Samsung has been playing with AR glasses for years, most recently launching an extremely basic set of image projection glasses on the CES 2020 stage, but I have never seen the company suggest that it would like to build a truly ambitious device wearable augmented computing – maybe even today.
WalkingCat, a very reliable source of gadget leaks, published two new concept videos that show some of the fun things that a pair of “Samsung Lite glasses” can do, like designing a giant virtual screen where you can play, allowing you to relax in your private cinema, a giant virtual computer monitor, triggering a “mode of sunglasses ”with automatic dimming or act as an instant first-person viewing screen for your DJI drone, complete with telemetry.
The second video shows the very similar concept “Samsung AR Glasses”, although this time it is allowing the user to “see” 3D digital objects appear in the real world, a look that should be immediately familiar to you, if you have seen any of the marketing Microsoft’s HoloLens.
If you’ve never tried a Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap, however, you should know that the reality is a far cry from the visualizations you see here. Today’s combinations of waveguides, lasers, projectors and micro mirrors often offer a very small field of view with transparent AR glasses like these. If you are next to a virtual computer monitor, you will only be able to see part of it at a time – the rest will be out of sight.
For me, the most interesting part of these videos is how Samsung imagines that you will use a smartwatch to navigate the interfaces. In the short term, this can be more realistic than trying to touch things that don’t really exist or gesturing in the air with your hands, and smartwatch control is a paradigm that other companies that work with AR headsets are undoubtedly in. considering. Apple has a smartwatch and an AR headset in development, of course, and the Facebook hardware division that is building AR glasses is reportedly working on a smartwatch as well.
Speaking of Samsung and smartwatches, two known leaks are now saying that Samsung may return to Android for its next smartwatch, instead of its own Tizen platform, which has been used for watches for years.