Huawei, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are all making smart glasses. Which one do you pick?

In the movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Colin Firth, as a secret agent, is well-dressed. His suit, Oxford shoes, shirt, watch, glasses and other attire seem low-key and ordinary, but they hold a secret.

When Colin Firth entered the large conference room and put on a pair of plain black-framed glasses, the two rows of empty chairs were instantly "filled" with participants. In addition to the visible virtual portraits, in the second half of the movie, the characters in the play can perform data analysis on the enemy in front of them by simply tapping the right frame of the glasses.

Stills of "Kingsman" Image source: Internet

This scene in the movie is not completely impossible in real life.

Recently, media reported that Facebook is developing AR smart glasses and will establish a partnership with Luxottica, the parent company of eyewear company Ray-Ban. Facebook said it hopes to provide consumers with smart glasses between 2023 and 2025, and expects smart glasses to replace smartphones to a certain extent, thereby changing the way people interact and communicate with each other.

In fact, long before Facebook, technology companies such as Google and Microsoft were exploring the development of smart glasses. Now, social media such as Facebook and Snap have also joined the game, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

Smart glasses exploration for social media

This time, Facebook was exposed to be developing smart glasses code-named "Orion", which support functions including answering regular calls, obtaining information and sharing user location.

It is worth mentioning that the smart glasses that Facebook is researching hope to replace smartphones to a certain extent, rather than the smart glasses currently on the market that are integrated with mobile phone content. In other words, this is a device that does not need to be controlled through the Android or iOS system.

At the same time, in order to make smart glasses more intelligent, Facebook is currently developing an AI-driven voice assistant and an input method suitable for AR glasses. It’s just that Facebook has not been able to reduce the size of the device to a size suitable for daily use.

As early as the 2016 Developer Conference, Facebook expressed its interest in AR smart glasses. At the conference, Facebook founder and CEO Zuckerberg presented Facebook's ten-year plan for AR/VR, saying that future VR/AR hardware will be a product that looks like ordinary glasses but has powerful functions.

In 2018, Facebook's R&D department Oculus Research was renamed Facebook Reality Labs, focusing on the development of both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

As a representative of social networks, Snap released its first smart glasses product, Spectacles, in 2016. The smart glasses are a pair of sunglasses equipped with cameras, with a camera on one side and a control area on the other. The shooting mode can be turned on by tapping the finger, and 10-second video clips can be recorded and uploaded to the social platform Snapchat. The price is also relatively low.

Although it only supports two basic functions, photo and video recording, Spectacles still failed to meet public expectations and was criticized for its slow picture quality and upload speed during shooting.

In fact, Snap has made sufficient preparations to enter the AR field, and has recruited AR engineers from Qualcomm and personnel who were previously responsible for recruiting for Microsoft's HoloLens team.

In 2018, Snap released the second generation of Spectacles, which not only reduced the weight of the hardware, increased waterproofing, and added a second microphone to capture clear conversations, but also improved the speed and stability of data transmission compared to the first generation. However, both generations of Spectacles smart glasses received mediocre responses in the market.

But this does not hinder Snap's enthusiasm for launching new products. In August this year, Spectacles 3 was released. The new smart glasses are equipped with dual cameras, and the corresponding 3D effect will enhance the depth perception of photos and videos. The price is about twice that of the previous smart glasses.

Snap Spectacles 3 Image source: Internet

Snap, which calls itself a camera company, believes that the human face is an important area to cover when taking photos. The Spectacles 3 released this time aims to build a face-centric computing platform.

Snap's emphasis on AR technology has never declined, and the company's CEO Evan Spiegel recently said: "We will continue to focus on developing content, games and augmented reality platforms. "

Enterprise version of smart glasses giant

The current mid-to-high-end smart glasses market is still dominated by Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens glasses.

In 2012, Google Glass made its debut at the Google I/O conference in a rather mysterious way. At the conference, the big screen behind Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, showed the land scene seen by two skydivers using Google Glass from a helicopter. From the perspective of the skydivers, Google Glass live broadcast the entire skydiving process, including the skydivers landing on the roof of the Google conference venue and then walking into the conference venue. Google Glass's stunning appearance drew cheers from the audience.

Subsequently, Google Glass enjoyed praise from the media, and Time magazine also named Google Glass one of the best innovations of 2012.

But Google never expected that reality would pour cold water on it. In 2013, as Google Glass entered the consumer market, users found that the manufacturing technology and application scenarios of Google Glass were far from being as "sci-fi" as in the promotional videos. It seemed that Google's R&D team itself did not understand the positioning of this pair of glasses. Public opinion began to take a sharp turn for the worse, and "Google Glass is the worst product ever" became the new media argument.

Within a year, Google Glass went from being an innovative product that challenged smartphones to being useless. In 2015, Google left a message on its official website: "Thank you for exploring with us, the journey of exploration is not over yet," announcing the suspension of the consumer-oriented Google Glass project. At the same time, Google began to develop enterprise-level Google Glass.

In 2017, Google launched a redesigned enterprise version of Google Glass, positioning it as an enterprise tool. Jay Kothari, the project leader of the Google Glass enterprise team at the time, said: "We have communicated with all the 'Explorers'. We realized that there are great opportunities in the enterprise field. " The interest from enterprise customers shows that Google can set up a team to serve these customers.

This time, Google Glass finally found the right application scenario, and the features that consumers didn't like found their place in the enterprise environment. Workers use Google Glass to scan accessories, access training videos, record product defects, etc. Google Glass is no longer a high-end toy for taking pictures.

In May 2019, Google successfully released the second-generation enterprise version of Google Glass (Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2).

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 Image source: Internet

The second-generation enterprise version of Google Glass runs on the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdraon XR1 platform, which Google says will provide longer battery life. In terms of product pricing, Google also offers lower prices to companies that have signed business contracts and has built its own industrial chain ecosystem.

Another technology giant, Microsoft, also released its own MR head-mounted display HoloLens at the end of 2015. In the early days, it attracted attention due to the experience in games, and later positioned its user base as enterprise customers.

HoloLens is not restricted by cables and can interact with holographic images in the surrounding real environment. However, due to its high price, it is only widely used in the professional market.

In 2019, Microsoft released HoloLens 2, which can overlay information on the real world, allowing users to view it through their eyes. Microsoft has improved the way users interact with holographic images, using gestures to directly control holographic images, including eye tracking sensors, and logging in to Windows Hello enterprise-level authentication through iris recognition.

HoloLens 2 Image source: Internet

With the exposure of the patent information of the mini version of HoloLens, people have seen the future of miniaturization of Microsoft smart glasses. In the view of Alex Kipman, the co-inventor of HoloLens, in the future, smart glasses are likely to surpass smartphones and become people's main portable technology equipment.

The much-anticipated Apple

Apple Every new product launch can create quite a stir, and the industry is looking forward to when it will be able to launch smart glasses.

Rumors that Apple will launch smart glasses have been circulating since 2017, with different versions of the news: Apple AR glasses will be sold as iPhone accessories, mainly for display functions, with calculations and positioning performed on the iPhone; Apple AR glasses can be used without a computer or smartphone; Apple AR glasses will run a customized, iOS-based operating system (rOS). But to date, Apple has not yet launched a smart glasses product.

Although there are no physical products, according to a survey of AR/VR industry insiders conducted by investment company Digi-Capital and AWE (Augmented World Expo) in May this year, Apple, which has not yet launched smart glasses, received 43% industry support on the smart glasses list, becoming the third largest smart glasses platform supported by industry insiders.

In March this year, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple's AR glasses project may have entered the final R&D stage and will be put into mass production as early as the fourth quarter of 2019. Consumers are likely to see this product in Q2 2020. In the same month, according to a patent approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's head-mounted device can communicate wirelessly with iPhones, iPads or computers.

But in July, there were reports that Apple had terminated the long-rumored AR glasses project. "Apple's suspension of the development of AR glasses is related to the fact that the current AR/VR hardware design cannot be lightweight, and the required 5G networking and content quantity are not mature enough. " The report also mentioned that Apple's AR glasses team was disbanded in May and reassigned to other product development departments.

Late arrival of domestic manufacturers

In comparison, Chinese corporate players in the smart glasses space have been slow to arrive.

At present, manufacturers such as Huawei, vivo, and Xiaomi have paid attention to this field, but most of them have failed to produce actual results.

In March this year, Huawei presented its first wearable smart glasses "Huawei-Gentle Monster Eyewear" at the P30 series launch conference and cooperated with the Korean fashion brand Gentle Monster. In September, the glasses were sold in Huawei's online and offline stores, with a total of five products launched, including two sunglasses and three optical glasses.

Huawei Eyewear Image source: Internet

The appearance of Huawei's smart glasses has basically no interfaces, is dustproof and waterproof, and the battery, chipset, dual antennas, charging module, speakers, dual microphones, etc. are all hidden in the temples. The built-in dual speakers can reduce sound leakage, and AI voice noise reduction technology can also reduce noise interference to users and ensure call quality.

During a voice call, double-click the temples to answer/end a call or control play/pause of music. It also supports intelligent recognition of wearing status. Music playback will automatically pause when you take off your glasses and resume when you put them on.

In June this year, another domestic mobile phone manufacturer, vivo, released a pair of AR smart glasses at the MWC Shanghai to expand entertainment. However, this pair of smart glasses needs to be used with Vivo's 5G mobile phone, so the specific launch date is still unknown.

However, according to reports, vivo's smart glasses may be connected to a mobile phone via a USB cable and will provide functions such as games, cinema, collaborative office, object recognition, and facial recognition.

vivo AR glasses Image source: Internet

Xiaomi , which has always attached great importance to the AIoT layout, has also recently opened an official Weibo account for "Xiaomi Glasses". At the same time, it was revealed that the manufacturer of Xiaomi's eyeglass frames is an optomechanical manufacturing company. However, Xiaomi did not admit that it would manufacture smart glasses, but only responded that the relevant Weibo account was registered a long time ago, and Mijia itself also has sunglasses products.

As early as three years ago, there were media reports that Xiaomi applied for invention patents named "Method and device for displaying framing information" and "Method, device and smart glasses for displaying framing information", all of which are related to smart glasses.

From this point of view, smart glasses will become a battleground for major technology players in both the domestic and international markets in the future.