An engineer's personal view on the ideal AR glasses
Currently, AR glasses have significant limitations for everyday use, and their current niche is more entertainment (video) than useful. Here, I'd like to describe how I see their use as an engineer.
All glasses should have a single, open protocol and data transfer drivers. Any developer should be able to write a program in their favorite programming language to transmit video to the glasses and read data from them. Perhaps a new protocol for transmitting virtual space (likely similar to RDP) should be developed.
The glasses shouldn't have expensive, high-performance chips (where are you going to put the heat from the OLED and CPU?). If the glasses are accidentally crushed, it shouldn't significantly impact the user's budget when buying new ones.
It would be great to have Wi-Fi 7+ built into the glasses in addition to the wired version, but if this creates unnecessary heat or poses health problems, then only the wired version should be used.
The glasses should have a separate cooling circuit/channels for the sensors to avoid overheating the forehead and eyebrow area during prolonged wear. Perhaps a piezoelectric fan would improve the situation without significantly increasing the weight (but what about vibration?).
The glasses should have bone conduction speakers instead of regular speakers. People around me shouldn't hear my sound.
A large FOV is great, but only with a high PPD for comfortable text processing. The PPD in the center can be higher than the PPD at the periphery.
The glasses should have eye tracking for simple hands-free operation and cryptographic security based on retinal scanning.
The glasses should have a noise-canceling microphone so that the other person can hear us clearly.
The glasses should have stereo cameras and be able to output real-time video to the USB-C port, as well as sensor data.
It should be possible to adjust the distance between the eyes and the glasses. For example, in Xreal One, I can't move the glasses closer than the nose pads allow.
An external computing unit, I'd call it a cyberdeck 😄
I see two development paths here.
- Ideally, we should get rid of it and move toward the concept of multiple cyberdecks depending on the situation: one cyberdeck at the work PC, another cyberdeck in the car, etc.
Or 2. Have a simple cyberdeck without bells and whistles like cameras, displays, etc. Its purpose is to save the user's application state, store data (for example, with the ability to install NVMe drives)
and (most importantly) serve as a hub for connecting to other cyberdeck stations.
It should have several USB-C ports that will allow you to connect both simple HID devices and complex ones that will transmit images.
For example, I'm working on a PC and connected to it via a cyberdeck. Through my glasses, I can see my monitors, which I previously set up for this workspace. Workspaces are always saved.
In another situation, I'm driving a car and connecting to the car's PC. With my glasses, I can see all my car's cameras, navigation, and other apps that enhance driving comfort and safety. It's important to note that the glasses should be synchronized with the car's position, for example, using a compass, so that when turning, I have full 3DoF/6DoF resolution inside the car, rather than a fixed image in front of my eyes.
When I'm shopping, I only have the basic cyberdeck running. For example, I want to see price comparisons on products. To reduce the load on the basic cyberdeck, it can transmit data to my home workstation for AI processing and return the results, or to a paid provider's cloud for the same calculations.
For fast and convenient connections and disconnections, USB-C should have a single magnetic connection standard.
Perhaps in some places, USB-C can be replaced with Ethernet.
We need to strive to control virtual space using controller gloves. Gloves can be made using magnetic encoders (such as the AS5600) with attachments near the finger joints. This will ensure high precision and relative compactness.
Let me remind you separately that Linux became very popular, in part, because it was open and everyone could customize it for their own needs.