Oppo Air Glass Assisted Reality Wearable, MariSilicon X Imaging Neural Processing Unit Launched at Inno Day 1

Oppo Air Glass assisted reality smart glass and MariSilicon X dedicated imaging neural processing unit (NPU) have been launched on the first day of Oppo Inno Day annual event in China. The glass is lightweight and features a single-glass design. It is fitted with a custom projector and has a Sapphire Crystal Glass protection on top. Meanwhile, MariSilicon X is aimed at revolutionising photography with Oppo smartphones. Oppo says that the NPU is power efficient, and its highlight is the ability to capture 4K videos at night. Reports also suggest that the Chinese company is also expected to launch a foldable smartphone.

Oppo Air Glass price, availability

Oppo Air Glass price is yet to be revealed. The company said at the Inno Day virtual conference on Tuesday that the smart glass will be a limited-edition device and will be available in the first quarter of 2022 in China only. Without giving a definite timeline, the company also said that the smart glass SDK is also coming soon.

Oppo Air Glass features, specifications

Yi Xu, Director, XR Technology, Oppo dubbed the new Air Glass as a portable, practical, and accessible device. It is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform and weighs 30 grams. The assisted reality glass has a single glass design and has a Spark Micro Projector with micro-LED that throws the information on two layers of a scratch-resistant Sapphire Crystal. The proprietary projector is built of a five-lens projection system. On the other hand, the Sapphire Crystal uses a bespoke diffractive optical waveguide under the hood that is claimed to offer a 256-level grayscale display area along with a peak brightness of 1,400 nits.

Oppo Air Glass is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 SoC
Photo Credit: Oppo

When asked about the feasibility of the glass design for all users, Xu told Gadgets 360 that the company is also launching spectacles frames in Black and Silver colours which have a magnetic strip on the right temple. While the Black colour option will have a full-frame design, the Silver variant will be in half-frame. Both will be available in two different sizes. By default, the Oppo Air Glass is designed to stick on the temple and can be used easily by those who wear spectacles.

Oppo says that the Air Glass can establish a seamless connection with Oppo smartphones and smartwatches. Once connected, users can adjust settings such as brightness and sound volume directly on the glass. Users can also wirelessly also turn off notifications or launch and close apps using the control app installed on their phone or smartwatch.

The wearers of the Air Glass can use touch, voice, and head gestures to control the notifications. While explaining the head gestures, the Oppo executive said that wearers can gently nod their head to open a notification and shake the head side-to-side to dismiss the notification. Users can also view notifications in full by tapping the Air Glass' touch bar located on the side. Moreover, the glass allows switching between multiple apps by swiping along the touch bar.

In addition to real-time notification alerts, the Air Glass can be used to check weather updates and calendar meetings.

Other features include a teleprompter mode and a translation mode. Users can tap the touch bar to move translated text on the glass. Oppo is also testing hand gesture tracking with the Oppo Watch to let users move the text by using hand gestures.

Oppo said that the Air Glass converts the voice into text and then translates it into a preferred language.

When released, the glass will support translation between Chinese and English, though Oppo has promised to soon offer support for Korean and Japanese languages as well.

Oppo Air Glass also offers a navigation feature which can be used by people while walking or running as well as cycling. Oppo has collaborated with Baidu for Baidu Maps for the navigation feature.

The Air Glass comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity support and includes a speaker as well as dual microphones. Oppo claimed that the glass would become the third screen for consumers — after smartphones and smartwatches.

Oppo MariSilicon X features

Oppo MariSilicon X NPU is manufactured on a 6nm advanced process node, and features Tera bps dedicated memory bandwidth, Oppo says. The NPU has a 20bit Ultra HDR Image Signal Processor and is claimed to be the most power efficient imaging NPU (11.6 TOPS/W power efficiency). It features RGBW Pro mode which essentially helps the NPU capture 4K Ultra HDR (1,000,000:1) video and 4K Night Video, Oppo says.