Electronics maker OPPO held the keynote for their second annual Inno Day event, announcing smart devices including a new rollable smartphone screen and next gen AR Glasses.
The OPPO Inno Day event last year saw a heavy investment in Research & Development, and this year we’re seeing a number of new concepts from their research team. OPPO Australia Managing Director Michael Tran, believes the event, now in its second year, acts as a testament to OPPO’s unwavering commitment to R&D.
The concepts announced at Inno Day 2020 include the OPPO X 2021 rollable smartphone concept and OPPO AR Glass 2021 Augmented Reality (AR) glasses, and a new OPPO CybeReal AR app.
OPPO X 2021
The new concept handset from OPPO features a flexible display and ‘structural stacking’ allowing the phone to unfurl like a scroll, sliding the rollable 6.7 inch OLED display out to a larger 7.4-inch display.
The OPPO X 2021 includes ‘retractable storage design’ which OPPO says allows them room to include different combinations of cameras, batteries, speakers and antennas.
The OPPO x 2021 concept handset utilises three new technologies from the OPPO R&D team including:
- Roll Moto Powertrain: In order to create a display that automatically retracts and extends smoothly, OPPO has custom developed Roll Motor Powertrain. Featuring two drive motors built into the handset to retract and extend the display. This design ensures that, as the display moves, stress is equally distributed. Even a sudden pull or push will not damage the display.
- 2-in-1 Plate: To support the screen and stop it from collapsing inward, OPPO developed the innovative 2-in-1 Plate display support technology, which comprises of two support substrates on either side of the inside of the device. The substrates have a comb-like structure to effectively support the display, whatever its shape.
- Warp Track high-strength screen laminate: To ensure the highest possible resilience for the device, OPPO’s Warp Track high-strength screen laminate is built of a unique, extra strong steel, at its thinnest it is only 0.1millimeters thick.
While it’s a neat concept, at this stage there’s no plans to launch the OPPO X 2021 as yet, the concept shows where OPPO technology could be heading in the future.
OPPO AR Glass 2021
OPPO surprised us last year showing off a pair of AR glasses, which worked surprisingly well when I tried them out, though the software on show was still fairly limited. This year OPPO has announced the new OPPO AR Glass 2021, alongside the new Cybereal and OPPO cloud platforms to support it.
The glasses are light, weighing in at just 117 grams making them more comfortable to wear than previous generations. Despite the light weight, they include a tonne of sensors including a ToF depth sensor as well as fisheye cameras for hand tracking including 6dof hand tracking, and RGB cameras.
The glasses use a 0.71-inch OLED which OPPO says can create a home theater-like experience that is equivalent to watching a 90-inch screen from 3 meters away.
Interaction with the glasses can be achieved in a number of ways including with hand gestures as well as spatial localisation – moving your head towards AR targets – and also with your smartphone, which can give a boost to the AR experience when connected to the glasses via USB-C.
The OPPO AR Glass 2021 offers a fully immersive AR experience thanks to Birdbath optical
technology which OPPO says ‘increases contrast, brightness uniformity and pixels per degree’ than the previous generation of AR Glasses.
The glasses are fast, performing three-dimensional spatial localisation calculation within milliseconds says OPPO. The speed of calculation to orient itself spatially allows users to experience ‘precise local, real world experiences’ – in other words, it will accurately track where you are and what you’re looking at with little drift.
There’s a number of experience that OPPO has announced with partners, as well as their own:
- AR streaming: iQIYI’s AR app allows users to watch online and local HD videos and enjoy a home theater-like IMAX viewing experience whenever and wherever they want.
- AR gaming: The Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) and tower defense games will offer players and their friends greater control and a more immersive experience. Games that used to be displayed via a screen will be superimposed on the real world, creating new possibilities for players and the industry.
- AR home: Users of JD.com’s AR home furnishing app will be able to get inspiration by virtually placing furniture in their home so that they can identify their favorite items before visiting a brick-and-mortar store.
- AR shooting: OPPO AR Glass 2021 will feature in-built RGB cameras that capture the virtual and real scenes simultaneously to enhance the AR-enabled fun without missing any exciting moments.
OPPO is also announcing their AR Developer Program will launch next year offering a comprehensive client-side SDK, as well as support that OPPO hopes will be a platform that developers can build for both smartphone AR applications and OPPO AR Glass.
Again, the OPPO AR Glass 2021 appears to be a concept only at this stage, with no announcements about a retail launch have been made.
OPPO CybeReal AR App
The move towards AR is also coming to phones with the new CybeReal AR app. The app uses
‘GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and network information as well as the SLAM and AI scene-recognition algorithms’ to scan the real world, and interpret it into a digital mode.
CybeReal is Augmented Reality, so once the app knows where you are and recognises your location and can overlay information about buildings and locations around you.
OPPO Inno Day
The second OPPO Inno Day has revealed a number of interesting concepts.The concept stage is always needed before tangible products end up in our hands, but OPPO has never been shy about launching new tech products first.
OPPO’s Founder and CEO, Tony Chen said “Technology research and development are long-term undertakings. But people often seemed to be forced to innovate because they feared being eliminated by the competition. As technology becomes an indispensable part of people’s daily lives, this has further ignited our passion for using technology as a means to bring the best to people.”
Mr Chen further explained that as a brand, OPPO is determined in its pursuit of innovation and to create more products, across the entire technological ecosystem to enrich users’ daily lives.
We’ll hopefully see more on OPPO’s concepts arriving in real products soon.
