After other big names in tech, it’s the Chinese company Nreal’s turn to announce the arrival of its augmented reality glasses. They will initially be available in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2022. The promise is to allow users to enjoy a variety of content on a large screen while on the move, in particular thanks to 5G.
The promise of an IMAX display wherever you want
Snapchat, Amazon, Niantic are not the only ones wanting to democratize augmented reality. The start-up Nreal, based in Beijing and specialized in AR (Augmented Reality), announced on April 26 the arrival in Europe of its new connected glasses. They are called the Nreal Air AR and will be available this spring in the UK. Internet service provider EE, a subsidiary of British telecommunications giant BT Group, will take care of its distribution, reports CNBC.
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The main argument of these glasses is to allow its users to watch films, series or even play video games on a large screen, even away from home. Several solutions exist to accomplish this feat, either via 5G compatibility to enjoy video content via streaming, or even cloud-gaming for the video game part. The glasses can also be connected directly to a smartphone for screen sharing.
With a mode called “Air Casting”, the image can be displayed on a virtual screen of 130 inches (330 cm) located three meters in front of the user. The display will also be in IMAX, that is to say 201 inches (510 cm) of screen size, with a projection six meters from the wearer of the glasses. The quality of the image will also be there because the lenses of the frame have two OLED screens, specifies the DailyMail.
AR, simple gadget or real revolution?
The glasses have a second mode called “MR Space” which immerses the user in a mixed reality environment. This is the integration of virtual objects in the space where the wearer of the glasses is. This mode will for example make it possible to display several screens at the same time around you to simultaneously navigate in several applications in augmented reality.
The manufacturer has not yet disclosed the exact release date, but will soon provide new information. Peng Jin, co-founder of Nreal, said augmented reality “ will soon experience a revolutionary transformation, just as the internet did back then and adds that ” AR will transcend the current mobile experience, especially for watching videos, exercising and playing PC video games or through cloud-gaming. »
Facebook’s renaming of Meta in 2021 reflects Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitions to create a virtual world, the metaverse. This new lens from the tech giant has revived the craze for AR technologies, as well as virtual reality. By 2021, the company had invested $10 billion in the metaverse and would like to replace smartphones with glasses. However, we will have to wait to see if this technology will keep its revolutionary promises.