Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

What new dramas did everyone chase on National Day? Which old plays have you reviewed?

As one of Marvel fans, I always feel empty if I don't use the Marvel series for a long holiday. Among the Marvel heroes, the author likes Iron Man best, and his favorite equipment is the on-call "Jarvis". Who doesn't like Jarvis's control panel? In the high-tech augmented reality panel, the real-time display of all kinds of analytical data mainly depends on AR.

In reality, AR has been widely used in medicine, education, industry and other fields. However, consumer-oriented AR devices have been tepid.

Readers familiar with the smart glasses market may still remember how AR smart glasses went from frenzied pursuit to desertion. After the cold winter of 2017, during the quiet years of the market, in addition to the manufacturers scattered like birds and animals, many manufacturers who stayed at the card table chose to focus on the B-end scene to save themselves. For example, Google smart glasses re-launched in 2017, sold to health care, factories and other enterprises. Domestic Liangfeng platform, rokid and other enterprises provide solutions under specific scenarios for B-side and G-side, and the core is to reduce cost and increase efficiency for enterprises. The consumer-grade AR glasses are silent and almost disappear.

In the past two years, under the tuyere of meta-universe, consumer-grade AR glasses have returned to sight again. Especially this year, the consumer-grade AR glasses market is obviously much more lively. There are many new consumer-grade AR glasses on the market, which makes people feel that the spring of AR glasses is coming.

Why are consumer-grade AR glasses coming out again? Will the revived consumer-grade AR glasses repeat the same mistakes as the last round of evolution?

Before discussing the revival of AR glasses, let's take a look at the reasons why the last round of consumer AR glasses disappeared from the market, so that we can better understand the reasons for this renaissance. The last round of consumer-grade AR glasses died down, mainly due to technology, experience, scene, ethics and other constraints. In the stage of mass promotion of consumer-grade AR glasses, head manufacturers in the market focus on the smooth interaction of AR glasses in the promotion of Demo. In Demo, consumers can achieve various functions such as shooting, navigation, search, communication and so on through simple nodding, blinking and voice interaction. But in fact, the AR glasses delivered to consumers have become buyer's show and seller's show. The convenient interaction demonstrated in Demo has completely changed. Like blink shooting. Consumers in the scene or focus, need to constantly swing the head to focus, squint operation can be completed. And there is the situation of Catton, the interactive experience is poor. In the aspect of speech recognition interaction, the understanding ability and response speed are not very satisfactory. Considering the portability of the all-in-one machine, the design of AR glasses is also minimalist and simple. The chip and battery are wrapped in the mirror leg, and the power is limited. Because the interactive data processing ability is weak, the power consumption of the product is also very fast, and the battery life ability is poor.

Consumers are most looking forward to video conferencing and camera functions, which are boycotted by some consumers because of ethical factors. Because the design of the scene involves the risk of surveillance and privacy disclosure. In some large public places, there are even special signs to restrict the entry of AR glasses, resulting in a single function of AR glasses. These factors of technology, scene, ethics and experience make consumers'AR glasses die young before they are completely rolled out. AR glasses manufacturers are depressed in the C-end market, so they can only go to the B-end market to develop scenes and business.

However, after dormant for several years, consumer-grade AR glasses are making a hot comeback, driven by the east wind of meta-universe. Major manufacturers have restarted the engine of consumer-grade AR glasses.

"resurgence" in AR smart glasses, Google can be said to be a handy existence. The leap of the whale in the first generation of Google Glass Demo ten years ago is still unforgettable to countless people today. Ten years later, the second generation of Google Glass returned at the I / O conference, which is still amazing.

In May, Google unveiled its own AR glasses as a "one more thing" at the I / O conference. The AR glasses can translate more than 24 languages in real time, and users can see the translations of interlocutors in real time after wearing them, similar to the subtitle effect.

In addition to Google, other AR manufacturers also act frequently. In December 2021, OPPO released a smart glasses OPPO Air Glass, which provides a variety of interactive services for consumers.

Apple has also been revealed that it is working on AR glasses, and the new AR glasses are expected to be available in 2024. Xiaomi has launched AR glasses that mainly take pictures.

AR glasses manufacturers Rokid, bright vision, movie technology, Nreal, Thunderbird innovation and other capital favored start-ups, have consumer-grade AR glasses on the market this year.

In the market, there are more and more consumer AR glasses visible to the naked eye, what makes the consumer AR glasses market which has been silent for many years hot again?

1. The market of 2B side is limited, the requirement of scenario is high, and it is more and more difficult to implement, so new scenarios are needed to open business. Although the overall comprehensive requirements of the C side are higher than those of the B side, for the B side with a fixed scene, the requirements for AR glasses to achieve single-purpose or specific requirements are also increasing. B-side, AR glasses are mainly for security and industrial scenes. In the industrial scene, the landing of AR glasses considers the stable performance of AR glasses, whether it can play a stable and reliable performance in complex working conditions and harsh industrial environment.

In reality, the subdivision of the industrial scene is complex, the traditional data and model resources can not be directly applied to the AR scene, the workload of omni-directional modeling and detailed information is heavy, and the requirements for talents are high. At the same time, the requirements of AR glasses for the industrial environment are also higher. The environment of noisy, dusty and poor network signal will have an impact on the actual work of AR glasses. The requirements of the business scenarios on the B side are high and difficult to meet, and the scenarios that can be realized are limited. With the accumulation of technology and scenarios, it is necessary to expand the business to the C side.

two。 Bet on meta-universe, occupy the future. Meta-universe can be said to be the most fundamental reason why AR / VR is hot. In this future-oriented trend, many giants have invested a lot of resources and painstaking efforts. For example, Facebook specially renamed Meta, putting a large number of technologies and talents into the development and research of meta-universe. Meta-universe is considered to be the most valuable digital space in the future, and it is also the great opportunity that will bring about industrial change after the Internet. To grasp the value in the meta-universe is to occupy a place for the commercial value of the future. AR glasses, as a field close to the Yuan Universe, will also dance with this trend.

3. The recovery of the capital market. For the development of the industry, the tilt and investment of capital is an important "foodstuff" for the industry first. In the past two years, AR glasses have attracted special attention in the capital market. For example, start-up bright vision received 100 million yuan in financing at the beginning of 2021, rokid received 700 million yuan in financing, and film technology and Nreal each received tens of millions of dollars in investment in 2022. AR glasses manufacturers are favored by capital. Under the heavy investment, all kinds of consumer grade AR glasses are also on the market one after another.

With the promotion of VR glasses, film and television programs and mobile AR games, augmented reality has infiltrated into more and more people. In the post-era of universal market education, the link for AR glasses to reach the needs of users becomes shorter, and the acceptance and willingness of consumers have been significantly improved. In order to shorten the distance with consumers, AR glasses manufacturers have made obvious changes in the shape structure and application scene of glasses.

Lightweight structure and rich scene change consumer-grade AR glasses ushered in a new life, and there are many new changes in the shape structure and application scene. From the consumer-grade AR glasses launched by Google, OPPO, Nreal, Thunderbird Innovation, Rokid and other manufacturers, the functions and scenes have their own emphasis.

Looking back at the early AR glasses, cameras and some optical components exposed near the legs, the overall look was rough, and the abrupt lens put the wearer in an embarrassing position. In foreign countries, early AR glasses were banned from public places such as cafes, and people around them were afraid of revealing their privacy.

(OPPO AR glasses, photo source: official website) now the new AR glasses have been slimmed down as a whole, and the legs and frames hide almost all the components of chips, cameras and interactions. Lightweight design, cool appearance, without special instructions, like fashionable single sunglasses, can not only meet the needs of intelligent interaction, but also meet the needs of consumers for appearance. The shape and structure of sunglasses is the main style of most manufacturers, and some manufacturers find another way to choose a new form of structural expression. Such as OPPO monocular components, Xiaomi home dual-camera obvious AR photo glasses.

Whether it is integrated design or component design, the overall structure of glasses has become more portable. The upgrade of chip and optical display solution has greatly improved the experience of VR glasses. The high computing chip greatly improves the response speed of the interaction. The upgrade of the optical display scheme makes the color display of the new LED more uniform and easy to receive light.

In terms of scenes, the new consumer-grade AR glasses released in the past two years have added new scenes in the past functions such as navigation, notification reminders, prompts and so on. The main new scenes are giant screen viewing and instant translation, while some manufacturers choose to explore some special scenes, such as car and hearing impaired applications.

Thunderbird Innovation, a startup owned by TCL, and Nreal's AR glasses, a veteran player in the AR industry, both have the function of supporting giant screen viewing, and the portable giant screen viewing has become one of the sharp weapons for the popularity of consumer AR glasses in the market. Companies such as Google and OPPO are distinguished from other manufacturers by the ability of instant translation. Google can achieve real-time translation of 24 languages, and OPPO has also launched the translation function in Chinese and English. However, real-time subtitles appear in the glasses, and this exposed information also raises the risk of privacy disclosure.

In the on-board scene, some AR glasses manufacturers choose to work with the new forces of car building to contribute to the experience of the smart cockpit. For AR manufacturers, the car cockpit equipped with high-power chips and high-end audio, whether in navigation or the leisure function of the giant screen, can show the best results. In special hearing impaired scenes, AR glasses can let hearing impaired people see "sound" and establish a barrier-free communication platform for hearing impaired people to communicate with the outside world.

The main functions of consumer-grade AR glasses are the integration of various functions and solutions at the existing technical level. Manufacturers have been exploring new scenarios and are downwards compatible to focus on more suitable consumer scenarios.

Compared with consumer-grade VR glasses, the bigger difference between the two is the functional scene. VR glasses mainly focus on entertainment consumption, on this basis, AR glasses will extend more real-world scene applications, such as navigation, communications, meetings, photos, special communication and so on. VR glasses will be more used in home scenes, including watching movies and games. On the other hand, AR glasses are used more widely, not only for watching movie games, but also as a tool. This is also the main reason for the feelings of many geeks and consumers. Compared with the sunglasses of big brands, the consumption of several thousand yuan may make people feel a little bit sore. But if it is feature-rich and can compensate for features that other consumer electronics do not have, the price of 1000-3000 is enough to appeal to these geek players who are willing to try something new.

Whether as a novel wearable device to experience, or as a fashion item to play handsome, AR glasses have broken the previous image in the eyes of consumers. These thin behind the AR glasses are showing a lightweight state, to the consumer army.

Knocking on the door of Yuan Universe, the innovation of AR glasses in the functional scene and shape structure has made many consumers who want to try the first bite of "crab" pour into the major e-commerce platforms to pay for the novel experience. So will the new AR glasses attract more consumers for a long time? Or is it that, as in the past, the tuyere has passed and falls back into silence?

To discuss the future development of consumer AR glasses, the core is to clarify whether AR glasses can meet the rigid needs of consumers and whether they can solve the sticking points that affect the experience.

From the perspective of the application scenario, the purchasing power and experience of this part of the population covered by consumer AR glasses is the focus of attention.

For consumers, the function of entertainment can be replaced by all kinds of projectors, Pad, mobile phones, televisions and other screen hardware devices. In the face of real-time translation and on-board, special hearing impaired people and other scenes, the number of people covered behind them is more than 10 million. To serve the people in these special scenes, the market scale of consumer-grade AR glasses is still a bit interesting. But it would be a bit of a pipe dream to expect AR glasses to become a must-have consumer item like a mobile phone.

The most obvious defect of current AR glasses is that there is not enough rich content ecology as a support. In addition, in terms of size, power consumption and function, it is also difficult to get rid of the label of "lightweight". For example, it is difficult to balance the lightness and durability of the integrated design, while the split design is plagued by connecting lines, and so on.

Content, optics, chips and technology take a long time to polish. However, in the process of upgrading the ladder of products and technology, it will continue to release value to some consumers. The continuous improvement of AR glasses will bring value to some people, but not everyone. For takeout workers, future biking navigation will be very convenient to help them deliver food quickly. For some people with hearing impairment and car owners, the life experience of these people can be greatly improved. However, without the function or content of popular styles, it is still difficult to lead the consumer market.

On the basis of serving a good part of the population, honing the ability of insight into needs and scenes is the core of the survival of AR glasses manufacturers. In this way, when the meta-universe comes, we can still have the opportunity to collide with it to produce the flower of innovation. At that time, we may also see more ideas and products.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: brain Polar body (ID:unity007), by Yan Liang

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