Oppo announces Air Glass ‘assisted reality’ device

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Oppo has announced the Air Glass, an augmented reality device that will go on sale early next year. Oppo describes Air Glass as an “assisted reality” product, as opposed to augmented reality, which means that it displays 2D information in your field of view rather than overlaying 3D objects over the real world. (Yes, sort of like Google Glass.)

The Air Glass has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 processor and weighs a total of 30 grams (about 1 ounce). Oppo says it should last for 3 hours of active use and 40 hours on standby. There are two frame designs, a silver half frame and a black full frame, and they are each available in two sizes. The inside of the frame has a magnetic port that allows it to be connected to more traditional eyeglasses.

The waveguide screen uses a small Micro LED-equipped projector capable of up to 3 million nits of brightness, although Oppo says actual brightness will reach 1,400 nits on average under conditions. It can be triggered by touch, voice, hand tracking and head tracking, as well as through the Smart Glass app on a smartphone running Oppo’s ColorOS 11 or higher.

Oppo’s suggested use cases for Air Glass are relatively modest. The company says it can be used for notifications and directions, as you’d expect, as well as features like remote dispatch and real-time translation. The screen is monochrome with 16 or 256 levels of grayscale depending on the mode, so Air Glass won’t transfer rich content to your eyes.

However, it probably isn’t a mature staple product either. Oppo says the Air Glass will get a “limited edition” in the first quarter of 2022, and at least initially it will only be sold in China.

Air Glass was announced as part of Oppo’s ongoing annual Inno Day event. Oppo also revealed its first in-house NPU chip to boost imaging performance associated with machine learning; It’s called MariSilicon X and it will appear in Oppo’s new flagship Find X phone in the first quarter of next year. Oppo last week confirmed the debut of its first foldable phone, the Find N, although that hasn’t cracked the lid yet.

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