Level 3 — Smart Glasses as a Virtual Screen
This is the level that, in my opinion, has the most potential to penetrate the consumer market.
Full disclosure, I own a pair of Rokid Max. I’ve been using them and experimenting with them for a while now, and overall, I’m happy with the device. My review will refer to my experience with the Rokid Max.
These glasses use a prism to redirect the light coming from the top of the glasses, instead of a waveguide. This approach has the downside of making the front of the glass very thick, but it produces very large high-resolution screens (215’’ for the Rokid Max). Once you get over this element of style, these glasses are perfect for their purpose, which is to carry a large television in your pocket — or as I like to say, a personal movie theater.
These glasses generally don’t embed a computer but rather rely on a companion system to run applications — either a phone, dedicated system (Rokid Station or XReal Beam), console, or PC. This has both the advantage of making them relatively light and, more importantly, making them flexible as you can connect them to anything that has an HDMI or display port.
These glasses aim to create a satisfying level of immersion, although not as much as a VR headset can produce. They are targeted at two main applications: entertainment and productivity. When applied to entertainment, they offer a practical way to have access to a high-quality screen experience anywhere. For example, if you are commuting, you can take out your glasses, connect them to your phone, and watch Netflix on a giant screen. Similarly, you can deploy a workstation anywhere by connecting them to a mini-computer or a pocket computer such as the Nimo planet [https://www.nimoplanet.com/], as long as you carry some kind of keyboard/mouse. Personally, I connected my Rokid Max to a Raspberry Pi, and I carry a mini-keyboard.
In my opinion, this type of glasses, and level 4 that follows, are bound to become prevalent among consumers as I genuinely appreciate what they propose in terms of functionality. I use my Rokid Max on a regular basis to watch movies and as a productivity tool.
The pricing of this type of glasses is also a factor to consider, as they are even more accessible than level 2 devices, with pricing in the range of $399 USD. I question myself whether I would recommend buying one of these or a Quest 3. The fact is that those are different systems, meant for different types of entertainment. Quest 3 provides a deeply immersive experience, while Level 3 glasses are more for casual entertainment. The pricing might seem comparable, but remember that the Quest 3 requires that you buy games and applications to enjoy the full experience.
Finally, there is one thing that bothers me with the XReal, Rokid, and TCL glasses — their lenses are not clear. They all offer a dimming adjustment, but none of them make it possible to have clear lenses, which makes it very impractical to wear when not in use. It is my opinion that should one of them provide clear lenses, they would cut out a good portion of the Level 2 glasses market, as the screen is immensely bigger than the waveguide technology. Using my Raspberry Pi, I can develop HUD applications easily and adapt them to my needs in Python, but the lens shading prevents me from wearing the glasses continuously.
Besides the shaded lenses, the casing for the physical screen hides the top part of the visual field. When wearing them continuously, I needed to arc back my head to look at anything a bit above the horizon. It is a predicament, but not as significant as the shaded lenses.
Note: I did find a pair of glasses that seem to provide clear lenses, but it’s a wild guess at this point.
