Meta universe blessing! 1.1 billion installs! What are the hot spots in the AR industry that Apple, Huawei and OPPO have entered?
Meta Universe Apple Huawei AR Industry
Recently, the rise of Metaverse has driven the expectations of AR/VR devices and smart glasses. Although the current head-mounted displays and smart glasses are not large, after the popularization of 5G communications and multimedia content, it can bring a new experience to users, and the meta-universe will explode. Omdia estimates that in 2021, the shipment of Metaverse display devices will be about 9 million, and it will grow to 21 million in 2025.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and billionaire Bill Gates, optimistically predicted in his year-end letter recently that the rise of the metaverse will greatly change future work. He wrote in his blog: “In the next two or three years, I predict that most virtual meetings will shift from two-dimensional images to meta-universe, a 3D space with virtual images. The idea is that you will eventually use your avatar in a Meet people in a virtual space. This virtual space can replicate the feeling of being in a real room with them." Bill's view is that users must wear a virtual reality helmet or glasses to achieve this.
Coincidentally, investment banks are also optimistic about the prospects of headsets. On December 13, top investment bank JP Morgan Chase raised the target price of Apple Inc. to $210, which is currently the highest target price given by Wall Street. JPMorgan Chase is optimistic about Apple, based on two points: 1. Increasing demand for Apple mobile phones in 2022 will bring the company's revenue and profits. The 5G iPhoneSE that is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2022 may become a hot product, priced at US$400; 2. Optimistic The market forecast also comes from the analysts’ optimistic view of Apple’s two new product categories-Meta Universe and Autonomous Driving. AR/MR glasses are Apple’s logical contribution to Meta Universe, and we will be able to live in a more immersive digital world. Play and work.

On December 10, at FBEC2021, Huawei’s VR/AR product line president Li Tengyue stated that Huawei’s AREngine has been installed 1.1 billion times, covering 106 models and over 2,000 applications. Huawei predicted optimistically at the conference that by 2025, the AR market will reach 300 billion U.S. dollars and the number of users will reach 1.2 billion.
Why are Apple, Huawei, and Microsoft optimistic about their application scenarios for the AR/VR devices that are popular in Metaverse? What is the latest patent layout of these companies? In reality, apart from these big companies, HTC, Pico, Dapeng, Nolo and iQiyi OPPO have entered the domestic market. What trends do their latest products represent? Electronic enthusiasts will explain it in detail for you.
Apple has been in the AR field for 10 years and will launch new products next year! It may be the first application in the fields of games, media and communications

Some AR/VR related companies acquired by Apple

Picture: Electronic enthusiasts sorted out according to public information

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple's upcoming mixed reality headset will be equipped with 15 optical camera modules. Of the 15 camera modules, 8 will be used for see-through augmented reality experience, 6 modules will be used for "innovative biometrics", and 1 camera module will be used for environment detection.
At present, the current AR headset prototypes on the market weigh about 300 to 600 grams. For example, the weight of OculusQuest2 is 503g, and the weight of Sony PlayStationVR is 600g. If the technical problems can be resolved, Apple's goal is to reduce the final weight to 300 to 400 grams, which will make the headset lighter than existing VR devices. Guo Mingchi also revealed that this helmet will support both AR and VR, enabling seamless switching. It will provide an "immersive experience" beyond the currently available VR products, and can be integrated with AppleTV+ and AppleArcade.
AR (augmented reality) provides computer-generated context and information about the world around us, while allowing us to interact with the surrounding environment, while VR (virtual reality) aims to isolate us from the surrounding environment so that we can interact with the virtual world . The potential applications of the two are quite different. VR is particularly focused on immersive content consumption. It is currently related to gaming experience in reality and is also used in education and training projects. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple's AR/VR products will focus on games, audio and video and communications.
Huawei's efforts to install and download AREngine exceed 1.1 billion
In June of this year, Huawei officially released the "AR Insights and Application Practice White Paper". Huawei operator BGCMO Cai Bo said: "5G turns on AR, and AR lights up 5G. AR will first be widely adopted in five priority industries: education, social networking Internet, shopping, travel navigation and games. AR can truly realize the integration of the physical world and the digital world, making dreams a reality."
At the recent FBEC2021, Huawei’s VR/AR product line president Li Tengyue said that Huawei’s AREngine has been installed 1.1 billion times. In September last year, Huawei officially released the XR strategy and AR/VREngine3.0. AREngine is an engine for building augmented reality applications on Android. It includes AREngine service, ARCloud service and XRKit service. XRKit is a minimalist AR solution based on AREngine that provides scene and componentization. Both can realize virtual reality. The integration of the world and the real world brings a new interactive experience.
AREngine integrates AR core algorithms to provide basic AR capabilities such as motion tracking, environment tracking, human body and face tracking. Taking human body recognition as an example, AREngine provides single body position recognition capability, recognizes six static body positions and outputs the recognition results, and supports front and rear camera switching. According to Huawei, AREngine3.0 has been able to support centimeter-level accuracy in spatial algorithms, realizing environmental semantic understanding, environmental lighting/texture, object tracking, face lighting, realization, lip recognition, hand joint recognition and other functions.
Huawei's patent promotion in the AR and VR fields is also very active. The author has compiled the last three applications.
Xu Xiaohong, a senior expert in the field of Huawei's wireless FDD, told the media that VR/AR technology will become an important field of 5G applications in the future, although VR/AR has not yet entered large-scale use. However, 5G-based AR applications are moving towards mature commercial use.
Yuan Universe’s appetizers, domestic manufacturers are adding more VR headsets
IDC's research data shows that MetaQuest occupies two-thirds of the VR headset market, and Microsoft takes the first place in MR/AR with a 28.8% share. In the domestic market, companies such as HTC, Pico, Dapeng, Nolo and iQiyi carve up most of the market. In the second half of this year, the above-mentioned manufacturers have already released their latest products. Obviously, AR/VR has become an important entrance to the meta-universe.

Source: Electronic enthusiast network based on public information

IQiyi Adventure 3

Like most VR all-in-one machines on the market, iQiyi Qiyu 3 is also the main game function. This product is equipped with Snapdragon XR2 and has a resolution of 4KPlus. Compared with VR glasses, VR all-in-one machines are equipped with more and more functions. Therefore, the hardware equipment determines that the volume and weight are at a disadvantage. The net weight of iQiyi Qiyu 3 is 340g, the whole machine is 595g, and the weight close to 600g is not friendly to the experiencer. Therefore, the product is designed with high permeability bubble cotton + pro The material of the skin cloth can alleviate the discomfort of the wearer.
For the problem of low latency, Qiyu 3 adopts a 6DoF tracking positioning system, while using a camera, IMU, infrared LED tracking transmitter, high-precision nine-axis attitude sensor and other multi-sensor fusion algorithms for stable tracking, thereby achieving ultra-low latency feedback .
HTCVIVEFlow

In terms of hardware, VIVEFlow is equipped with Qualcomm XR1 chip, uses LCD display screen, supports 3.2K resolution, 75hz screen refresh rate and 6DOF interaction. It is worth mentioning that the body weight of VIVEFlow is only 189g, which greatly improves the user experience.
In terms of connection, unlike iQiyi Qiyu 3 and other VR all-in-ones, HTCVIVEFlow can be connected to a mobile phone to realize the function of the handle. From this feature, it can be seen that HTCVIVEFlow is lightweight and the temples can be folded and stowed, which is convenient Carry it anytime.
Da Peng P1Ultra4K

It is very common for wearable devices such as smart watches and smart bracelets to add functions such as sports health and heart rate monitoring. Dapeng VR adopts a modular design in its P1Ultra4K released this year, adding modules such as heart rate monitoring. According to the introduction, it is used in special application scenarios such as medical health and pilot training. Different from the aforementioned VR all-in-ones, P1Ultra4K mainly faces the B-end market. In an interview with the media, Derek, the vice president of sales and marketing of Dapeng VR, once publicly stated that compared to the C-end, the VR all-in-ones face the B-end market more The most important thing is cost performance, and it does not need to use cutting-edge chips to meet the needs of customers in education, training, and medical care.
In terms of hardware, P1Pro4K originally used Qualcomm XR1 chip, while P1Ultra4K was directly upgraded to Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip, which increased performance by 30%-35% and resolution to 4K.

Source: Da Peng official website

From the perspective of Dapeng’s product line, its P series mainly face B-end and E-series face C-end consumers. Its main functions include consumer-level scenes such as theaters and games. The E34K game package is priced at 3888 yuan.
PicoNeo3

Neo3 released by Pico brings three versions, including consumer product PicoNeo3 (2499 yuan), enterprise product PicoNeo3pro (5699 yuan), and eye tracking version PicoNeo3ProEye (7999 yuan). In terms of hardware, this series of products are equipped with Snapdragon XR2, 4KLCD LCD screens and support 90Hz refresh rate.
The difference is that Pico has upgraded the interactive experience of the handle. The self-developed 6DoF tracking system, coupled with multi-wide-angle camera spatial positioning tracking, and ultra-smooth optical handle tracking, can achieve stable and accurate tracking. The bare-hand interaction function supports 28 degrees of freedom. Hand tracking.
NOLOSonicVR

The highlight of SonicVR is on the handle, which is the world's first VR handle using broadband vibration technology, which brings vibration experience to the experiencer during the game, and adds a heart rate sensor to realize real-time calorie monitoring. In terms of product positioning, NOLOSonicVR focuses on SteamVR streaming, using Snapdragon 845, the resolution can also reach the standard 4K experience, the consumer version is priced at 1999 yuan.