What are the good VR/AR devices at CES Asia this year?

Manufacturer's article

Lenovo

Lenovo's entry into the fields of virtual reality and augmented reality is by no means just a joke. This can be seen from its involvement in the three major fields of VR, AR and MR.

Lenovo then worked with Google and HTC to create Google Daydream VR, and also demonstrated its MR equipment at the CES 2017 conference at the beginning of the year. In April this year, according to Ross Mack, a member of the Lenovo Insiders project team Ross McDougall revealed that this MR device has a resolution of 1440×1440, with 6 degrees of freedom inside-out tracking, is compatible with a large number of Win10 applications, and “is priced at US$399 and will be launched in August this year. Released in the month."

Thinking back to June 1st, Microsoft revealed more information about the Windows MR headsets it is cooperating with at the "Computex Taipei", including ASUS's MR headsets and Dell's new designs. At this year’s CES Asia, Qingting.com speculated that Lenovo is likely to reveal more news about this MR headset.

In addition, Lenovo has launched an AR mobile phone. This is nothing new. However, just two days ago at AWE, Lenovo once again made efforts in the AR field and announced a cooperation with Wikitude on Augmented Human. Cloud (AH Cloud) aims to improve the knowledge and capabilities of professionals in the industry and change the way they work by using AR, artificial intelligence and big data. Specifically, it uses LNV’s remote video application (Kepler), Wiki intelligent recognition engine and Markerles SLAM technology, workflow and 3D AR content editing tools (Titan), and deep learning recognition system (Martin) to create a fully integrated AR and AH cloud application platform, and then combined with Lenovo smart glasses to create an AR-supported Industry 4.0 device + cloud platform.

Lenovo is eager to gain its own status in this new era of VR/AR/MR. We can wait and see what happens.

Carl Zeiss

Carl Zeiss itself is an old optical company, and in the VR era, it wants to give full play to its advantages. Previously, Carl Zeiss released a mobile VR headset for mobile phones called VR One, but it did not cause much splash.

At the CES held in Las Vegas earlier this year, Zeiss and the Swiss computer vision company Dacuda it acquired (at the beginning of this year, foreign media revealed that Magic Leap acquired Dacuda’s 3D scanning department) demonstrated It launched the VR One Plus headset and announced a set of room-scale mobile VR solutions.

HTC VIVE

For HTC, this week should be both happy and disappointing. The disappointment is that as mentioned above, according to IDC statistics, the output of VR equipment in Q1 of 2017 According to the shipment statistics report, HTC Vive ranks third, behind Gear VR and Playstaion VR. Fortunately, at Apple’s annual WWDC conference held early this morning, Apple announced aggressively that it would make major strides into the VR/AR field. The first step was to launch a VR-Ready Mac and officially support it. HTC Vive platform.

Mac OS also supports the Beta version of SteamVR. At the WWDC site, Apple also used HTC Vive to demonstrate the latest progress in VR.

It is always exciting to join forces. After all, Apple’s legs are not ordinary. In addition to Apple, there is also Intel. On May 30, HTC Vive announced its cooperation with Intel to apply the WiGig wireless VR solution to Vive.

NVIDIA

As a giant in the graphics card industry, NVIDIA has recently made another big move - launching a new design solution at Computex 2017.

Officials say OEMs such as Clevo, Asus and MSI will begin launching high-performance "Max-Q" gaming laptops equipped with VR-ready GTX 1060, 1070 and 1080 GPUs. It is reported that the gaming instinct equipped with GTX 1080 graphics card can reduce the thickness to 18mm, making it a computer that allows users to experience VR.

Not long ago, in April, NVIDIA also demonstrated the Quadro series of graphics cards based on Pascal architecture at the National Convention Center in Beijing, including: GP100, P2000, P4000, P5000, P6000, etc. For example, GP100 can integrate VR into the design and simulation workflow, and IrayVR is Nvidia's rendering solution that is now licensed to software manufacturers such as Dassault Systèmes and Autodesk.

At this year’s CES Asia, we can take a look at these products.

Intel

It must be said that Intel is going further and further in sports - especially VR sports live broadcast. On June 1, Intel announced on its official website that it officially signed a three-year agreement with MLB (Major League Baseball). The cooperation will be carried out in the form of live broadcast and on-demand of MLB games using Intel’s True VR application. Now, on True VR, you can not only watch golf games, but also baseball games. The important thing is that Intel seems to be very confident in VR sports live broadcast. Judging from the information disclosed on its official website, they are also confident in this type of audience and feel that this will be a big market.

In addition to the combination of VR and sports, Intel Vice President and General Manager of Customer Computing Group Gregory Bryant also gave a speech at the recent Taipei Electronics Show, announcing that Intel and HTC Vive have become strategic partners. partners and demonstrated the HTC Vive wireless helmet powered by Intel WiGig technology.

Intel has been finding a place for itself in the VR market. Qingting.com also reported in a previous article that although Intel has launched a high-end i9 processor priced up to US$2,000, it is still far from Does not meet VR-ready standards. Intel plans to continue to improve their core graphics performance, hoping to one day meet the needs of HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and other high-end VR games.

Frank Soqui, general manager of Intel VR and gaming, said: "Intel integrated graphics will be able to support high-end VR and not just mainstream applications. Our goal is to continue to improve the performance of processors and core graphics to meet the needs of high-end content demand, such as Oculus and HTC.”

In addition, Intel also recently announced that it will sponsor the first VR experience e-sports open competition "The Unspoken VR Tournament" - a VR multiplayer magic adventure FPS. Game, maybe friends who go to CES Asia will also have the opportunity to try it out.

AMD

Recently, AMD’s Ryzen 3 VR processor has been exposed, and officials said it was confirmed that Ryzen 3 will be officially released in the third quarter of this year. Currently, there is an AMD Ryzen31200 known, with 4 cores and 8 threads, a main frequency of 3.1GHz, a L3 cache of 8MB, and a thermal design power consumption of 65W.

Some analysts say that if the performance of AMD Ryzen 3 is close to or reaches the level of Intel i5, then it will become a very competitive VR processor. The current price and release time have not been disclosed. I wonder if AMD will release more information at CES Asia.

Qualcomm

Qualcomm recently broke up with Apple due to patent issues, and then switched to Google. Officials said that Qualcomm’s subsidiary is currently cooperating with Google, and the two parties will *** Create a new generation of Daydream VR headsets. This has also attracted the attention of many people. It is certain that Google’s new VR headset will be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and Snapdragon 835 is specially designed for VR.

At CES earlier this year, Qualcomm also announced a concept VR all-in-one machine based on the Snapdragon 835 platform. However, it is not yet known whether this VR all-in-one machine is related to Google’s cooperation with VR headsets.

In addition, Qualcomm recently held a "Media Communication Conference on Wired/Wireless Infrastructure Networks" in Taipei. Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Technologies' connection technology, demonstrated the application of 802.11ad wireless technology in VR Eyewear applications.

Microsoft

In addition to Microsoft’s recent release of Hololens, what is more concerning is the many Windows products it has cooperated with at the Taipei Electronics Show a few days ago. Information about MR headsets, including new designs for Asus’s MR headsets and Dell’s MR headsets.

At the Taipei Electronics Show, Microsoft also revealed that the MR headset Lenovo is building is also cooperating with Microsoft. At present, for Microsoft, it seems that it is vigorously promoting the "MR head display" to the public.

At CES Asia, you should also be able to see and experience these MR headsets.

Company Chapter

Looking at the more than 70 VR/AR manufacturers participating in CES Asia 2017, there are new customers who are here for the first time, and there are also "familiar faces" who have been here last year. ; Some come to blind dates with hardware, while others come to "sell" technical solutions. Among these manufacturers, Qingting.com has carefully selected some companies. These companies are either "little lovers" favored by giants, or guests from far away across the ocean. Without further ado, follow Qingting.com Come and see.

Yishi Haotong (AR Glasses)

This company appeared at CES Asia last year, not to mention, this is not an AR company without a story. JORJIN Group is a mainland subsidiary of JORJIN Group, which was founded in Taiwan in 1997 and is a provider of core module solutions for smart glasses.

The smart glasses that Zuozhen cooperates with include: VUZIX M100, EPSON BT-200, BT-2000, EVENA Eye-On Glasses, Lenovo LENOVO New Glass, HITACHI Doctor Cloud Smart Glasses, etc. The fields involved include industry , logistics, medical, law enforcement, education, entertainment.

At last year's CES Asia, Yishi Haotong demonstrated the application scenarios of smart glasses overall solutions in equipment maintenance, military and police law enforcement, medical care, operation and maintenance inspections, vocational training and other industries in the exhibition area. , as well as wireless communication, wireless sensing, thermal imaging and image stabilization technology solutions introduced from abroad.

At the COMPUTEX 2017 that just passed, Zuo Zhen brought the "binary smart glasses" solution developed in cooperation with the Information Technology Institute, and demonstrated what is said to be Taiwan's first "binary smart glasses" Glasses", that's what it looks like below.

Zuozhen is said to be the only technology solution provider in the world that can provide both ARM/Android and Intel/Win10 system platforms for mass production of smart glasses. It is estimated that at this CES Asia, this "Two-eye smart glasses" should still be their top priority.

InvenSense (motion capture, MEMS sensor)

MEMS sensor technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, and has been repeatedly mentioned in fields such as photo stabilization and motion tracking. Such manufacturers are becoming more and more common at CES Asia, and InvenSense is one of them.

In addition to ICM-20690, InvenSense’s ICM-20690, ICM-20600, and ICM-20602 have been verified by Google Daydream. It is understood that Oculus Rift, HTC’s Vive, HoloLens, and some domestic VR/AR manufacturers have adopted different sensors from InvenSense.

Infinity AR

Although Infinity AR is an Israeli augmented reality company, it has embraced an extremely thick thigh in China - Alibaba.

In November 2016, Alibaba invested US$15 million in Infinity and became the largest shareholder of Infinity AR, owning more than 22% of the company's shares.

At CES in January 2017, Infinity showed off a prototype in partnership with Israeli lens company Lumus. For Infinity, the focus is on solving the SLAM algorithm that is the core of AR technology. According to them, the company's technology is relatively mature at present, and the next step will be to cooperate with Chinese manufacturers to achieve large-scale mass production of AR glasses.

Effie Li, head of Infinity China, also revealed that two Taiwanese manufacturers have already mass-produced the device and will launch it in the summer.

DreamWorld

DreamWorld is located in Silicon Valley and provides products with 100-degree optical field of view and natural gesture interaction.

The current product, Dream Glass, which is said to have a field of view of up to 100 degrees, will also be exhibited at CES Aisa and will be available for pre-sale after the exhibition.

What is more interesting is that this Dream Glass is not a common form, but a product such as the "AR Box" mentioned by Qingting.com before, which needs to be used with a mobile phone. DreamWorld CEO Zhong Zhangyi revealed that Dream Glass will be priced below US$350, and the specific price will be announced later.

DreamWorld is a Silicon Valley startup company with members from companies in the AR field such as Magic Leap, Meta, Nvidia, and GE. Its founder, Zhong Zhangyi, majored in optics at Zhejiang University and later went to the United States to study for a doctorate in vision.

It is understood that DreamWorld has previously completed an angel round of financing of US$2 million.

Xenoma

This is a company that researches printed circuit cloth and uses E-skin clothing developed by Xenoma.

Xenoma is a company incubated (spun off) from the University of Tokyo in Japan. Its main product is a somatosensory compression garment using micro-inertial sensor technology - (Xenoma's) e-skin, which is simply a set of wearables. Integrated motion capture system.

The R&D team used stretchable circuit technology to integrate more than 30 sensors on the clothes, and these miniature inertial sensors will be distributed in various key parts of the body. It is understood that the number, type and location of these sensors can be customized at will.

At the CES show in January 2017, Xenoma had already demonstrated this electronic skin suit e-skin, which demonstrated functions such as monitoring human breathing, posture and body temperature. In addition, it can be machine washed directly. It is said that mass production will be ready this year.

New Products

In this party, Qingting.com has collected information about new products or news that some domestic companies will release at CES Asia. Everyone is very familiar with domestic companies, whether it is hardware or content, so we will not go into too much detail here and directly present the relevant information (continuously updated).

Pico

Pico will showcase four new products including the Pico Goblin all-in-one VR headset at CES Asia, including the Pico Neo CV version that has not yet been officially released.

Liangfengtai

Liangfengtai will launch new HiAR Glasses on June 8.

Shadow Technology

Shadow Technology will also showcase two new AR products - New Air and Halo.

IDEALENS

IDEALENS’ sister company IDEALOEYE will showcase the latest panoramic camera C4.

iQiyi VR

will exhibit the all-in-one VR machine "Qiyu".

Ant Vision

Ant Vision 2 is a customized version of VR Transformers. It is understood that Ant Vision has obtained the image authorization from Hasbro, the parent company of Transformers.

Qixin Yiwei

In addition to the launched VR eye tracking module aGlass, Qixin Yiwei will also show the latest VR Driving Demo, which is eye tracking in Applications in safe driving.