TCL Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition

[Gdcrocx]

Summary

TCL unveiled the next glasses experience for AR/MR/XR enthusiasts with a 4μm micro-LED transparent color display. This is the next step to the Facebook's Ray-Ban glasses released last month. Unveiled on Oct 15th, the glasses showcases a built-in camera and smart connectivity with the ability to make calls, check your calendar/schedule, make presentations, watch shows, offer navigation using augmented reality (AR), and capture photos. The device competes with the recently launched Xiaomi Smart Glasses [5] and Facebook's Ray-Ban Stories.

 

The launch video also briefly shows the AR experience would also enable users to control home automation and support text recognition which would be interesting to see on release. Pricing, availability along with support for devices, smart home integration and languages are still unknown. 

 

Photo Credit - Weibo & NDTV [3]

 

Quotes

Quote

Thunderbird Smart Glasses look like normal sunglasses with colour screens that are transparent. The TCL smart glasses come with various smart features like an inbuilt camera. The glasses can also present multiple screens at the same time. Smart glasses are said to be able to make calls, offer navigation using augmented reality (AR), and capture photos. The device is expected to measure up with the recently launched Xiaomi Smart Glasses and Facebook's Ray-Ban Stories.

 

My thoughts

Something that was not seen in the video was gesture control which would be a solid welcome, knowing that we have an onboard camera looking out at the environment much like the WuW/SixthSense project by Pranav Mistry and the good folks at the MIT Media Lab [4]

 

Compared to the notification led on the Facebook glasses and the monochrome display on the Xiaomi, the inclusion of a micro-LED color display should be well received among enthusiasts.

 

Sources

[1] TCL Official announcement on Weibo [https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4692531911066316]

[2] News article from GSMArena - TCL unveils Thunderbird Smart Glasses with a full-color transparent micro-LED display [https://m.gsmarena.com/tcl_unveils_thunderbird_smart_glasses_with_a_fullcolor_transparent_microled_display-amp-51441.php]

[3] Photo https://gadgets.ndtv.com/wearables/news/tcl-thunderbird-smart-glasses-pioneer-edition-launch-specifications-features-microled-display-xiaomi-facebook-ray-ban-stories-2576730

[4] Project SixthSense / WuW a.k.a. Wear Ur World [https://www.pranavmistry.com/archived/projects/sixthsense/]

[5] Xiaomi Announcement of their smart glasses https://blog.mi.com/en/2021/09/14/xiaomi-unveils-xiaomi-smart-glasses/

[williamcll]

I think my dad might like this.

[SansVarnic]

-= Thread Cleaned =-

Please do not Backseat Mod, the report system works just fine.

[suicidalfranco]

THE NEXT FRONTIER TO POV

[Roswell]

You couldn’t pay me enough to strap lithium ion batteries to my face… Until we move away from combustible batteries, smart glasses with limited rigidity seem like a really stupid idea.

 

All it would take is for someone to slap or punch you the wrong way and poof, chemical fire on your face. Imagine going blind because of your glasses, lol. It wouldn’t even need to be a punch or slap, it could be something completely random like an airbag.

[elfensky]

I'm really interested, but I hope you can get them with a prescription lenses.

I think AR has a lot to offer, but a lot of use cases really require AR glasses like these, and are stupid with a smartphone.

 

[WolframaticAlpha]

3 minutes ago, elfensky said:

I'm really interested, but I hope you can get them with a prescription lenses.

I think AR has a lot to offer, but a lot of use cases really require AR glasses like these, and are stupid with a smartphone.

 

cyrildiagne/ar-cutpaste: Cut and paste your surroundings using AR (github.com)

 

This is by far the coolest and most useful thing that I have seen with AR.

[elfensky]

6 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

cyrildiagne/ar-cutpaste: Cut and paste your surroundings using AR (github.com)

 

This is by far the coolest and most useful thing that I have seen with AR.

I would argue that while useful, this is one the few cases where using it with a smartphone instead of glasses actually makes (more) sense.
 

On the topic of usefulness, stuff like Ubiquity's Unify AR is hella neat too, though that's one of the thing I think would work better with glasses than a smartphone, leaving your hands free to plug cables in and out. In general, AR is nice for "information overlays", which often work better when you dont have to hold a phone in front of your face.