OPPO officially unveiled the Air Glass during INNO Day 2021. The brand’s first-ever aR (assisted Reality) device is equipped with OPPO’s self-designed Spark Micro Projector, Micro LED, and a bespoke diffraction optical waveguide display that supports four different user interactions.
Design
The OPPO Air Glass is built on a monocle waveguide design based on OPPO’s design philosophy and features free-flowing curves that result in a lightweight and minimalist appearance. While the main body’s design takes inspiration from feathers and features a touch bar that resembles the feather shaft.
Meanwhile, the shape of the monocular lens is inspired by the wings of the cicada. The lens itself is secured in a light and slim frame – manufactured with CNC technique – which houses all the components including the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor.
Spark Micro Projector
The OPPO self-developed Spark Micro Projector houses the Micro LED and five high-transparency glass lenses. The projector is one of the most compact projection systems in the industry to date with merely 0.5cc or roughly the size of a coffee bean. It features a CNC metal enclosure with a glass lens module that provides better heat dissipation.
In addition, the Micro LED inside the projector produces a brightness of up to 3 million nits. Weighing approximately 30g, the OPPO Air Glass is one of the lightest wearable devices in the industry.
Bespoke Optical Waveguide Display
The bespoke optical diffraction waveguide supports two display modes – 16-level grayscale and 256-level grayscale – that deliver up to 1400 nits average brightness in any condition. Two layers of sapphire glass are used to encase the waveguide on both sides, providing protection and improved transparency.
This can also be used by people with refractive errors such as myopia and hypermetropia and is available in two sizes and two different types of frames – a silver half-frame and a black full-frame for users who require corrective eyewear.
Controls
The OPPO Air Glass can be controlled using the Smart Glass app on OPPO Watch 2 and any OPPO smartphone running on ColorOS 11 and above with four methods of interaction – touch, voice, hand motions, and head movements.
When paired with an OPPO Watch 2, users can use hand movements to confirm, cancel, and switch application cards. Opening or closing applications can also be done by head movements – gentle nod or shaking the head.
Applications
Various applications come pre-loaded on the OPPO Air Glass that is developed by OPPO such as Weather, Calendar, Health, Teleprompter, Translation, and Navigation. The Translation app works by automatically translating the voice input into the target language and then immediately displayed on the other user’s Air Glass. It currently supports Mandarin Chinese-English two-way translation, and Mandarin Chinese-Japanese and Mandarin Chinese-Korean will be offered in the future.
Meanwhile, the Teleprompter shows an adaptive text display that makes a presentation at work or in public easy. While Navigation gives users instruction for travel either by foot or bike. The Explore Nearby feature inside the app displays information about nearby stores and other attractions based on the user’s current location and orientation – currently, this only works with Baidu.
Availability
The OPPO Air Glass is launching in the Chinese Mainland market in Q1 2022 and will be available in Black or White colors along with two custom frame accessories.
