Sightful Unveils Spacetop, The World’s First Augmented Reality Laptop

[Interstellar]

Summary

Sightful has launched Spacetop, the first-ever Augmented Reality (AR) laptop. It provides a massive, user-customizable virtual workspace in a portable form factor, blending the benefits of AR with traditional computing to support the 'work from anywhere' movement.

 

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Israeli company Sightful has unveiled Spacetop, the world's first Augmented Reality (AR) laptop, after three years in development. Spacetop uses AR to expand the standard laptop workspace into a user-designed, massive private virtual workspace that maintains the familiar form factor of a laptop. Designed to support the "work from anywhere" trend, it can transform any location into a portable office with a 100" virtual canvas. The AR workspace, called the Canvas, is invisible to anyone not using the device, providing privacy. Spacetop is intuitive and does not require users to learn complex gesture controls or use external hardware.

The laptop, which is currently on sale through an invite-only Early Access program, was developed by a team of over 60 experts in spatial computing, including veterans from Apple, Microsoft, and Magic Leap. Sightful has raised $61 million in funding so far, with investors including Aleph and Corner Ventures.

Spacetop's hardware merges the technologies of Wistron and NReal, featuring custom NReal glasses and a proprietary Spacetop environment. With this, users can access all their important web applications on clear, high-resolution AR windows overlaid in the real world, enabling an immersive yet natural interaction. The company plans to reach influential early adopters through the Early Access program and subsequently leverage Wistron's global manufacturing leadership to scale.
(Copied from their press-released materials)

 

Quotes

Quote

Sightful's CEO and co-founder, Tamir Berliner:

"Two worlds sit at a crossroads: Laptops are the centerpiece of our daily working lives, but the technology has not evolved with the modern, work from anywhere, privacy matters, ‘road warrior’ mentality. Meanwhile, augmented reality is full of potential and promise, but is yet to find its daily use case. We are at the perfect moment for a significant paradigm shift in a device we all know and love, and Spacetop Early Access is the first step in that journey."

 

My thoughts

Spacetop's unveiling heralds an exciting convergence of AR and personal computing. It seemingly addresses both the need for portable productivity and the desire for a larger, customized workspace. The added layer of privacy is a thoughtful touch. However, how will Spacetop handle technical glitches that may disrupt the AR experience? Also, how user-friendly will it be for those unfamiliar with AR technology? It'll be fascinating to see how early adopters respond to this...

 

Sources

https://www.sightful.com/experience/
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/15BC6OerwaqILnR1ehoFBydkHzy0nBNjM - Press Release

https://www-tech12-co-il.translate.goog/index-startups/Article-0436cc30cae2881026.htm?partner=lobby&_x_tr_sl=iw&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=iw&_x_tr_pto=wapp - Israeli Press coverage

 

 

 

[SADS]

I actually quite like this idea.

Even though laptops are generally quite portable, your desk isn't. Being able to have what is essentially a multi-screen desktop, pretty much anywhere you like (bed, living room, office, train, plane etc) seems like a pretty nice thing to have.

 

I don't wear glasses though, so I don't think I would be too comfortable with this to begin with. But yeh, having a 'no desk office' seems like a nice way to save space and tidy up a bit.

 

Does feel a bit "plugged into the matrix' though, imagine a whole office of these....

[SADS]

I guess i also don't know why it has to be so 'laptop shaped'. What's that big chunk on the back for?

They surely could have built this into a more full-sized keyboard style rather than the crappy compact laptop one?

Resolution would also be important here.

 

The more I think about it, the more I think this can be done quite easily with some AR glasses with a keyboard?

I guess you want the power of a laptop and so need that hardware, but without having to factor in a screen, that form factor actually has much more freedom now...

[Kid.Lazer]

This looks more like an advertisement than "tech news" with the giant company text at the top of the post.

[manikyath]

9 minutes ago, Kid.Lazer said:

This looks more like an advertisement than "tech news" with the giant company text at the top of the post.

given OP's two other posts reek of advertising too.. not unlikely.

[williamcll]

No mention of specs at all?

[PocketNerd]

This just seems like they’ve taken the display panel and moved it into glasses.

 

I guess what makes it “AR” is that the “display” is spatially aware?

 

 That said, it seems like a far better solution to triple-monitor laptops. Just needs a dedicated gpu, framework-like repair-ability and I’d buy this as my next laptop.

[bcredeur97]

I like this idea but I just have a feeling it'll need several generations before it's actually viable for getting work done

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

100 inches, well "inches"...

With 1080p resolution... 

And a FOV of 52°...

And the screen is see through...
Powered by a smartphone chip that can't handle video playback nor more than an handful of tabs open...

And a proprietary OS, that definitely will be maintained if the product doesn't sell enough... Not...

 

Also I'm not a fan of having what looks like a 3D camera looking at the user at all times.

 

What exactly is the use case again?
 

6 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

I like this idea but I just have a feeling it'll need several generations before it's actually viable for getting work done

Yup

 

The glasses needs to improve by several orders of magnitude. FOV, resolution, latency and get much smaller more comfortable, with personalized custom molds/thousands of variations. When I choose a mount I try dozens of them on to find a comfortable one. They do provide custom made corrective optics, because it's dreadful to wear glasses on top of AR/VR glasses.

Silicon needs to vastly improve too. We need likely about a 3070 level of performance minimum in the form factor and power draw of a tiny smartphone chip to make the product viable. There are lots of pixel to draw and it needs to be done fast. A smartphone chip just isn't up to the task, not even for a web browser as this product demonstrates.

[Gaires]

Why don't they just use virtual machines?  Have a wifi chip on the glasses that connects to the virtual machine, that way you can make it lighter and smaller since you only would need the glasses and a keyboard.

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

19 minutes ago, Gaires said:

Why don't they just use virtual machines?  Have a wifi chip on the glasses that connects to the virtual machine, that way you can make it lighter and smaller since you only would need the glasses and a keyboard.

I think you mean to use a thin client on the glasses/keyboard/mouse with a Remote Desktop connection. The problem is there is latency involved, and AR/VR is extremely latency sensitive, much more than regular screen. The lag between head motion and delayed response to the eye cause motion sickness.

It's the same problem Stadia faced, but for VR/AR you need to get the latency even tighter. And Stadia failed still. I don't see hope to stream to a VR/AR glass . You can do it locally over high performance wifi, but not remotely, and if you do it locally, you just have a powerful rig in your home, and you can't use it on the go.

[Interstellar]

16 hours ago, manikyath said:

given OP's two other posts reek of advertising too.. not unlikely.

 

16 hours ago, Kid.Lazer said:

This looks more like an advertisement than "tech news" with the giant company text at the top of the post.

I'm pretty impressed by your Sherlock-level investigation of my past three posts. Now, if I could add my two cents. No, I have no affiliation with those startups in my posts, nor am I secretly advertising. I simply belong to a small, vibrant community in Israel that thrives on tech innovation. When one of us has a breakthrough, we like to celebrate it, I take pride in sharing our doings with global tech enthusiasts, which makes places like this forum a perfect stage, in a community I like and appreciate. Let's not limit our perception of news to just Nvidia, Intel, AMD, or other giants. Innovation comes in all sizes, sometimes from the most unexpected quarters. You might find it odd, perhaps even weird, but isn't it exciting to see something new? Even if it's "stupid". I think the beauty of tech news is in its diversity, and sometimes yes, "weirdness"...

[manikyath]

4 hours ago, Interstellar said:

I have no affiliation

4 hours ago, Interstellar said:

When one of us has a breakthrough

these feel mutually exclusive.

 

there's a thin line between being hyped by what your peers are doing, and becoming a billboard for your friends.

 

this post IMO is solid on side B of this line. the fact you've only made 3 posts in the 6 months you've been here, and all of them have been "similar in tone"... doesnt make that picture any better.

[Interstellar]

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

these feel mutually exclusive.

 

there's a thin line between being hyped by what your peers are doing, and becoming a billboard for your friends.

 

this post IMO is solid on side B of this line. the fact you've only made 3 posts in the 6 months you've been here, and all of them have been "similar in tone"... doesnt make that picture any better.

I understand why my enthusiasm could be misinterpreted. I should clarify that in the Israeli tech ecosystem, we view successes more collectively than individually due to our culture. We have a deeply ingrained sense of community and collaboration. We often invest significant time in helping others, even when there's no immediate benefit to ourselves. This isn't about promoting one company or individual, but about celebrating the growth and success of our entire ecosystem.

When I say "When one of us has a breakthrough," it's this collective sense of achievement I'm referring to. I'm not personally affiliated with the startup I mentioned, but as part of the Israeli tech community, their success feels like a shared win, when a local startup makes a breakthrough, it feels like a win for all of us.

I'm just trying to share that "excitement", not sell you anything. But hey, if you want to learn more about this, I'm open to a chat. It's always cool to understand where other folks are coming from.

[Shreyas1]

So why would I use this instead of connecting a Nreal Air to my already existing laptop?

 

 

[Fasterthannothing]

On 5/18/2023 at 8:49 PM, bcredeur97 said:

I like this idea but I just have a feeling it'll need several generations before it's actually viable for getting work done

Actually I disagree. I have a pair of nreal glasses they are phenomenal. I wasn't expecting much from them considering how much they actually look like sunglasses but they have continued to blow me away at the display quality. I absolutely love using them as a portable screen for my laptop and my steam deck so this system seems perfect.

[lostcattears]

Ehhhh I mean they just made the screen into glasses.... Can't someone else just make plug and play glasses connecting USB c? Then either make an app or have windows just fix a space in your field of view and Bam it can be used on basically any laptop that can run said resolution/refresh rate

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

On 5/25/2023 at 5:35 AM, lostcattears said:

Ehhhh I mean they just made the screen into glasses.... Can't someone else just make plug and play glasses connecting USB c? Then either make an app or have windows just fix a space in your field of view and Bam it can be used on basically any laptop that can run said resolution/refresh rate

You can buy a pair of nreal glasses and use them on their own.