CES 2022 has just passed, and as in previous years, AR/VR products and technologies are the focus of attention. Although the scale of this year's exhibition has been controlled, there are still XR products and brands that are worth paying attention to, and Thunderbird Innovation is one of the representatives.
At the CES 2022 conference, Thunderbird Innovation released two new self-developed smart glasses: NXTWEAR AIR and LEINIAO AR, the former is micro OLED + polarized BirdBath optical solution, the latter is a more forward-looking binocular full-color MicroLED + holographic optical waveguide combination, both products are launched in China under the Thunderbird brand, and there are many highlights, let's take a look at it together.
The first binocular full-color Micro LED holographic optical waveguide AR glasses
LEINIAO AR, the overseas version of the Pioneer Edition of Thunderbird Smart Glasses, which was released in China in October 2021. This AR glasses is characterized by the use of full-color Micro LED + holographic optical waveguide solution, from micro-display, optical module, and then to the design of the whole machine have innovations, but also represents the direction of high-end lightweight AR glasses in the next few years.
In terms of optical solutions, Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition took the lead in realizing the binocular full-color MicroLED micro-display, combined with a single-layer holographic optical waveguide module, which is also a breakthrough in the industry.
First of all, thanks to the early investment and layout in Micro LED microdisplay technology, Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition has become the industry's first AR glasses with bi-binocular full-color Micro LED holographic optical waveguides, which will be expanded below.
Secondly, in order to further reduce the weight of AR glasses, Thunderbird Innovation uses a single-layer holographic optical waveguide on the optical module, and the field of view angle reaches 40 degrees, which is at the first-line level. We know that the advantages of optical waveguide modules are light weight, good light transmittance, and light waveguide modules that achieve full-color display through two or three layers of structures.
Not only that, from the perspective of lightweight factors, Thunderbird Innovation uses a single-layer holographic optical waveguide. Although the advantages of the Micro LED solution are obvious, there are also challenges at present, mainly in terms of coupling with holographic optical waveguides. 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 combines high refractive index glass wafers to achieve better transmission efficiency, especially large angle light, and ultimately brings excellent display results to the combination of full-color Micro LED and single-layer holographic optical waveguide.
In terms of hardware parameters, Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition positioning is a lightweight AR glasses all-in-one machine, and the lightweight setting has higher requirements for each part. It is reported that the machine is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 chip, which can achieve a balance between performance and power consumption.
In terms of functions and application scenarios, because of the characteristics of full-color display and light weight, thunderbird smart glasses pioneer version can achieve more interesting gameplay, and will successively realize information prompts, photo translation, IoT intelligent linkage, photo sharing, multi-screen mode, real-life translation, car mirror linkage and other functions in the future.
It can be seen that the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition positioning ultra-lightweight level, not only the glasses themselves are light and stylish enough, solving many problems that were difficult to coexist with "light" and "clear" before, 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.
Preemptive layout of Micro LEDs to show results
The advantage of Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition is that it is the first to combine the binocular full-color Micro LED with the holographic optical waveguide solution and launch the official product. The core behind this is derived from the preemptive layout of Thunderbird Innovation in the direction of Micro LED. It is reported that the Pioneer Edition of Thunderbird Smart Glasses adopts its own "full-color micro-display engine", and the advantage is that it can take into account both brightness and power consumption.
Due to its self-luminous, high brightness, high color gamut, high saturation, high resolution, fast response and other characteristics, Micro LED imaging quality is excellent, and it can also be said that it is an important technical direction for high-end AR glasses in the future. At present, including Meta, Apple, etc. have increased investment or acquisition of Micro LED, which shows that the industry is optimistic about this technical direction.
You may have seen other AR glasses based on micro LED solutions before, but almost all of them are single green display solutions, and you can fully imagine that the monochrome display solution is very different from full color in the actual experience, especially on vision-based AR/VR devices. The main reason is that the current Micro LED technology and process are not yet mature, and the single green solution has better cost and manufacturing advantages, but it is very difficult to achieve RGB full color. First, the Micro LED yield problem involves a huge transfer process, the accuracy requirements are extremely high, as well as the assembly process, LED yield, heat accumulation and other issues; the second is the full-color Micro LED solution in the wavelength consistency requirements are higher, as well as different technical paths under the subdivision problem, such as color control, color conversion, etc.
Even at present, AR glasses based on Micro LED are still in the early stages, but Thunderbird Innovation has achieved the first layout in the industry. With the advantages in Micro LED and holographic optical waveguide technology, Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition has gained a lot in this CES, and not only a large number of participants have queued up at the CES event site to understand and consult, but also overseas media such as Washington Post and CNET have followed up. As CNET commented: "Although the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition is still only a prototype, they still realize the vision that other technology companies have worked hard for many years but have not yet realized." ”
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 XR glasses companies in the past two years, and there are some different ways to play in product form, while NXTWEAR AIR has made great changes in lightweight, clear and fashionable.
In appearance, NXTWEAR AIR uses 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. Front lens lenses are available in multiple versions to meet the individual needs of the user. Because of the transparent characteristics, you can see the virtual screen and the surrounding environment when wearing, and the sun-colored lenses can protect privacy and have transparency, such as watching movies comfortably during high-speed rail journeys, and you can also see people around you to ensure safety.
The lightweight aspect is also very noteworthy, and the standard version behind the front end lens weighs only 75g, which is currently the lightest XR glasses in the industry based on the BB scheme.
The stylish appearance and lightweight design are designed to ensure the comfort of long-term wearing, and the prerequisite is visual clarity. In terms of optics, NXTWEAR AIR is equipped with two Micro OLED micro-displays with a resolution of 1920×1080, combined with a BB module can bring a Full HD viewing experience equivalent to 140 inches at a distance of 4 meters.
It is not difficult to see that the main function of NXTWEAR AIR is still to watch movies, support 2D and 3D modes, and can be connected with smartphones, tablets, computers and other devices that support DP. 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.
Through these two new products, let us realize the technical strength of the Thunderbird innovation team, which has accumulated rich experience in display, AI technology, human-computer interaction, etc., and has also launched a layout in video, games and other scenarios, including technical investment, content ecological cooperation, etc., and the advantages accumulated over the years are emerging.
In fact, Thunderbird Innovation has actively laid out XR technology research and development many years ago, and the first XR glasses NXTWEAR G developed by the team has been sold in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the United States and other places, and has achieved considerable results. With a compact pace to promote the iteration of AR products with different optical routes, Thunderbird Innovation, a cutting-edge AR brand, should not be underestimated.