Smart glasses are reducing technology, and the turning point may be approaching

The latest Xiaomi smart glasses have no spatial positioning, and Facebook glasses do not even have a display unit. The recovery of the smart glasses track starts with a new understanding of the market.

They all gave up the leap to AR glasses, the next generation computing platform, and instead chose to subtract technology and focus on user needs.

How amazing the debut was, how disappointing the arrival was

Smart glasses are not a new trend, and technology giants have a special liking for them. Google, Microsoft, Intel, Huawei, Baidu and other technology giants have all developed related products to some extent.

The first generation of Google Glass released eight years ago cost as much as $1,500 and had problems such as limited applications and risks of privacy infringement, which dealt a heavy blow to the entire smart glasses market.

BaiduEye, which debuted in September 2014, has not yet been launched. Spectacles, a smart glasses launched by Snapchat in 2017, has been launched for the third generation so far. It has been improved every time, but it is still not popular in the market.

Snap first released Spectacles, a pair of smart glasses with a built-in camera, in 2016. However, due to its exaggerated appearance, choppy operation, and unclear user usage scenarios, the final generation of the product only sold around 150,000 units, resulting in a loss of nearly $40 million.

Amazon's Echo Frames are like an auxiliary product for its voice assistant Alexa, allowing the voice assistant to be online at all times.

In 2018, Intel unveiled the conceptual design of a pair of Vaunt smart glasses. However, as the capital market was not optimistic about the design, Intel closed its New Devices Group department in April of the same year and terminated the Vaunt smart glasses project announced in February.

The core difficulty of AR glasses cannot be achieved in one step

The performance of smart glasses is still constrained by performance. To a certain extent, they are just another screen of a smartphone. Even with an independent operating system, the functions are quite simple and scarce.

However, apart from functions that can be achieved by mobile phones such as voice interaction, taking pictures, navigation, or the function of controlling mobile phones, the cool application scenarios of AR still remain in fantasy.

Consumers don't want to pay for smart glasses that look high-end but are somewhat useless in practice.

The maturity of AR technology depends on the joint evolution of sensors, displays, batteries and other fields. AR was in its infancy at the time and no major breakthroughs were seen.

The core problem of AR glasses today is that computing power and energy consumption cannot be taken into account at the same time, so a split design can only be adopted. Even so, true AR glasses are still too heavy due to the limitations of the display mechanism.

In a category like smart glasses, it will take time for the basic hardware to be ready and mature, and spatial perception display and other products will not even see major breakthroughs in the short term due to technical and cost issues.

Facebook and Ray-Ban collaborate on fashion

Recently, Facebook released a pair of smart glasses called [Ray-Ban Stories]. This time, Facebook and Ray-Ban cooperated, with the former responsible for technology and the latter for design.

The glasses are equipped with a Snapdragon processor, two 5-megapixel cameras, built-in open speakers, three microphones, Bluetooth support, a capacitive touchpad, and a built-in battery.

Facebook positions it as an all-weather wearable device with 6 hours of battery life after charging. It also comes with a specially designed portable charging box. If the charging box is also fully charged, the glasses can continue to standby for 3 days.

The appearance design is very close to the current sunglasses. The frames are available in three types: Round, Wayfarer, and Meteor, which is in between, to meet the wearing needs of different people and face shapes.

It uses touch operation, has built-in speakers and microphones, and supports functions such as taking photos, recording videos, listening to music, and voice calls.

Facebook's strategy is clear: first release conservative products that are technologically circuitous, attract the widest consumer groups, and lay the foundation for user base.

Facebook expects that by 2030, users will be able to remotely control smart glasses more conveniently and interact with them as if they were next to their friends. It also expects that smart glasses will change traditional ways of interaction and may even become a new computing device after smartphones.

Xiaomi's optical waveguide technology steadily enters the mass consumer market

Recently, Xiaomi launched a new concept product - Xiaomi Smart Glasses Explorer Edition, which looks almost the same as ordinary glasses.

The Xiaomi Smart Glasses Explorer Edition uses Micro LED optical waveguide technology, hiding a sesame-sized Micro LED display screen in the frame. Through the refraction and diffusion of the optical waveguide lens, the image is instantly presented in front of the eyes.

It also integrates a quad-core ARM processor, battery, touchpad, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, camera, etc., totaling 497 components.

Xiaomi’s approach is not to treat smart glasses as a second screen for the phone, but as a new smart terminal that can be operated independently.

In addition to basic notification display, calls, etc., it can also independently complete functions such as navigation, taking pictures, teleprompter, image and self-developed voice real-time translation.

The development of smartphones is still hot, and the real reshuffle has not yet arrived.

At this point in time, using a mass consumer product to announce one's entry into another smart wearable field is undoubtedly the most prudent approach.

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