A world-first in AR glasses to enhance the workforce

• Focally unveils the world’s first full-color Micro-led based true AR glasses with fully see-through display and USound MEMS speakers’ technology.
• The glasses combine state-of-the-art USound audio technology, optical display system, and hardware that enables spatial computing in a small form factor for assistive AR applications.

Augmented Reality (AR) glasses are becoming one of the most sought-after wearables today. Not only are AR glasses the key ingredient to experiencing the metaverse, but the workforce industry also has numerous use cases for it.

Today, AR glasses in the workforce enable workers to not only work more efficiently but also improve their productivity. In fact, more organizations are now looking at how they can adapt AR glasses into their workforce, especially in industries that require lots of manual labor.

For example, in the logistics industry, DHL Supply Chain recently completed its global augmented reality pilots and is expanding its Vision Picking solution to more warehouses around the globe. The AR glasses used by DHL provide visual displays of order picking instructions along with information on where items are located and where they need to be placed on a cart, freeing pickers’ hands of paper instructions and allowing them to work more efficiently and comfortably.

The international trials have shown an average improvement of productivity by 15% and higher accuracy rates. The user-friendly and intuitive solution has also halved onboarding and training times.

Now, USound, the leading provider of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) loudspeakers for hearables and wearables, has cooperated with Indian company Focally on the first generation of their Universe AR Glasses.

Developed to explore next-generation assistive AR applications such as AR navigation, geo-location-based applications, streaming videos and audio, geo-location-based gaming, AI applications, and more, these smart glasses prototype showcase the essential elements needed for AR wearable devices such as optical architecture, powerful sound system, and real-time sensing capabilities integrated into an ergonomic and compact eyewear device.

World’s first AR glasses with extensive audio and video features

This first generation features a fully transparent see-through waveguide with 30-degree FOV combined with the world’s smallest and brightest micro-Led full-color display engine. The glasses integrate USound’s patented two-way audio system with MEMS tweeter and electrodynamic woofers, and dual microphones for noise cancellation and spatial audio.

This version of the device showcases unique compute architecture to perform on-board real-time sensing from sensors including accelerometers, gyroscope, magnetometer, environmental, gas composition, and IR and then wirelessly perform application-specific compute on other powerful computer platforms such as smartphones to reduce power consumption.

Focally is already working on its second-generation prototype with vision capabilities and advanced compute capabilities. An optimized computer platform will be launched to developers and early enthusiasts later in 2023.

With their advanced MEMS-speaker-based sound solution, USound enables unprecedented industrial and product design possibilities tackling the challenges of many modern audio devices. Compared to rival speakers used in earphones, TWS, headphones, smartphones, VR/AR glasses, wearables, and hearing aids, USound MEMS loudspeakers require up to 50% less space and consume 80% less energy and offer a greater frequency range per unit of area.

For Andrea Rusconi, CTO, and Co-Founder of USound, the AR glasses demonstrate how compact MEMS speakers-based audio solutions enable manufacturers to add more features to hearables and wearables for an improved user experience.

Meanwhile, Sagar Madliyavar CEO and Founder of Focally said that there will be more offerings in the future as the company showcases its first demonstration of making Contextual Augmented reality near and accessible by integrating cutting-edge technologies into an acceptable and wearable form factor.

Focally is one of the several companies benefiting from USound MEMS-based audio solutions that will launch wearables and hearables products to the market in 2022 and through 2023.

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