Oppo, the China-based smartphone manufacturer, held its second annual Inno Day in Shenzhen, China today, showing off a new version of its concept AR glasses.

Called Oppo AR Glass 2021, the company’s latest augmented reality hardware boasts a new ‘split’ design, something that makes it both more compact and lighter than the previous HoloLens-style model, which made its debut at last year’s Inno Day.

Oppo AR Glass 2021 is said to be “nearly 75% lighter than its predecessor,” moving from on-board computing to a tethered design, and replacing wave guide optics with a similar ‘birdbath’ optics design seen in Nreal Light.

Image courtesy GSMArena, Oppo

Like Nreal Light, Oppo AR Glass is intended to tether to a smartphone to drive interactions, such as the Oppo Find X2 Pro, which packs a Snapdragon 865 chipset.

Presented at the company’s Inno Day livestream, its birdbath optics are said to improve image contrast by 53%, brightness uniformity by 98%, and pixels per degree by 40% in comparison to last year’s model.

The company didn’t include an field of view estimate, however it says using AR Glass 2021 is like “watching a 90-inch TV just three meters away.”

Image courtesy GSMArena, Oppo

The headset includes stereo fisheye cameras, one ToF sensor, and one RGB camera. It’s also said to support smartphone and gesture-based interactions, and include updated real-time simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) tracking.

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It’s still uncertain when developers—or even consumers for that matter—will see Oppo AR Glasses hardware itself, however it seems the company is gearing up with several programs throughout 2021 created to further build out its content offerings.

The company already showed off some of its “early stage” content, which includes a MOBA-style game, a tower defense game, an English-learning app, a video viewing app from iQIYI, and a home furniture app from online retailer JD.

Additionally, an Oppo developer program will be launched next year, which will include a recruitment push for AR content partners, a developer support program, and developer competition in China. A client-side SDK will also be released at some point next year.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • kontis

    The company didn’t include an field of view estimate, however it says using AR Glass 2021 is like “watching a 90-inch TV just three meters away.”

    90s called, they want their absurd stationary TV comparisons for their useless narrow FOV HMD’s back.

    It’s like this industry didn’t learn anything. A cheap wide FOV HMD designed by a teenager in a garage became the best selling HMD of all time and they still don’t seem to understand why.

    One simple advice for all future HMD manufacturers: if your HMD can’t achieve at least 80 deg FOV do NOT release the product. Consumers will find it completely useless no matter how big of value you think it offers or how good optically it is. It doesn’t matter.

    • Lulu Vi Britannia

      That was the best way to say it, and this had to be said xD.

      At least they’ve understood they should use an external compute unit. It’s way too soon for onboard 6DoF tech in glasses. Just plug it to a phone that we keep in our pocket, the mobile platforms are already compatible with AR apps anyway.

      For now, they should work on getting at least 100° FoV with high quality. And frankly, it shouldn’t be that hard. VR can’t make much more than 100° because it takes a lot of ressources, but AR doesn’t need that much power, so AR glasses manufacturer can stretch that number.

      As for interactions, we know how to make that thanks to the VR industry. Leap Motion had a great controller. AR should already be here, I really don’t know why it’s not coming yet.

      • AR glasses tethered to smartphone doing compute is best value proposition for consumer adoption.

        Easily bundled into cellphone contract, performant smartphone very useful multi purpose device (unlike standalone AR glasses/visor).

        Leap Motion controller felt good and seemed effective, I thoroughly enjoyed Hololens and Magic Leap despite limitations.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Uhm we’re talking about AR glasses, and watching a 90-inch tv from 3 meters is a pretty good FOV for AR glasses..

      • JukejointJezebel

        Uh no it’s terrible. Comparing ar fov to the viewing angle of a permanently static screen is terrible. AR needs to naturally blend with your environment convincingly. Honestly due to the finite nature of the fov spec, I don’t think it should be some element to buff overtime but is part of the core nature of what ar is and a fundamental necessity for AR.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          No it’s not terrible. And you have to compare it to something. With AR it only needs to ‘project’ something on the real world so only if it would be a fullscreen something it might matter, but with information etc it really doesn’t matter if it’s the FOV it got. It’s not like you with VR where it’s much more important to have a larger FOV. Ofcourse it would be nice if the image could be spread over the full glasses of the AR glasses, and I don’t doubt we’ll see that happening quite soon, as transparent displays are already getting done, but with glasses the limit will always be the glasses itself. You want full human FOV you’ll need to project the image directly onto the retina (which is also being developed).

      • Jack H

        From below: I got it as 40deg. for the diagonal FoV presuming it’s also 16:9 is that right?

        FoV = tan^(-1)(2.28/3) …90″ to 2.28m

        • Andrew Jakobs

          it’s probably comparable to hololens and other AR glasses already available..

      • VR5

        Having such a screen on the go, like on a train or bus, yeah that’s pretty cool. At home you probably already have a comparable screen.

        But I’m not sure that feature would warrant the price this thing likely has.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          AR glasses are NOT meant as videoglasses, it just has the surface of a comparable 90″ screen at 3meter on which it can show information. An example is working in a garage and wearing the glasses it projects an information screen directly on the engine where the part is you need to change, instead of having to look up in the manual and then look up and try to find it. OR walking down a street and see information about what’s in front of you, or arrows for the direction you need to go if you have it set to navigation.

          • VR5

            You aren’t wrong of course but having a floating screen whereever you want is one (of many) usecases AR (and VR for that matter) offer. Also, it’s kind of Oppo’s fault to compare it to a screen.

            And bigger FOV certainly would be better for proper AR as well.

    • alxslr

      I agree for VR, not for AR as a next computing platform, were the priority should be replacing the need to have your hand holding a device all the time and your head looking down all the time to a small screen. I think form factor, translucency/opacity, resolution and image quality are the biggest problems for now. Once they solve that, and battery, we have “huge virtual smartphones” attached to our heads and then our neck and hands, blocked since 2004, will be free again. The priority for AR is that “Terminator POV” or full screen colorfull highres Google Glasses. From there we will be able to scale progresivelly to “real” AR (aka like current >80 FOV VR but fully integrated with the environment).

  • VR5

    The company didn’t include an field of view estimate, however it says using AR Glass 2021 is like “watching a 90-inch TV just three meters away.”

    Assuming the TV is 16:9, that’s ~40 degrees horizontal FOV. You can achieve around the same FOV with a 40 inch TV from 1.4 meters away.

    • TechPassion

      but you need to sit in front of tv :)

      • VR5

        The point is to explain how FOV relates to screen size and distance, and more importantly how much FOV you get with those glasses.

    • Jack H

      I got it as 40deg. for the diagonal FoV presuming it’s also 16:9 is that right?

      FoV = tan^(-1)(2.28/3) …90″ to 2.28m

      • VR5

        You have to take half of 2.28 then multiply the result of atan times 2 so it’s 41.61°. For the horizontal FoV, you have to calculate the width first:

        2.28^2 = (16x)^2 + (9x)^2
        5.1984 = 256x^2 + 81x^2
        5.1984 = 337x^2
        x = sqrt(5.1984/337) = .124

        width = 16x = 1.9871

        horizontal FoV = 2 * atan(width/2 / 3) = 36.64°

        I was mistakingly using asinus instead of atan so I got 39° for my orginal calculation. It’s actually even less at 36.64°. Well, all in the range of 40° so not too wrong.

  • xyzs

    Cool design for early AR

  • sebrk

    China? Pass

    • Armando Tavares

      Says de guy replying from a device that is 90% (or more) China made.

      • sebrk

        Says the guy who cannot understand the difference between ex-china companies manufacturing in china and being a chinese company that has to comply and give the CCP their data at any time.

        • Armando Tavares

          Burns a litle to realize that your device is China made. Right? Just a bit? ^_^
          Don’t be mad. Just teasing… :)
          As to the age old argument that Chinese companies are forced to make data available to the Chinese government (and, they are!) I have news for you: Every company in the world, in every country in the world is under the same obligation. Some countries don’t even have to ask.They just grab it as they see fit. Just Google «Utah data center»
          Have a nice week :)

          • sebrk

            Nope. Difference is that chinese companies have to design their system to have backdoors and/or give out keys. Services from say my home country or even in the US can choose to make their data only decryptable by the user. This has been the case multiple times when even law enformcement has asked for user data. It might be hard to understand the difference but it is two completely different worlds when it comes to integrity and privacy. As if anyone needs to have that explained. Chinas totalitarian government with dictator Xi on top, social credit system, camera surveillance and law enforcement speaks for itself. But go ahead and downplay it. Have a nice week.

          • Armando Tavares

            Not trying to downplay China’s horrid track record in everything human rights related. I just don’t understand blind prejudice and that’s why I answered your post.
            We could talk a bit more about this but, the article is about AR not politics :)
            Cheers.

  • JukeJointJezebel

    At 3 meters, you’d want roughly a 240” screen vs the 90” screen at 3 meters.
    Why? Because this is not the same medium as tv entertainment. Ar should not dissolve at a boundary, it needs to convincingly nest in the world.

    • Jack H

      What do you think of the stop-gap for peripheral cues like Microsoft putting in a sparse LED array around the sides of VR HMD lenses? (which I suppose is like those Philips TVs that illuminated the back wall to the sides of the TV)

      • max power

        I think the resulting glow and general ambience will pair nicely with my el-wire hoodie.

    • VR5

      Going by that logic, even 100° FOV wouldn’t be good enough since you can still see stuff dissolve. I think you can do some neat AR even with 40°, for information based AR that’s good enough.

      Problem is, this tech is so expensive and compared to VR, it is quite underwhelming. Considering how much it costs, you would expect something better or at least on par with VR. If you have prior VR experience of course.

      The small form factor and the huge audience that has never tried VR might give this kind of AR glasses a fighting chance. But I feel we’re still way off from AR glasses being ready for prime time.

  • oomph

    Make it steam compatible

  • Jukejointjezebel

    You need to be a glutton for dissatisfaction if you follow AR. It’s a visually going to be Facebook to make AR that gives a closer to full fov AR.

    • dk

      aria won’t be full fov …it will be just the best that can be done at the moment having in mind ok battery life ….meaning most likely it will match hololens 2 ml1 and nreal light ….and u don’t need full fov in ar u need the best possible fov at a good price having in mind the other weight, processing power, form factor and image quality limitations

  • I hoped for something cool and new, while it is just another Nreal clone at this point…

    • TechPassion

      NReal clone? Do you think they’ve made in the last 1 month? Many companies work on it since a a few yearts. NReal wasn’t first to work on it.

  • TechPassion

    AR is the future of entertainment. You won’t be trashing your room with physical tv in the future. Your 100 inch TV will be with you the whole time, in your pocket. The technology needs a few more years, but it is close. I am strongly YES for AR.