[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]DigiLens, creators of waveguide optics, today announced the Design v1, a modular reference headset which the company hopes will accelerate the development and consumerization of truly glasses-sized AR headsets. Road to VR got an exclusive hands-on demo of the Design v1 and the company's latest waveguides. DigiLens is one of several companies building waveguide optics and positioning them for use in XR. Waveguides allow for extremely compact near-eye optics which are no thicker than the lenses on a pair of glasses. Seemingly frustrated that no company has yet created a pair of AR glasses suitable for mass adoption, DigiLens has set about building a modular reference design to help interested parties accelerate the time-to-market of affordable AR glasses. The device is called the Design v1, a fully standalone pair of AR glasses with Snapdragon XR2 and a 50° diagonal field of view. https://youtu.be/yZBm2aPSUp0 “Design v1 is brighter, lighter and more capable than any other waveguide based XR device on the market. Our strategy is to empower the forward leaning XR companies in the ecosystem to capitalize on the strengths of an emerging horizontal market,” says Chris Pickett, CEO of DigiLens. “We are creating an XR blueprint for the ecosystem to take, add to and adapt as needed for their individual markets and their unique XR software development needs. Expanding the pool of experts and democratizing ideas across the spectrum is what the market has missed to date.” The Design v1 AR glasses are comprised of three core modular parts: Frame: containing compute, batteries, and sensors Optics: featuring the company's waveguides Display module: containing the display and light source These parts snap together in a matter of seconds, without tools, as easily as Legos. The idea behind Design v1 is to give large tech companies a customizable starting point for building a pair of AR glasses that fits their productization needs. Here's a look at the specs of the base unit:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_accordion style="flat" shape="square" color="black" c_icon="triangle" active_section="1" collapsible_all="true" css=".vc_custom_1621322012931{padding-right: 3% ;padding-left: 3% ;}"][vc_tta_section title="DigiLens Design v1 Specs" tab_id="1621321332120-c68bb24a-d7b7"][vc_column_text] DigiLens Design v1 Specs Resolution 1,280 x 720 (0.9MP) per-eye, DLP Refresh Rate 60Hz, 72Hz, 90Hz Lenses DigiLens waveguide Field-of-view 44° x 25° (50° diagonal) Processor Snapdragon XR2 RAM 6GB Storage 128GB Connectors USB-C Tracking Dual on-board cameras (no external beacons) Input Gaze Audio In-frame speakers Microphone Yes Cameras 8MP RGB center Wireless Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth [/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Make no mistake, the Design v1 is unfortunately not for your everyday enthusiast hardware hacker. DigiLens is planning to work directly with a small handful of companies to iteratively customize the Design v1 for their specific needs. In fact DigiLens isn't announcing an actual price for the glasses—it's a 'get in touch if you're interested' sort of situation. Bright as Daylight While the modular design is interesting, DigiLens isn't the only game in town with a reference design for AR glasses. So what makes the company think theirs is the best offering out there? Naturally, it comes down to their waveguides, which are indeed some of the best AR optics available today. It's not just that waveguides can be truly the thickness of the lenses on a pair of glasses—and get just as close to your eye—they're also highly transparent and actually capable of looking like glasses, rather than sunglasses as is the case with many of the AR headsets available today which need to dim incoming light to account for low brightness. [caption id="attachment_102291" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] On the other hand, DigiLens boasts of having 300 nits per lumen brightness, and the demo to back it up. I got to visit the company's Silicon Valley office for an exclusive look at its latest optics. Before trying on the Design v1 itself, the company sat me outside on a sunny afternoon and showed me their Crystal 30G optic (which has just a single color channel, green) connected to a compact board containing the display and light source. After picking up the optic and looking through it, I could see the image clearly, even when set against the bright blue sky. That's pretty impressive considering it can still sometimes be hard to see smartphones in direct sunlight (smartphones commonly have sub 1,000 nit brightness; DigiLens says this demo was 3,000 nits). I was even able to take a perfectly good photo through the lens with my phone. [caption id="attachment_102297" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Through-the-lens of DigiLens Crystal 30G optic in bright daylight | Photo by Road to VR[/caption] While the Design v1 isn't this bright just yet, the company pointed out that—assuming the same light source—there's a range of tradeoffs among waveguides between color channels, field-of-view, and brightness. Part of why they're building the Design v1 with modular optics is so partners can easily snap on a different optic that's specific to their use-case, whether that be optimizing for a wide field-of-view or for maximum brightness. Continue on Page 2: Hands-on with DigiLens Design v1 » Hands-on with DigiLens Design v1 [caption id="attachment_102295" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] After the initial demo I got to check out the Design v1 itself which is surprisingly small considering it's fully standalone. While you can plug in an external battery to extend the life, everything is built into the glasses, including the Snapdragon XR2 processor, sensors, memory, etc. Compared to something like HoloLens 2 or Magic Leap, which are far bulkier, the Design v1 is quite impressive for a reference headset which the company expects will shrink further as productization happens and modularity concessions are no longer necessary. Unlike many of the bulky bird-bath optical approaches out there that will never be mistaken for mere glasses, with Design v1, DigiLens is demonstrating that its waveguides can be the basis for a truly glasses-sized AR device. [caption id="attachment_102292" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] Granted, there's still a good deal of ergonomics to work out. As I donned the Design v1, they were front-heavy and didn't want to stay on my nose too readily. But at this stage, that's all part of the idea behind a modular reference design—companies will be able to experiment and swap out parts to iterate until they have something they can bring to market. Peering through the optics themselves, I saw the impressively wide field-of-view (50° diagonal) with full color right off the bat. While 50° still doesn't feel like quite enough for fully immersive AR, it's starting to approach to realm of practical usability compared to some first-gen AR headsets which were closer to 30° diagonally. [caption id="attachment_102293" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] And while the Design v1 is largely a hardware development kit, the company has whipped up a basic gaze-based software interface with a handful of demos showcasing a range of use-cases. One demo played a 3D movie while another showed a remote support use-case where a remote observer could see 'through my eyes' (via the front-mounted camera) in order to guide me through any kind of procedure. At the same time that the remote observer could see my view, I could see a view of them via their webcam. There was also a demo showcasing basic 6DOF tracking. Floating before me I saw a small representation of the Solar system with the Sun at the middle and some other bodies floating around it. I could walk around the Sun model to see it from all angles. Compared to productized XR devices, the 6DOF tracking wasn't very precise and the content didn't feel particularly locked to the world around me. However, it's built on the same computer-vision based inside-out tracking approach that we've seen successfully deployed in many other finished products; I imagine this is a matter of properly optimizing the tracking software more than a limitation of the hardware. [caption id="attachment_102296" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image courtesy DigiLens[/caption] Another advantage DigiLens touts over the competition is less eye-glow than similar devices—eye-glow being how much the displays light up and block an outside observer from seeing your eyes. The company claims it has four times less eyeglow than HoloLens 2. - - — - - [caption id="attachment_102294" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Road to VR[/caption] DigiLens says the Design v1 will become available to select partners at the end of June. It remains to be seen if the company will succeed in accelerating the consumerization of AR glasses, or just how long that might take, but Design v1 makes for a pretty compelling hardware demo for any companies hoping to be early movers in the space.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]