Text/VR Gyro Pancake
After competing for CES 2022 and using an ultra-thin binocular full-color holographic holographic light waveguide AR glasses to make a splash, Thunderbird Innovation has recently made a new move. In addition to the C-end market, Thunderbird Innovation also has reserves on the B-side.
Source: Thunderbird Innovation
Recently, Thunderbird Innovation announced a strategic cooperation with the industrial Internet platform Gechuang Dongzhi, the two sides will cooperate on the application of AR technology and products in the industrial field, expand the application integration of AR smart glasses in remote collaboration, remote training, remote inspection, remote installation, data intelligence and analysis, warehousing and logistics management, smart conference and many other scenarios, boost the digitalization and intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry, and empower the construction of smart factories.
As a leading enterprise in China's industrial Internet industry, Gechuang Dongzhi was selected as one of the top 15 in IDC's "China Industrial Internet Platform Vendor Evaluation Report" in 2021.
The cooperation between Thunderbird Innovation and Gechuang Dongzhi is a complement between AR hardware and industrial Internet platform, which closely combines the AR supply chain with the B-end market and is expected to further exert its own advantages.
AR empowers industrial production
According to public information, Gechuang Dongzhi is one of the leading industrial Internet platform enterprises in China, focusing on advanced manufacturing, and its products cover industrial Internet platforms and applications, industrial software and solutions. Its products are widely used in semiconductor, 3C electronics, new energy, intelligent vehicles and other industries in the production and manufacturing, operation management, energy saving and emission reduction, quality control and other fields.
Based on this cooperation, Thunderbird Innovation AR glasses will be an important part of Gechuang Dongzhi's "Industrial Internet" solution, and the products will participate in the industrial production process to achieve efficient connection between the production site and the back end. In addition to industrial production, Thunderbird Innovation will also work with Gechuang Dongzhi to jointly expand scenarios such as aviation aircraft, road vehicle maintenance, and petroleum and chemical training.
Specifically, in the process of standardized operation, Thunderbird AR glasses can provide real-time operation tips and normative guidance for front-line workers in the form of "virtual and real superposition" to reduce the error rate of manual operation. In the daily equipment inspection, it can provide real-time information feedback and fault reminders for the inspection personnel, improve the efficiency and accuracy of the inspection, and reduce labor costs.
If you encounter a more difficult problem to solve, you can also contact remote experts in real time, through the front camera module of glasses, experts can get the first view of employees, so as to help employees better solve problems.
In addition, AR glasses can also be used as a carrier for employee skills training and work meetings, helping workers to achieve multi-regional multi-person collaboration. In the post-epidemic era, the holding of business trips and large-scale conferences can be described as many obstacles, and home work has gradually become normalized, and the remote features such as cross-regional collaboration possessed by AR glasses are expected to become the future standard of meta-universe conferences.
At present, Thunderbird's innovative smart glasses products mainly include Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition and Thunderbird Air, the former is a one-piece machine product of the binocular full-color Micro LED + holographic optical waveguide solution, and the latter is a Micro OLED+ polarized BirdBath solution XR product, with a standard version of the front lens weighing only 75g.
Thunderbird's two smart glasses products are using a more advanced optical system solution, both products are mainly lightweight, compared with the traditional head-mounted AR equipment bulky product form, Thunderbird innovative product series at the same time take into account the functionality and portability, in the rich content ecology of the blessing, can provide more comfortable and intelligent digital experience for industrial production.
Embark on the era of digitalization and Industry 4.0
In fact, the To B market of AR smart glasses is not a new thing, including Microsoft, Magic Leap and other star companies' products are deeply rooted in the B-end market, and are actively cooperating with industrial, medical, military, security and other industrial enterprises.
Last year, Microsoft announced that it had received 120,000 sets of HoloLens custom orders from the U.S. Army, with a contract value of up to 21.88 billion US dollars - this matter once became a benchmark for AR industry applications, and also ignited new hopes for AR manufacturers for the B-end market.
Thunderbird Innovation's entry at this time seems to coincide with the opportunity of the times. On the one hand, the exploration of AR glasses in the B-end market has many global cases, the understanding of AR by enterprises has become more and more in-depth, and the supply chain has reached a relatively mature and mass-produced stage.
On the other hand, with the trend of the times of Industry 4.0, the concept of national "new infrastructure", the development of cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, traditional industries are gradually transforming into "industrial Internet", and production and manufacturing are more precise, standardized and visualized than ever before. As an important part of the "Industrial Internet", the commercialization of AR smart glasses has considerable practical value.
Image source: Network
In May 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "'5G + Industrial Internet' Ten Typical Application Scenarios and Five Key Industry Practices", the full text mentioned AR 17 times and pointed out the role of AR in promoting production.
In December last year, the state issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" digital economy development plan notice clearly pointed out that by 2025, the digital economy will move towards a period of full expansion, and the added value of the core industries of the digital economy will account for 10% of GDP. To this end, it is necessary to vigorously promote the digital transformation of the industry, guide enterprises to strengthen digital thinking, improve the digital skills and data management capabilities of employees, and comprehensively and systematically promote the digital transformation of enterprise research and development design, production and processing, operation management, sales and service.
AS one of the important technologies to accelerate the digital transformation of Industry 4.0 and traditional enterprises, VR and AR technologies are shining in various industries. According to Perkins Coie statistics, the penetration rate of VR/AR in medical health, education, labor training, and manufacturing scenarios has exceeded 20% in 2021, of which the penetration rate of medical health is as high as 38%. In the public security, smart city, tourism exhibition and other sectors also have great potential space.
Benefiting from the development of the industry chain for many years, VR/AR is now playing an important role in the process of helping enterprises digitally transform, and Thunderbird is now stepping on the cusp of this era.
epilogue
Of course, the layout of the B side does not mean that the C side is abandoned. Looking back at the current consumer-grade AR glasses market, there are very few products, and factors such as single green optical machine, split form, single function, and expensive price have become the main factors restricting the sales explosion of the C-end.
In the C-end market, there is no strong demand, and the supply chain has not really reached the "low price" level, ar hardware manufacturers are obviously more risky. Therefore, taking into account That B on the one hand can expand the business and bring stable cash flow, and can also continue to polish the product and technical team in the exploration of the B side to prepare for the coming consumer market.
Relying on the comprehensive strength of Thunderbird Innovation in the full link of product hardware, software and application, coupled with the new strategic partner Gechuang Dongzhi, Thunderbird Innovation is activating a new round of domestic AR industry application market, continuously expanding the application scenarios of AR smart glasses, and providing "acceleration" for smart production and industrial Internet construction.