Category: Nreal Light

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Award-Winning App Styly Now Supports Nreal Light

Nreal Light

Psychic VR Lab, the Japanese studio behind XR content creation platform Styly has announced a new app specifically for the Nreal Light mixed reality (MR) glasses. Called Styly for Nreal, the app allows creators to distribute their work via the recently released device.

Styly for Nreal Light

Available through Google Play, Styly for Nreal enables Nreal Light users to view cutting-edge immersive artworks from artists around the world. The app is merely a viewing tool rather than a creative one, all the has to be created on Styly Studio, Psychic VR Lab’s web-based platform.

Styly has been available for a couple of years now, initially supporting virtual reality (VR) before moving into augmented reality (AR) and MR earlier this year. The platform is built around ease of use, so that creators don’t need any programming knowledge to build works. To see what has been created with Styly you can see the nominees for the NEWVIEW Awards 2020, the third year this has been held.

Psychic VR Lab won an award itself recently, winning VRFocus’ very own The Better-Than-Reality Awards last week. The public voted for Styly AR as the Best AR App, beating a strong lineup of rivals.

Styly for Nreal Light

Whilst accessing the Styly app might be easy, at the moment the real difficulty is in acquiring the Neal Light. The smartphone connect MR glasses first arrived in South Korea during the summer followed by Japan. As for western shores there’s still a bit of a wait, Vodafone has confirmed it’ll begin distribution in Europe starting in the Spring beginning with Germany and Spain. 

As Qualcomm unveiled earlier this year when discussing its XR2 5G platform, there is going to be an influx of these ‘XR Viewers’ like the Nreal Light. Smaller, lightweight devices which offer new communication and entertainment possibilities without the limitations suffered by mobile VR headsets like Gear VR.

As further updates for Styly and Nreal Light are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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Nreal Light ab Q1 2021 bei Vodafone

Wie Vodafone mitteilt, wird das Unternehmen im ersten Quartal 2021 die Nreal Light von Nreal in Europa anbieten.

Nreal Light ab Q1 2021 bei Vodafone erhältich

Im Frühjahr 2021 möchte Vodafone die Nreal Light zunächst in Deutschland und Spanien ausrollen und verspricht Augmented- und Mixed-Reality-Erlebnisse über das 5G-Netzwerk mit extrem niedrigen Latenzen. Jedoch werden die Daten nicht direkt aus dem Netzwerk auf die Brille übertragen. Eine Verbindung zu einem High-End-Smartphone ist erforderlich.

Chi Xu, CEO von Nreal, sagt: „Mit Nreal Light können Kunden in Europa die Zukunft erleben. In einer 3D-Mixed-Reality-Umgebung im 5G-Netz von Vodafone können sie ihre Lieblings-Apps ganz neu erfahren und mit ihnen interagieren. Wir freuen uns, gemeinsam mit Vodafone Nreal Light in Deutschland, Spanien und anderen europäischen Ländern zur Verfügung zu stellen – ganz im Einklang mit unserer Mission, Mixed Reality für Kunden auf der ganzen Welt zugänglich zu machen.“

Durch den Verkauf über Vodafone scheint die Nreal Light die erste in Deutschland verfügbare Mixed Reality Brille für Konsumenten zu werden. Zudem kooperieren Vodafone und Nreal bei der Entwicklung neuer AR- und MR-Anwendungen. So sollen Sport-Apps, Multi-Player-Spiele, Navigationssysteme und viele weitere Anwendungen gerade in der Entwicklung sein. Zudem versprechen Vodafone und Nreal immersive Konferenzen und eine Remote-Zusammenarbeit für unterschiedliche Bereiche.

Aktuell haben wir noch keine Informationen darüber, zu welchem Preis die Brille angeboten werden soll. Denkbar wäre auch ein Bundle mit einem passenden Smartphone. Wir sind sehr gespannt auf die Nreal Light und freuen uns auf das kommende Jahr.

(Quelle: Pressebox)

Der Beitrag Nreal Light ab Q1 2021 bei Vodafone zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Nreal Light ab Q1 2021 bei Vodafone

Wie Vodafone mitteilt, wird das Unternehmen im ersten Quartal 2021 die Nreal Light von Nreal in Europa anbieten.

Nreal Light ab Q1 2021 bei Vodafone erhältich

Im Frühjahr 2021 möchte Vodafone die Nreal Light zunächst in Deutschland und Spanien ausrollen und verspricht Augmented- und Mixed-Reality-Erlebnisse über das 5G-Netzwerk mit extrem niedrigen Latenzen. Jedoch werden die Daten nicht direkt aus dem Netzwerk auf die Brille übertragen. Eine Verbindung zu einem High-End-Smartphone ist erforderlich.

Chi Xu, CEO von Nreal, sagt: „Mit Nreal Light können Kunden in Europa die Zukunft erleben. In einer 3D-Mixed-Reality-Umgebung im 5G-Netz von Vodafone können sie ihre Lieblings-Apps ganz neu erfahren und mit ihnen interagieren. Wir freuen uns, gemeinsam mit Vodafone Nreal Light in Deutschland, Spanien und anderen europäischen Ländern zur Verfügung zu stellen – ganz im Einklang mit unserer Mission, Mixed Reality für Kunden auf der ganzen Welt zugänglich zu machen.“

Durch den Verkauf über Vodafone scheint die Nreal Light die erste in Deutschland verfügbare Mixed Reality Brille für Konsumenten zu werden. Zudem kooperieren Vodafone und Nreal bei der Entwicklung neuer AR- und MR-Anwendungen. So sollen Sport-Apps, Multi-Player-Spiele, Navigationssysteme und viele weitere Anwendungen gerade in der Entwicklung sein. Zudem versprechen Vodafone und Nreal immersive Konferenzen und eine Remote-Zusammenarbeit für unterschiedliche Bereiche.

Aktuell haben wir noch keine Informationen darüber, zu welchem Preis die Brille angeboten werden soll. Denkbar wäre auch ein Bundle mit einem passenden Smartphone. Wir sind sehr gespannt auf die Nreal Light und freuen uns auf das kommende Jahr.

(Quelle: Pressebox)

Der Beitrag Nreal Light ab Q1 2021 bei Vodafone zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Oppo Unveils Smartphone-tethered AR Glasses, Push for Content Coming in 2021

Oppo, the China-based smartphone manufacturer, held its second annual Inno Day in Shenzhen, China today, showing off a new version of its concept AR glasses.

Called Oppo AR Glass 2021, the company’s latest augmented reality hardware boasts a new ‘split’ design, something that makes it both more compact and lighter than the previous HoloLens-style model, which made its debut at last year’s Inno Day.

Oppo AR Glass 2021 is said to be “nearly 75% lighter than its predecessor,” moving from on-board computing to a tethered design, and replacing wave guide optics with a similar ‘birdbath’ optics design seen in Nreal Light.

Image courtesy GSMArena, Oppo

Like Nreal Light, Oppo AR Glass is intended to tether to a smartphone to drive interactions, such as the Oppo Find X2 Pro, which packs a Snapdragon 865 chipset.

Presented at the company’s Inno Day livestream, its birdbath optics are said to improve image contrast by 53%, brightness uniformity by 98%, and pixels per degree by 40% in comparison to last year’s model.

The company didn’t include an field of view estimate, however it says using AR Glass 2021 is like “watching a 90-inch TV just three meters away.”

Image courtesy GSMArena, Oppo

The headset includes stereo fisheye cameras, one ToF sensor, and one RGB camera. It’s also said to support smartphone and gesture-based interactions, and include updated real-time simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) tracking.

It’s still uncertain when developers—or even consumers for that matter—will see Oppo AR Glasses hardware itself, however it seems the company is gearing up with several programs throughout 2021 created to further build out its content offerings.

The company already showed off some of its “early stage” content, which includes a MOBA-style game, a tower defense game, an English-learning app, a video viewing app from iQIYI, and a home furniture app from online retailer JD.

Additionally, an Oppo developer program will be launched next year, which will include a recruitment push for AR content partners, a developer support program, and developer competition in China. A client-side SDK will also be released at some point next year.

The post Oppo Unveils Smartphone-tethered AR Glasses, Push for Content Coming in 2021 appeared first on Road to VR.

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Spatial’s Collab App to Come Pre-Installed on Nreal Light

Nreal Light

The Nreal Light mixed reality (MR) glasses are due to arrive by the end of 2020 as a developer kit. In the run-up to launch Nreal has announced that the kit will come with two pieces of software pre-installed; Spatial and DingTalk Work Space.

Nreal Light

Both apps are built around virtual collaboration, a key consideration for a lot of companies as employees work remotely. Spatial is the better known of the two, enabling users to create their own rooms and import their own content like 3D models. Another benefit is the fact that Spatial is already available on platforms like Oculus Quest, enabling cross-platform meetings.

“We’ve worked hard to ensure the Spatial experience is as easy and seamless as possible, especially to our huge influx of new users less familiar with AR and VR applications,” said Jacob Loewenstein, Head of Business at Spatial in a statement. “Our goal from the start has been to make our collaborative workplaces accessible to the masses, which is why we are so thrilled to be chosen as one of the pre-installed apps on the Nreal Light. Nreal marks the first mixed reality hardware platform with real potential to become the device to bring headworn computing to everyone. We’re excited for what the future holds for Spatial when Nreal Light ends up in the hands of consumers later this year.”

DingTalk’s multi-screen layout displays video side-by-side in a curved 180° presentation arc, mimicking a physical meeting. Features also include sharing and manipulating information with other call participants in real-time.

Nreal - Spatial

“Companies are waking up to the realization that AR and MR are viable substitutes that connect employees in a powerful way by transcending their physical presence but is more dynamic than 2D video calls,” Chi Xu, Founder and CEO of Nreal adds. “With killer apps like Spatial and DingtTalk pre-installed in the Nreal Light Developer Kit, we’re delivering exactly what consumers are looking for in MR glasses ahead of the availability of the consumer version of Nreal Light. We’re also excited to see what other types of apps that developers might bring to the table tomorrow as Nreal Light presents a unique and once-in-a-lifetime chance to ride the initial wave of the mass consumer’s eagerness for mixed reality.”

The Nreal Light Developer Kit is currently available for pre-order, retailing for $1,199 USD. The actual mass-market consumer version is expected to be sold for $499, able to connect to current smartphones as well as newer 5G devices using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or 865 Mobile Platform. For further updates on the MR glasses, keep reading VRFocus.

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Influx of Qualcomm XR2 Powered 5G XR Viewers are Coming

Qualcomm

Technology isn’t quite there yet when it comes to a stylish pair of sunglasses which have virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR) tech built-in, but steps towards that end goal are being made. Today, Qualcomm has unveiled a selection of ‘XR Viewers’ which use its XR2 5G platform slated to arrive in the next 12 months.

Qualcomm - XR Viewers

Some of these have already been seen before, most notably the Nreal Light and the Panasonic UHD VR Eyeglasses which appeared during CES 2020 in January and XRSpace. What all of these represent is an immersive ecosystem of companies from smartphone makers to global telecommunications operators looking to drive a new category of headsets which are consumer-friendly.

All the XR Viewers are designed to tether to the latest 5G-capable smartphones powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or 865 processors, thus providing quality XR content via 5G’s high bandwidth and low latency technology. Currently, XR viewer manufacturers include 3Glasses, iQIYI, Nreal, OPPO, Panasonic, Pico and Shadow Creator, while smartphone OEM’s who are participating are ASUS, BlackShark, OnePlus, OPPO, Smartisan, vivo and ZTE.

While devices like Nreal Light are slated for a 2020 release, Qualcomm expects most of these to arrive within a year, although some will likely be specific to certain markets like China. To ensure seamless connections for a consumer-friendly experience, Qualcomm’s XR Optimized Certification Program tests performance and validates compatibility between both devices, looking at head tracking, power, thermal, motion to photon latency and other variables.

Nreal

“With the support of Qualcomm Technologies, we plan to optimize these VR glasses to work seamlessly with 5G-enabled smartphones,” said Michiko Ogawa, CTO, Appliances Company, Panasonic Corporation. “With a combination of 5G connectivity and compact, lightweight, ultra-high image quality VR glasses, we hope to deliver highly immersive experiences for live music & sports events in 2021 and beyond.”

At the same time Qualcomm has laid out its expectations for the future of this sector, envisioning that the tether will disappear within the next four years; devices wirelessly connecting to phones. While a full 5G standalone headset is somewhere between 5-10 years away.

As development continues and the XR Viewers come to market, VRFocus will bring you further updates.

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Nreal Dev Multiplayer Bundle on Sale, WebXR Support & MR Tower Defence Game in Development

Nreal

Mixed reality (MR) headset maker Nreal is currently in the process of attracting developers to its platform as it continues to edge towards a consumer launch. This week the company has revealed its latest efforts which include a new multiplayer bundle, work on its first in-house videogame, new partnerships and WebXR support.

Nreal Tower

The Nreal Light Developer Kit has been available for a little while now, retailing for $1,199 USD. Expanding upon this initial kit is the new Nreal Hand in Hand bundle which comes supplied with two Nreal Light dev-kits and the Lens Box (normally $499) with 15 pairs of prescription lenses for $2,559. Saving developers 14 percent off the normal price.

Nreal has created this bundle as its software development kit (NRSDK) now includes a multiplayer mode. With this enabled developers can allow multiple Nreal Light users to see and interact with each other in the same MR environment, whether that’s for meetings or co-op videogames.

On the subject of videogames, Nreal has teased the first details for a tower defence-style MR title called Nreal Tower. Accessed in the default developer environment it will be used as an example for those new to the platform. Plus developers can also contribute and collaborate on Nreal Tower‘s creation.

Nreal

Additionally, Nreal is collaborating with Deutsche Telekom’s tech incubator, hubraum, to find, incubate and publish new MR apps. These will be part of a new Mixed Reality Program that will launch globally on 28th May. Apps will have a chance to be among the first to arrive for the consumer version of Nreal Light.

Another feature in the works is WebXR support. The ability to display web applications is an important step to wider adoption. Support is expected to arrive for the NRSDK later this year.

There’s still no word on the consumer launch date when that happens VRFocus will let you know.

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Nreal Teases All-In-One HoloLens 2 Competitor For Late This Year

Nreal is teasing an enterprise-focused standalone AR headset for launch in Q4 2020, a variant of its Nreal Light AR glasses.

The company released a darkened concept image of the headset, which we’ve brightened here:

This would be Nreal’s second product. Their first, Nreal Light , is pair of AR glasses intended for consumers. Nreal planned to ship the Light in 2019, but delayed until spring 2020. However, production was recently halted due to the novel coronavirus. Nreal seems to expect to be able to produce hardware at scale later this year though, it seems.

The Nreal Light glasses are tethered to either a high end recent Android phone or an Nreal compute pack. But Nreal’s new all-in-one would integrate the chip into the headset, preferred by professionals and enterprise because it’s easier to deploy and maintain one device per user than two.

From the looks of the sketches on the marketing materials, the chip and battery are likely in the backplate on the rear of the user’s head.

Nreal expanding to enterprise mirrors the path of Magic Leap One, which also started with consumers. For Magic Leap, this followed a report from The Information claiming the company sold just 6,000 units in the first six months, in contrast to its target of 100,000 per year — itself a revision from the CEO’s expectation of 1 million.

AR headsets haven’t appealed to consumers yet, due to the high price and relative infancy of the still-bulky technology. We’re still years away from the realization of all day lightweight AR glasses many dream of. We’ll see if Nreal is able prove an early adopter market with Light when it is finally able to manufacture at scale.

This is the opposite of Microsoft’s strategy. Its HoloLens found adoption by enterprise and militaries. Large companies and governments can afford the sticker price, and AR can be useful for training, collaboration, and visualization.

Nreal clearly wants in on this market, given the company has already built much of the technology needed by developing consumer glasses. Whether it can build the same software ecosystem and platform is yet to be seen, but support for regular Android apps should make this task easier.

Nreal hasn’t released a price yet, but told VentureBeat it will be higher than the $1200 Light + compute pack, but “competitive”. Magic Leap One is priced at $3000 and HoloLens 2 is priced at $3500.

The post Nreal Teases All-In-One HoloLens 2 Competitor For Late This Year appeared first on UploadVR.

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Nreal AR Glasses To Get Controller-Free Hand Tracking Soon

Nreal Light AR glasses will get controller-free hand tracking in a near-future software update, thanks to a partnership with Qualcomm-backed Clay AIR.

Nreal Light

Nreal is a China-based company founded in 2017 with the goal of delivering lightweight consumer AR glasses before the major tech companies. Their first product is called Nreal Light. Instead of having on-board processing, the Nreal Light glasses are tethered to either a high end recent Android phone or an Nreal compute pack.

Specifically, the company claims the glasses will work with any Android phone which uses the Snapdragon 855 processor. That should include the Samsung Galaxy S10, Google Pixel 4, OnePlus 7, Galaxy Note 10, and more.

Nreal opened preorders back in November for a “developer kit” which includes the glasses and compute pack, for around $1200. The glasses alone are expected to be priced around $500 to consumers.

Nreal planned to ship the Nreal Light in 2019, but delayed until spring 2020. However, production was recently halted due to the novel coronavirus.

Controller-Free Hand Tracking

Nreal’s controller-free hand tracking is powered by California-based optical hand tracking company Clay AIR, which is backed by Qualcomm.

Developers can use the SDK to display the user’s hands as full hands, separate fingers, a bounding box, cursor or customized skins. The SDK will report when the user makes gestures such as pinch, point, grab, swipe and zoom.

This should make for a significantly improved user experience over Nreal’s previous default input method: your smartphone used as a 3DoF rotational laser pointer (similar to an Oculus Go controller). You can still opt for 6DoF controllers via Finch if you want, for an extra $200.

Nreal is not the first AR headset to get hand tracking. It’s a feature present in both Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 and the Magic Leap One. But it is the first to do so without a depth sensor, just like Oculus Quest was the first VR device to do this. Real time hand tracking without hardware-level depth information is significantly more difficult to do, requiring state of the art machine learning algorithms.

AR like Nreal is trying to build is extremely hard to do well. Outside-the-home AR faces a larger set of problems to overcome as compared with inside-the-house VR. A range of lighting conditions and an ever-changing world present significant hurdles for both AR displays and tracking, and our last few demos of Nreal were not without issue.

The fact that this hand tracking is provided by a third party (Clay AIR) also raises the possibility that other manufacturers, including potential future Oculus Quest competitors, could integrate this same technology.

We’ve seen the interesting ways developers have been experimenting with controller-free hand tracking in the VR space on Quest. If Nreal is able to sort out the production problems and gets this hardware out to a wider audience, we’ll keep a close eye on what possibilities it opens for developers in AR.

The post Nreal AR Glasses To Get Controller-Free Hand Tracking Soon appeared first on UploadVR.

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5G Could be the Future of AR Collaboration

During CES 2020 last month VRFocus saw the potential of augmented reality (AR) collaboration demoing Spatial’s software solution. Today, the company has revealed a new effort in partnership with several companies including AR headset manufacturer Nreal to accelerate mass-market adoption of 5G-optimized AR collaboration tools.

Nreal - Spatial

5G looks set to become the technology of 2020 as compatible devices begin to flood the market. Hence why more and more companies are seeking to employ 5G across a range of use cases, AR collaboration being one of them.

Spatial and Nreal have teamed up with Qualcomm Technologies, LG Uplus, KDDI, and Deutsche Telekom to help make this a reality as soon as possible. Each company will work together to share technical requirements and best practices, with Spatial’s device-agnostic collaboration software, coupled with Nreal’s latest headset ‘Nreal Light’ offering the first 5G combination. Spatial also plans to make its platform available on consumer 5G devices later this year.

“Consumers will be able to work or interact with anyone, anywhere as if sitting next to each other,” said Co-Founder and CEO Anand Agarawala in a statement. “Spatial is already in use and being actively explored by a significant portion of the Fortune 1000. A large part of that interest is driven by improved access to hardware and, as 5G networks and mass-market headsets like Nreal Light become commonplace, we’re throwing jet fuel into that fire. This combination of hardware, chipset, and carrier giants is a perfect storm for AR just like what drove the mobile revolution in the early 2000s with smartphones, high-speed mobile data, and app stores.”

Nreal Light Developer Kit“The 5G networks will bring out the change in the way people communicate. The 3G networks enabled voice call to video call. The 4G networks make that video call popular to the public. The 5G networks will promise the communication in virtual reality with virtual 3D avatar which makes a video call even more realistic,” said Daewon Song, the head of LG Uplus Future Device Unit. “That is why LG Uplus is working with Spatial for telepresence solution, to prove the validity and potential of Spatial’s Telepresence on Nreal AR glasses.

Spatial’s platform is already available on headsets like Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap 1 in a limited capacity as customers need to signup to unlock the application. The Nreal Light developer kit is available to pre-order now for $1,199.00, weighing in at 88g whilst sporting a 1080P display with a 52° field of view (FoV). As further details of the project are released, VRFocus will let you know.