Korean researchers have developed Ultra Low Power (ULP) augmented reality (AR) glasses that can detect finger movement, allowing users to play a virtual piano or type with a virtual keyboard. (Image : KAIST)
DAEJEON, Feb.25 (Korea Bizwire) – Korean researchers have developed Ultra Low Power (ULP) augmented reality (AR) glasses that can detect finger movement, allowing users to play a virtual piano or type with a virtual keyboard.
KAIST announced that Professor Yoo Hoi-joon and his team in the electrical engineering department developed ‘K-Glass 3’, which is a ULP AR smart glasses device that can recognize human body actions and movements.
K-Glass 3 is the successor of the AR based K-Glass 1 developed in 2014, and K-Glass 2 developed in 2015, which can track eye movement. The new product was revealed at the International Solid State Circuits Conference held in San Francisco at the beginning of the month.
The key technology of K-Glass 3 is the device’s stereo camera system. The system processes images obtained from two cameras, and extracts depth information, recognizing objects three dimensionally.
With the system, users can type on a keyboard realized with the smart glasses and play a virtual piano, experiencing AR.
Korean researchers have developed Ultra Low Power (ULP) augmented reality (AR) glasses that can detect finger movement, allowing users to play a virtual piano or type with a virtual keyboard. (Image : KAIST)
The research team commented that there was no user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) to transfer text on the smart glasses prior to the recent development. They anticipate that smart glasses that detect motion will be useful to users that are used to text.
K-Glass 3 runs on Ultra Low Power (ULP), and can be used for more than 24 hours on a single charge.
AR devices prior to the K-Glass 3 used more than three watts of electric power due to complicated algorithms and motion-detecting sensors. It had been pointed out that the devices were difficult to adapt to the smart glasses system that used a battery equivalent to one fifth of the size of a smartphone.
However, K-Glass 3’s stereo camera system realizes a stereo vision algorithm within a ULP processor, using an average of only 20 milliwatts of electric power, and stops operating when no motion is detected.
The research team added that a more convenient and intuitive UI/UX should be developed, and UPL and downsizing should be implemented for the smart glasses market to actually replace smartphones.
By Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
