and the goal is mass production, so this kind of full-color Micro LED + holographic optical waveguide solution products are very worth looking forward to.
Previously, we reported that Thunderbird Innovation was jointly incubated by TCL Electronics and TCL Industry, focusing on AR business. On the one hand, TCL has accumulated rich experience in the field of display, AI technology, human-computer interaction and IoT devices such as mobile phones and smart screens, and maintains a leading position in supply chain and production technology; at the same time, Thunderbird itself has also launched a layout in video, games and other scenarios, including technical investment, content ecological cooperation, etc.
In fact, the Thunderbird innovation team actively laid out XR technology research and development before independence, including VR equipment, and achieved the fifth place in global VR sales in 2017. In 2018, the ar core technology began to be laid out, and the first XR glasses TCL NXTWEAR G has been sold in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the United States and other places. The two smart glasses released this time will also be released under the Thunderbird brand in China. Just a few months after its establishment, Thunderbird Innovation is promoting the iteration of AR products on different optical routes at a compact pace, and this cutting-edge AR brand should not be underestimated.