Machine Hearts released
Machine Heart Editorial Department
Has the AR industry reached an inflection point where it needs a dedicated chip? Recently, the news that Rokid and Anmou Technology have jointly made cores has thrown this topic into the industry spotlight.
introduction
In 2017, just as Apple was reaping the fruits of its success with its self-developed chips in the iPhone and Apple Watch, its Mac products encountered bottlenecks in the process of performance optimization and upgrade.
Since joining Apple, chip engineer Slugee has been working to design chips based on the specific needs of Apple devices, rather than using chips that meet common requirements.
At the time, Sluge launched a risky project: replacing the Intel processors apple laptops and desktops they had used for 15 years with a self-developed M1 chip.
This decision, which shocked the PC industry, not only gave Apple a huge lead over other competitors, but also laid the foundation for its entry into potential future products such as automobiles and VR.
The AR industry is about to open the road of dedicated chips, will it continue the myth of Apple's game-breaking?
Universal chips in the mobile era
Can't hold up the future of AR glasses
From the plane interaction of mobile phones to the virtual reality interaction of VR, and then to the virtual and real fusion interaction of AR, the demand for chip computing power at each level is growing exponentially.
Meta's Oculus focuses on VR scenes, and the requirements for chip computing power are much higher than those of mobile phones, but the volume of VR devices is relatively larger than THAT of AR, and the demand for chip power consumption and volume is not urgent.
Microsoft's Hololens focuses on the use of specific AR scenarios, rather than daily wear, so in theory, as long as the head is within the load-bearing range, the chip can be continuously added to meet its functional needs. Even so, in the third generation of products, Hololens has also joined hands with Samsung to start customizing chips.
In 2012, Google Glass, which adopted a prism scheme, achieved a lightweight level of 50g, but the information display was limited, the screen imaging effect was not ideal, and it could not meet the diverse scene needs of the C-end.
Rokid Air AR glasses.
In 2021, Rokid launched the ROKID Air, an AR glasses with a weight of 83g, leading the industry to a big step in lightweight. But there's still room to go before the weight of a pair of glasses you wear every day.
The current mainstream chip solution for AR glasses on the market; the current common "chip building mode" not only brings a larger PCB area, but also causes higher power consumption and a larger wearing size.
Comparable to the weight of a pair of sunglasses, providing the ultimate interactive experience to meet the needs of daily wear, I believe this is the future evolution direction of AR glasses. However, it is clear that the current general-purpose chips can no longer meet the development needs of future portable AR glasses in terms of processing power, power consumption and performance.
Chips in the PC and mobile eras can no longer support future-proof AR glasses.
According to the research agency, the shipment of AR glasses products will reach a new high point in 2025.
Future-proof AR glasses
New heterogeneous chip design
With the prevalence of meta-universe, as one of the largest chip design IP development and service providers in China, It is not surprising that Anmou Technology has been involved in meta-universe chips.
It is reported that the special chip to be developed by Rokid and Anmou Technology will adopt a heterogeneous design scheme with high integration, small package, low power consumption, low latency and high performance to improve the quality of image and sensor data and achieve a better AR experience. It is expected that the overall power consumption of this AR chip will be several hundred milliwatts, and the size will be the size of the small thumb nail cover.
Rokid will empower at the OS (YodaOS-XR) and algorithmic engines (SLAM, gestures, digital people, etc.) to bet on truly lightweight, comfortable augmented reality AR eyewear products for the future.
It is worth noting that this custom AR chip is not only a simple integration of several small chips, but also through the low-latency design of the chip pipeline, it accelerates the reading, transmission and processing of data, and quickly transfers all data to Rokid Station or mobile phone to complete calculations to ensure better real-time performance, such as SLAM requires lower MTP (motion to photon) latency.
Brave ar to create a "core" no man's land
Where's Rokid?
"First and foremost, if we do, can we offer a better product?" Speaking about the debate over Apple's M1 chip, Sluge said, "That's the number one issue. This has nothing to do with the chip. Apple is not a chip company. ”
Compared with the manufacturers who crossed the border into the chip field, it is more natural for AR glasses manufacturers to launch their own chips.
Xiaobian noted that as early as 2018, Rokid released its self-developed AI chip KAMINO18, which is close to the size of the 1 yuan coin. At that time, the general purpose chips were all COMPUTED, but Rokid creatively chose to use heterogeneous methods to improve performance.
Rokid CEO Misa revealed at the time: "Rokid does not make money through chips, rokid is not to make chips as a starting point, because for us, people in the industry know that the profit of chips is particularly low, just because there is no need in the market, so we do it, if there is one on the market I will use it." Rokid is not a chip company, but a human-computer interaction technology company, and Rokid's chips will also add machine vision capabilities in the future. ”
In 2018, Rokid chose an AI chip with integrated DSP to achieve an order of magnitude improvement in processing voice algorithms; the algorithm for customizing NPU to complete deep learning and neural networks is 30 to 50 times more efficient than simply using THE CPU.
After 4 years, the growing startup is once again creating the myth of AR chips on human-computer interaction products.
In the face of the shortcut of "take-ism", why does Rokid dare to take the "difficult and dangerous road" of self-developed chips?
The first is the mature experience derived from its product iteration and scene landing. 2021 is the first year of the meta-universe, but in the AR segment, Rokid has been working hard for at least 5 years, with a complete solution from hardware to software, from the technical bottom to the application scenario.
In 2017, Rokid developed a prototype of AR glasses.
To date, Rokid has four AR devices for mass production and large-scale applications: infrared temperature glasses Rokid Glass, split array optical waveguide AR glasses Rokid Glass 2, one-piece industrial AR headband Rokid X-Craft, and consumer-grade AR glasses Rokid Air. It includes a variety of equipment forms from monocular to binocular, from integrated to split, from industrial to consumer, covering a variety of scenes such as oil and gas, electricity, automobile, epidemic prevention, cultural tourism exhibition, retail, and individual consumers.
The accumulation of these experiences makes Rokid's judgment of the market demand and development trend of AR products more accurate, which can provide a more reasonable solution for chip design.
The second is the tight coupling of "self-developed chip + autonomous OS". Chips cannot evolve in isolation, and a high degree of synergy between hard and soft can maximize computing performance. Prior to this, Rokid had developed its own operating system for AR glasses, YodaOS-XR.
It is a cross-platform operating system that supports multimodal interaction. For Rokid, its own chip is equipped with its own OS and software ecology, the performance of the system and algorithm will be optimal, the power consumption and interaction latency of AR glasses can be further reduced, bringing a more extreme user experience at the same time, the autonomy and imagination space of product innovation will be infinite.
Build barriers to future competition
Complete the last piece of the ecological puzzle
From 2020 onwards, the world is deeply mired in the crisis of "lack of cores", Chinese technology companies realize that the taste of being "stuck in the neck" in cutting-edge and core technology fields is not good, and car companies, mobile phone manufacturers, and Internet manufacturers have plunged into the "core- building" track one after another.
The emerging AR industry also hangs a "sword of Damocles" hanging high above its head.
Standing at the window of the meta-universe, Rokid preemptively embarked on the pioneering road of AR core making, and used "self-developed chip + OS" to create a product moat. Independent research and development of one hard and one soft has become the core of grasping the initiative of scientific and technological competition.
Of course, the current competition in the XR field will become more and more intense, and although the Internet and mobile phone giants have not officially entered the game, they do not rule out the possibility of full entry.
As a pioneer in the industry, Rokid did not evade this problem, but laid out the first chess on the "ecological map" early.
This self-developed chip in Rokid's territory may mean the last link in the ecological chain, and it is also the most critical link. At this point, Rokid will form a complete ecosystem of "chip + operating system + algorithm engine + platform + hardware" to further strengthen the barriers to product competition.
From the perspective of the industry, this chip, as the beginning of AR core manufacturing, will accumulate valuable experience for the iteration and upgrading of subsequent AR chips. Rokid's understanding of AR products, technologies, users, markets, and the industry and ecosystem as a whole will also be delivered to partners through the landing of this chip.
With the "core" action of Rokid and Anmou Technology, will the meta-universe industry stand on the acceleration period? We'll see.