Lenovo reveals smart specs that let you eyeball five virtual displays, with strings attached

Lenovo has introduced “enterprise smart glasses” that it says can project up to five 1080p windows onto your eyeballs. Announced at the virtual CES trade show, the “ThinkReality A3 lightweight smart glasses” come with strings attached – or a USB-C cable, to be precise. Said cable connects to either a PC or Motorola smartphones …

[Gotno iShit Wantno iShit]

Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Mark Pesce, a Reg columnist , VR/AR pioneer and author of Augmented Reality: Unboxing Tech's Next Big Thing, said his first reaction to the device was to ask “Why?

If the 5 screens have to be in your field of view all the time Mark might have a point. If they can be placed anywhere and become visible when you look in user set directions it's a different matter. Working on a car? Have a pdf of the manual floating a head turn away. Working at your desk? Have more screens floating above & around your main screen or look in the direction of your front door to see the CCTV feed of who's just rung the doorbell.

So long as it's all processed locally I'm interested to know more.

[RatX]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Good points, these appealed to me as well. Also, the only time I look at my keyboard is to admire the dazzling waves of RGB rippling beneath my fingertips. It seems a little short sighted (ha) to disqualify the product on this basis. Some products are not for everybody, but these are sometimes the interesting ones.

[BinkyTheHorse]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Yeah, I was under the impression this is an IT publication?

Even the late Sir Terry Pratchett, "merely" a writer, used 8!

[Tom 38]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Sir Pterry actually had 6 screens. The famous quote is: "Why six screens? Because I haven't got enough room for eight"

My home office has the laptop screen, a 24" 1080p screen above it and a 42" 4k monitor to the right of that that I've sub-divided into 4 x 1080p screens, Still wish I had more screens, but the laptop won't drive more and I've run out of room on the desk.

[Loyal Commenter]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Damn, read your comment after posting my own...

[Drat]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

For me and several colleagues now working from home this would be useful (assuming it works well and image quality is good). Why? Well, my makeshift office space only has room enough for one monitor and a laptop, and even then it is squeezed in. A couple of my colleagues work on the dining room table and so can't add an external monitor (mealtimes, kids home schooling etc). So even just using it to display ONE virtual monitor becomes very useful, more would be heaven.

And also:

"Pesce also pointed out that it’s unclear how users will see their keyboards when wearing the glasses"

I thought these are AR glasses, so you still see the world through them?

[Cynic_999]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Maybe consider an LED projector. These come in a size about the same as a phone, and are bright enough to use indoors during daylight so long as you keep the p-rojected image size reasonable.

[Mr Eeee]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

For the traders I work with you are currently working from home these could be great depending upon resolution etc. They're used to 6 screens, currently working 2 and hating it....

[Dave 126]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

I miss the multiple virtual desktops in whichever window manager I last used in Linux. (SolidWorks and other applications tie me to Windows)

[Sceptic Tank]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Virtual desktops do not work on your computer?

[[e-mail]]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Regarding who would want virtual tech manuals; one screen as an overlay of the area you're working on so the image overlays what is/should be there at 1:1 scale, one screen with written instructions/diagrams, one screen with parts list so you know what should (and should not*) be there, one screen with a how-to video of an expert doing the job properly and one screen with emergency contact numbers (department First-Aider, nearest hospital and local assassin-for-hire) for when some git of an ex-Matelot shouts your name and you sit up and hit your head on the bottom of the Upper Equipment Tray...

(*) Like adding extra locking nuts, bolts and a split washer to the pile after the apprentice removes the LRUs from a very expensive lawn dart. I can neither confirm nor deny this ever happened to anyone working at [REDACTED].

[Loyal Commenter]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

He later asked: [...] “Who needs five virtual displays tethered to a PC?"

Well, Terry Pratchett used a bank of six screens, and he wasn't even a software developer...

If I had room for that many monitors around my desk, you can be damn sure I'd be using that many, and it would save me a lot of time flicking between all the various windows (and browser tabs) I need for my day-to-day work. As it is, I'm having to make do with a measly three.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

hehe... Swordfish. Love that movie.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Mark can't see a use case so the tech is junk?

Multiple physical screens is a rather different experience than five see-through AR virtual screens.

Of course user preferences vary. Personally, I gave up on multiple screens around 1995 and haven't ever felt inclined to go back. And I am a software developer. But I recognize that there are people who would be interested in this sort of thing.

[Slipoch]

For seedstock cattle data, this might be the minimum number of screens.

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need keyboards when watching pr0n.

[Anonymous Coward]

not an AC

Agreed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Does 5 screens make it an orgy?

[Totally not a Cylon]

But will it be cheaper?

But will it actually be cheaper than 5 1080p screens and a stand?

Could be very good for the racing sims if it is.....

[Jonathon Green]

Re: But will it be cheaper?

Dunno, but it’ll definitely be cheaper than buying a new house with an extra room which has room for 5 screens... :-)

[doublelayer]

Re: But will it be cheaper?

Almost certainly not. That's not a problem as I see it. Even if you have the space, power, and the massive desk needed to support five screens, they'll be very large and difficult to move around as you like them. These glasses could be used in much less space and you could also move them with you to have that much screen real estate wherever you work. It depends how you want to use them, but there could be several advantages to having all your screens in a portable unit.

[Jonathan Richards 1]

Wassat?

Columnist..., pioneer... and author, and yet can't touch type?

[Dave 126]

Re: Wassat?

Maybe 2021 will be the year of chorded typing on the virtual desktop?

[Matthew Taylor]

Tracking

No doubt the head tracking can be recorded and transmitted to our "benevolent" dictators, so they can know if we're watching a screen or not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tracking

And you care why? You're not that special.

[Dave 126]

Re: Tracking

And AC can state with confidence that you're not that special - he's been spying on you for months and he hasn't found your browsing tastes to that weird.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tracking

Yet you post as AC? Do you know the definition of irony and I don't mean what you learned from Alanis Morissette?

[Pascal Monett]

Strings attached

I don't see that to be a problem. If you're connecting to your phone, you're already mobile. It should hardly be an issue to have a USB cable plugged in to your shirt pocket (pants may be a bit far for that - for those of us who are still wearing them).

I do see a problem in having a phone capable of rendering 5 screens at 1080p resolution. And if you're telling me that it's the glasses that are rendering them, I'm going to ask you what universe you come from and how did you smuggle your alien tech in ? Also, do you have gravity modulators, by any chance ?

[a pressbutton]

Re: Strings attached

I would hope that the glasses can detect the screen you are focusing on, render that at 1080p and the rest drop to 192x108.

[Dave 126]

Re: Strings attached

There's no point in actually rendering more than the display device's native number of pixels, save for antialiasing.

[Glen 1]

Re: Strings attached

"if you're telling me that it's the glasses that are rendering them"

USB-C (thunderbolt 3) allow for external GPUs. I am currently reading this on a such a device about the size of a thumb drive. (bigger monitor used as part of a homebrew docking station)

A Raspberry Pi 4 can do a 4K desktop with hardware accelerated video. 5 X 1080p is not far off regular 4K, and no word has been given to its performance or hardware acceleration abilities. You don't exactly need an RTX 3080 to browse web pages/edit documents.

[TeeCee]

Willy-waving in 2025:

"I've got more virtual monitors floating above my virtual desk than you have."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Willy-waving in 2025:

....but you can't see them though, so have to take my word for it!

[Andy Miller]

I have questions

These could be great for working from home / on the train / in a hotel room / in a coffee shop, but....

Can I fit prescription lens?

How does it sit with a headset?

[Kubla Cant]

Re: I have questions

I wondered about prescription lenses, but I supposed you might not need them to see a virtual screen on a surface close to your eyes. I'm not actually sure how the eye focuses on something like that.

Then again, you might need them to see the keyboard clearly, or to read paper manuals and write notes.

[Glen 1]

I currently do something similar with my Oculus Quest. 3 browser windows horizontally (~180 Degrees FoV), with the background being the "passthrough" of the tracking cameras.

I often wonder if they could detect QR codes or similar for the registration of Keyboards, and not overlay on those spots.

As for the glasses in the article, registration might not need to be particularly accurate. Projecting floaty monitors relative to your head only needs 3 DoF, and phones have been able to do that for a while. Keeping your peripheral vision in reality means no/less motion sickness. Exciting times ahead!

Edit: From the short concept video, it looks like there is a camera just above the nose. If the intent is that you are augmenting an existing display, it is trivial to include markers on the IRL screen. Then you place your virtual screens relative to that one. *shutupandtakemymoney.jpg*

[Tempest8008]

Needs built in headphones

I'm imagining this sitting at my desk at work. Give me 6 huge monitors in front of me and I'll put up:

3 different customers whose live environment I'm monitoring.

The Teams meeting that seems to have been live for 36hrs and is still going.

The email I'm working on.

The website I'm referring to while writing my email.

Build in headphones and a mic and the only reason I have to leave is to use the bathroom.

Make it so I can tether them to my phone and be able to seamlessly carry those displays with me and I can be doing what needs doing IN the bathroom.

(full disclosure, if you're on the phone with me you have about a 25% chance of me going and doing that while we're speaking anyway. It's just efficient use of time. :D )