Last November, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Technologies, announced in an interview with CNBC that the company is developing AR glasses that work with a smartphone. The Huawei AR glasses will be unveiled at the end of this year or next year. By then, formidable competitor Apple will probably also introduce AR glasses, which can be paired with an iPhone.
A newly published patent shows that Huawei also investigates the possibility of not pairing the AR glasses with a smartphone but with a smartwatch, which you can attach to the glasses.
Huawei AR glasses work with a smartwatch
On February 7, 2019, a patent of Huawei Technologies for an ‘Eyeglass frame’ was published in the database of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). The patent describes a lightweight, discrete, and relatively inexpensive AR headset.
The slim glasses can be used as an Augmented Reality headset. However, the glasses do not have a camera, display, or microphone themselves. For this, you need to have a smartwatch; this can be confirmed in the right glasses leg.
The Huawei AR glasses are further equipped with an adapter and a mirror. The adapter is placed close to the smartwatch. Via the mirror, the content displayed on the smartwatch display is immediately reflected in the eyes of the user. Audio is also supported.
The smartwatch can only be attached in one way: the display is facing inwards and the camera facing forward. In the spectacle frame, an opening is made for the camera; this can be used to record the movements of a user.
Incidentally, two different frames are shown in the illustrations, the placement of the smartwatch is the same, but there is a slight difference in the spectacle feet. For the glasses, both a transparent and semi-transparent optical element can be used.
There is a small but … because although there are some smartwatches for sale with a built-in camera, Huawei has not yet released a smartwatch with a camera. If the company wants to bring these AR glasses on the market, then chances are the company will first introduce a smartwatch with a camera.