Category: Nreal Light

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Nreal Temporarily Halts Production of ‘Light’ AR Headset due to Coronavirus

Nreal, the creators of the Nreal Light AR glasses, today announced that shipments of its developer kit will be affected by the recent developments in Asia surrounding the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The company, which is split between San Francisco and Hangzhou, China, says in a tweet that production of the Nreal Light developer kit has been halted. Delays are said to affect the most recent batch of backers. There’s no indication of when production will start back up; uncertainty in the region has so far become a unfortunate norm.

Hangzhou, along with many other major cities in China, is in the precarious situation where some factories have been provisionally cleared to return to work as the Spring Festival comes to a close, however stringent city-wide lockdowns still stymie the flow of workers and resources.

Nreal Light launched pre-orders for its $1,200 developer kit late last year. The AR headset, which is driven by a tethered compute unit running a Snapdragon 845 mobile chipset, is touted for its more slim-line appearance and large (for AR headsets) 52 degree field of view.

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This WebXR App Helps You Visualize the Global Infection Rate of Coronavirus

The Coronavirus, a novel respiratory virus, began in China with the first reported case on December 31st, 2019. Since then the virus has seen more than 28,000 confirmed cases and 565 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. While the Coronavirus has spread to 24 other countries to date, 99% of cases have been confined to China.

Meanwhile, Nreal is still planning on attending MWC 2020, which has recently been marred with controversy as large companies such as Amazon, Ericsson, LG, and Sony have pulled out citing the obvious public health risk of promoting the largest telecom trade fairs during the epidemic. Event organizers GSMA has added a number of health and safety measures to this year’s MWC, such as a ban on travelers from Hubei province, increased cleansing of public areas, and encouraging among attendees a ‘no-handshake’ policy.

Nreal isn’t the only company in the AR/VR sector to have felt the effects. Facebook has issued a similar statement regarding the availability of Oculus Quest, the standalone VR headset which has been notably in high demand since well before the holiday season.

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Nreal Light Developer Kits Now Available for Pre-order, Starting at $1,200

Nreal made quite the splash at CES earlier this year, showing off its Nreal Light AR headset which made some clear strides to look less like a futuristic helmet and more like a regular pair of sunglasses you might actually wear in public. Starting today, both the $1,200 Developer Kit and the $2,000 Enterprise Edition are officially available for pre-order.

The headset portion of Nreal Light is itself remarkably light, weighing in at only 88g, which is in part due to the fact that it has offloaded its computing to a dedicated Android mini-computer running a Snapdragon 845 chipset. Like HoloLens or Magic Leap One, it has 6DOF inside-out tracking, but also boasts a relatively wide 52-degree (diagonal) field of view, which is thanks to a ‘birdbath’ optical design which projects imagery from dual 1080p microdisplays; both HoloLens and Magic Leap One use waveguides for their near-eye displays.

There’s also going to be a $500 consumer version, which will arrive sometime in early 2020 without the so-called Computing Unit, instead tethering via USB-C to a user’s phone.

As for the dev kits available for pre-order today, the only material difference between both versions is the Enterprise Edition includes a one-year service plan. Nreal doesn’t really mention what that entails exactly, but if it’s anything like we’ve seen in the VR sector, it will likely provide dedicated customer support for businesses.

Nreal is also offering a Light Prescription Lens Set for $500 that contains 15 pairs of lenses with what the company calls a “wide range of diopters for nearsighted users.”

Shipping is said to begin in a month from now, delivering on a rolling basis depending on which batch you managed to nab.

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Lenovo Unveils New AR Headset Prototype Aimed at Business Travelers

Although we’ve had an opportunity to try Nreal Light quickly at trade shows, we haven’t had a chance to go deep enough for a full hands-on piece. If you’re looking for some great coverage of the AR headset, look no further than Tested’s video hands-on to learn more.

Check out the specs and box contents below:

Nreal Light Specs

  • Weight: 88g
  • Connectivity: USB-C compatible
  • Optics: Combined Lightguide / 52 degree diagonal field of view
  • Environmental Understanding：SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) / 6DOF tracking / Plane detection / Image tracking
  • Controller: 3DOF tracking, touchpad, haptic feedback
  • Computing Unit Weight: 170g
  • Hardware Platform:  Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
  • Operating System:  Android

What’s in the box?

  • Nreal Light Glasses
  • Nreal Light Computing Unit
  • Nreal Light Controller
  • Corrective Lens Frames (1)
  • The Clip (1)
  • Nose Pads (3)
  • USB-C Cable
  • Charger
  • Nreal Light Glasses Cleaning Cloth
  • User Guide

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Nreal Denies ‘False And Anticompetitive’ Magic Leap Lawsuit Claims

Nreal Denies ‘False And Anticompetitive’ Magic Leap Lawsuit Claims

Last week we reported that high-profile augmented reality company Magic Leap had filed a lawsuit against Chinese competitor, Nreal. The company claimed that Nreal founder and former Magic Leap software engineer Chi Xu had “wrongfully used and disclosed to Nreal and its collaborators the confidential and proprietary information to which he obtained access as a former Magic Leap employee.”

Today, Nreal denied the accusation.

Nreal’s Statement

“We have heard about the recent media reports regarding Nreal and Magic Leap,” an Nreal spokesperson said in a statement to UploadVR. “Nreal believes that these rumors and accusations are false and anticompetitive in nature. Without additional information we’re not able to provide further comment.”

Nreal is currently working on a pair of AR sunglasses called Nreal Light. They project virtual images into the real world. Users can interact with them using a three degrees of freedom (3DOF) motion controller. Similar to Magic Leap One, the headset is powered by an external power hub. Unlike Magic Leap’s AR headset, though, it can also be powered by smartphones with a Snapdragon 855 chipset or better. We’ve been quite impressed by the device in our limited experience with it.

“Nreal Light was developed with the vision that we would be able to make mixed reality technology accessible to everyone, in a familiar sunglass form factor,” the company’s statement continues. “Along the way, through hard work we discovered breakthroughs and finally managed to unveil Nreal Light at CES 2019. We’ve appreciated the excitement around how Nreal has reinvigorated the AR/MR industry and have continued to work hard to develop innovative consumer-friendly solutions, including allowing our Nreal Light to be powered by smartphones. And we remain committed to allowing all people to see the world in a whole new Light.”

The kit is expected to ship this year. We’ll bring you updates on this lawsuit when we have them.

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nReal Light Is A $499 Consumer AR Headset, Shipping This Year

nReal Light Is A $499 Consumer AR Headset, Shipping This Year

Today AR headset company nReal have announced the debut of the nReal Light, a consumer-focused AR headset with a small sunglasses form factor for just $499. It begins shipping later this year. nReal is also launching the developer edition for $1,199. To help teams get started building experiences for nReal, the SDK will launch in August.

Out of all the AR companies we’ve seen in recent memory, nReal is one of the more promising ones. The nReal Light model has a 1080p display and is focused on ease-of-use. During demos we watched AR concerts on tabletops, streamed video on virtual floating screens, played simple games, and checked tasks with pop-up calendar displays.

For $499 you get the glasses themselves that must be connected to a smartphone running Snapdragon 855 or better. Not all 855 phones will work though, as they will require USB-C for the glasses’ DisplayPort output and there’s an app that will pre-certify only specific phones. This keeps the cost down so they don’t need to ship the device with its own processing unit. We’ll have a full list later this year hopefully before launch.

“nreal light provides a light-weight XR Viewer that allows consumers to take advantage of 5G including high bandwidth and low latency to deliver immersive experiences virtually anywhere,” said Hugo Swart, head of XR, Qualcomm Technologies in a prepared statement. “We worked closely with nreal to ensure Snapdragon smartphone compatibility and ecosystem integration to transform the way people connect and consume entertainment, and to further advance XR to make it the next generation of mobile computing.”

This sort of lightweight and frankly pretty stylish design is likely the future of AR headsets as opposed to bulky visors. nReal’s field of view reportedly falls right around 52 degrees, which is a step up from the original HoloLens and just barely wider than the Magic Leap One’s 50 degrees.

The consumer edition of nReal Light will start shipping in limited quantities later this year but will be mass produced in 2020. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

Update: Details added about USB-C requirements.

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GDC 2019: Nreal AR Sunglasses Target Gamers With NetEase Partnership

GDC 2019: Nreal AR Sunglasses Target Gamers With NetEase Partnership

Having showcased its promising hardware at CES and MWC already, Nreal is targetting gamers at GDC 2019.

The company today announced a partnership with NetEase to showcase content on its AR sunglasses, Nreal Light. Nreal offers a pair of light sunglasses that connect to an external processing unit, be it either a dedicated device or a Snapdragon 855-powered smartphone. The glasses then produce virtual images in the real world, much like Magic Leap One or HoloLens 2. I was surprised by just how well the experience worked when I tried it at MWC. That said, I didn’t get to sample any truly interactive content.

That changes at GDC, where Nreal is showing NetEase AR’s YuME. It’s a puzzle game in which players explore a series of fantastical landscapes and objects. Puzzles rely on optical illusions, getting players to utilize six degrees of freedom (6DOF) tracking to solve them. Nreal Light supports a 3DOF motion controller, which we assume you use to interact with the game.

Nreal hopes to show developers at GDC that it has a viable platform for AR game development. Current AR gaming is largely confined to smartphone-based AR on Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore. Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 is an enterprise-level device that isn’t concerned with entertainment. Magic Leap One does feature plenty of games, but at $2,295, it’s too expensive for many gamers to really consider.

We don’t yet know when Nreal Light will release, nor how much it will cost. But, weighing in at just 85g, we have high hopes that this could be an AR ‘headset’ that really catches on.

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Nreal’s Promise Of True AR Sunglasses Could Be The Real Deal

Nreal’s Promise Of True AR Sunglasses Could Be The Real Deal

I’ve learned to be weary of sunglasses. Not because I doubt their ability to keep me from going blind on sunny days, but because of AR. An AR headset that resembles a pair of light specs is the holy grail of immersive design. But an exhaustive number of companies are now billing sunglasses with simple 2D overlays as ‘AR’. Nreal Light, however, might finally be the real deal. Or at least as close as we’ll get for now.

I got a quick look at the Light at MWC last week. It’s a little like a slimmer Magic Leap, with a headset design almost indistinguishable from a real pair of sunglasses. The trick, though, is that the headset gets its compute power from the smartphone in your pocket. Well, that is if you have a smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip. Otherwise, the kit can be powered by a computing unit with an 845 chip.

The concept is sound, though smartphone-based VR never really proved to be the market-maker some hoped it was. You’d forgive me for being somewhat hesitant to put the kit on, then. But in the end I was pleasantly surprised with the Nreal Light.

My first demo was a classic AR use-case; the virtual screen. A wide-angle football game captured by NextVR hovered in front of me. The Light’s lenses produced a sharp, clear image. The Qualcomm booth showing the gear was tiny, so it was hard to get the entire display into Light’s 52 degree field of view.

That said, tracking was solid (demos were notably directed toward a booth wall and not the busy show floor). I walked up to the screen and leaned in then backed as far away as I could without any noticeable blips in screen placement. I’m still not convinced I’d rather watch something in AR than real life, but this made a good case for it.

The next showcase was even more promising, though. I saw a quick slideshow of 3D sequences from dancers performing a routine to warriors battling out. Again, it all looked sharp and boasted solid tracking. My heart was really stolen by a closing demo of a kitten walking around on the floor, though. I crouched down to get a closer look as it stared back up at me. Though I knew my feline friend wasn’t really there, I couldn’t help but reach out to pretend to pet it. It was one of the most compelling AR moments I’ve had.

Perhaps the most noticeable part of the demo, though, was how comfortable this all felt. Nreal Light is slightly bulkier than a real pair of sunglasses but, at 85g, it was still much lighter than any other AR headset I’ve tried. The wire connecting the glasses to your phone seamlessly runs from the end of one of the temples, much like an earphone wire. Sure, they’re not ‘true’ sunglasses but I could easily see myself tucking the wire under my shirt to use the headset for a few hours. It’s a more than decent workaround until we get AR glasses with fully onboard compute.

It was a much better demo than I was expecting, though the booth was a bit too controlled for stress testing. A nearby assistant handled the Light’s 3DOF controller, for example. As I mentioned, the booth was also too small to really push the tracking and field of view to its limits.

Last week I labeled HoloLens 2 as an AR headset I’d actually use. I’d need to spend more time with Nreal Light’s wider features to give it the same distinction. From my quick demo, though, it’s on the right track.

Nreal isn’t yet talking about release dates and prices for the Light. The company did tell me that smartphone compatibility will be available out of the box.

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