ODG shows off their super-sleek R8 and R9 mixed reality glasses at CES

Augmented Reality company Osterhout Design Group (ODG) has shown off their new generation R8 and R9 mixed reality glasses at CES.

The glasses are meant for a wider distribution than their current $2750 industrial headsets and are expected to hit the market soon.

They are powered by Qualcomm’s latest SnapDragon 835 chip and run Android Nougat 7.0 with ODG’s Reticle OS layer.

Like the HoloLens they have 6 degree of freedom tracking, with the R9 having a 50 degree field of view with 1080P resolution for each eye, and can record 4K video from the centre-mounted 13 megapixel camera.

Specialized modules can be added to the R9 using an expansion port, such as low light cameras or environmental scanners. The R9 is expected to ship developer units in Q2 2017 for only $1,800.

The R8 is even cheaper at around $1000. It has a 40 degree field of view and 720P screen resolution and has two front-mounted cameras for 1080P stereo video recording. It is also expected to ship in the second half of 2017.

The R8 is meant for consumers, and could be used to watch media on the go and for general entertainment purposes. ODG sees them replacing other screens in the daily lives of users.

Both sets of glasses feature Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS and Glonass, high-speed IMU for detecting gestures, dual microphones, directional speakers, USB-C, and Reticle OS running on Android 7.0 (Nougat). They are the first non-smartphones announced with Qualcomm’s new chip, which has enabled much better motion-tracking augmented reality performance than previously.

“As consumers look for more and more out of their mobile devices, we are seeing a shift taking place towards a new era of mobile computing,” said Ralph Osterhout, founder and CEO of ODG, in a statement. “This is so much bigger than just a device, it’s about a whole new computing medium that will transform how we interact and discover information and engage with people and objects in the world around us. The Snapdragon 835 processor’s superior performance and power efficiency allows us to accelerate along the path we’ve been striving towards for so long – in bringing a self-contained, lightweight and powerful headworn computing device with stunning visual experiences to the consumer. It is an honor to work so closely with the brilliant minds at Qualcomm Technologies and to be the first to announce that we are integrating this latest technology into devices.”