AI

Recently, two pieces of good news have come from the field of Micro LED AR glasses, which indicates that the market acceptance of Micro LED in the field of AR equipment continues to increase, and the commercialization process is expected to accelerate.

Xiaoi Robot’s Micro LED AR glasses have sold more than 1,500 units

Recently, Xiaoi Robot, a domestic artificial intelligence technology company, issued a press release announcing that the sales of AI glasses based on Micro LED display technology and diffraction light waveguide technology have exceeded 1,500 units, exceeding expectations.

It is understood that Xiaoi was founded in 2001. Since its establishment, it has focused on the independent research and development and industrial application of cognitive intelligence technology based on NLP, and has taken root in the AI field for many years. On March 9, 2023, Xiaoi officially landed on NASDAQ in the United States and was listed on the stock market, with the stock code "AIXI". According to news on June 25, 2023, Xiaoi launched its company in the United States.

Currently, Xiaoi is committed to promoting the popularization of user-centered AI applications in the field of software and hardware. The AI glasses business is one of the important engines for the company to achieve its full-year profit target in 2025. Other core products include the tAIkbox platform and intelligent service center solutions.

It is reported that Xiaoi will launch Micro LED AR glasses combined with AI technology in August 2024. The product has excellent outdoor visibility, clear visual effects, and can bring an excellent user experience. However, the price of the AR glasses was not mentioned in the press release, but according to a promotional post posted by Xiaoi Robot on the Instagram platform last year, its glasses called HearView Smart Glasses were on sale for US$1,399, and you could save US$600 by purchasing them. In other words, the market price of the glasses was US$1,999.

Since its launch, Xiaoi AI glasses have sold more than 1,500 units, exceeding the company’s expectations. Xiaoi said that customer feedback has been positive and has expressed strong interest in purchasing, and the market demand for the company's AI glasses continues to rise. Currently, Xiaoi is accelerating the development of more models of products to further optimize user experience and expand practical application scenarios to meet the growing market demand.

At the same time, Xiaoi is working with Tier-1 manufacturers to expand production capacity and will obtain exclusive production lines and priority in production scheduling. It is expected to achieve an annual output of 50,000 units by 2025, which can flexibly respond to changing market demands. On this basis, Xiaoi reiterated its goal of shipping 10,000 units in 2025, which will be achieved through phased production expansion plans with strategic suppliers and product line expansion.
Looking to the future, Xiaoi predicts that, benefiting from the strong market demand for AI glasses and the rapid expansion of production capacity, its AI glasses division is expected to achieve revenue of US$12-15 million in 2025.

Xingji Meizu launches global first offline payment for AR glasses

Yesterday, Xingji Meizu announced the official launch of the world's first offline payment function for AR glasses. Its StarV Air2 smart glasses will be the first to be equipped with this function. Other new smart glasses launched this year will also have payment functions, which will be implemented in Q3 this year.

StarV Air2 will be released in September 2024. It uses JBD "Hummingbird Mini II" Micro LED monochromatic light engine and optical waveguide technology. It is also equipped with StarVision's self-developed imaging system, with a peak display brightness of 2000nit. The whole machine weighs only 44 grams. It adopts an integrated myopia design. The initial price starts at 2,799 yuan.

StarV Air2 has previously been equipped with AI functions, which can perform real-time conversation translation in 13 languages, can quickly wake up the AI assistant for quick recording, and can become a conference assistant for conference voice-to-text, minute summary, smart prompting, smart information reminder, etc., and the offline payment function means that these glasses have been further upgraded in terms of intelligence and user experience.

In the future, users will only need to wear smart glasses to complete payments, and the consumer experience will be fully upgraded. This marks a major breakthrough for Xingji Meizu in the field of smart glasses, and will also help to increase the market acceptance of Micro LED AR glasses to a certain extent.

AI boosts popularity, Micro LED AR glasses suddenly emerge

According to LEDinside’s observation, driven by AI technology, Micro LED AR glasses have received another wave of “traffic” in the past year or two, and the product lineup continues to expand. Taking the exhibition as an example, AR equipment has become the focus of head-mounted devices at this year's CES exhibition. Brands such as Rokid and Vuzix have showcased their AR glasses products. Specifically, there have been more than 20 Micro LED AR glasses released since June 2023, most of which incorporate AI functions.

It is worth noting that Apple is also said to be accelerating the development of Micro LED AR glasses that incorporate AI technology. According to news on April 28, Apple is developing a new project code-named N50, which will combine Apple’s AI technology into glasses to create a product similar to Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which is expected to be launched around 2027.

In addition to Apple, there are more consumer brands and manufacturers in the display industry chain who are actively exploring and deploying, and more products are expected to be released this year. This also reflects the increasingly clear application trend of Micro LED in the field of AR glasses. The latest two news further indicate that with the support of AI technology, the user experience and market acceptance of Micro LED AR glasses are improving, and the commercialization process is also expected to accelerate.

According to TrendForce’s latest research, the market size of AR devices is expected to reach 42.8 million units by 2030. In terms of display technology, Micro LED’s market share is expected to increase to 67%.

A hundred schools of thought are contending in near-eye display technology, and Micro LED has already "broken the game"

Although its application prospects in the field of AR glasses are gradually becoming clearer, Micro LED currently faces fierce competition from different display technologies. It is understood that the current near-eye display technology includes LEDoS, OLEDoS, LCoS, LBS, DLP, etc., and is in the stage of "a hundred schools of thought contending".

However, according to TrendForce’s observation, the development of LBS and DLP technologies in the near-eye display field is not so smooth. Among them, LBS faces safety issues, while the biggest problem of DLP is that the optical machine is too large. Therefore, Micro LED actually mainly faces competition from OLEDoS and LCoS.

In addition, Micro LED itself still has technical problems that need to be overcome, such as mass transfer and full-color issues. In recent years, with the active exploration of manufacturers, there are some reference directions for Micro LED to "break the game".

In terms of transfer technology, TrendForce’s survey shows that bonding Micro LED to CMOS and then performing chip manufacturing is currently the most mature production solution. This solution can ensure the accuracy of the chip and help improve production yield. Currently, the world’s most advanced silicon-based OLED manufacturers use this manufacturing method. At the same time, TrendForce Consulting pointed out that bonding utilization is the key to affecting LED production line investment. Theoretically, using 8-inch and 12-inch wafers can achieve 100% utilization.

In terms of full color, the solution that is currently highly discussed is the vertical stacking of chips. It is understood that vertically stacking chips can meet the requirements for increased resolution, which is crucial for near-eye displays. This solution has become one of the mainstream technologies for full-color. Currently, LED manufacturers and even some semiconductor manufacturers are actively thinking and exploring the process of vertical stacking of Micro LEDs. The follow-up progress is worth looking forward to.