Leaked videos of Samsung’s AR concept reveal its heightened ambitions – road to VR

A concept video showcasing two Samsung AR devices has been revealed. While these are just concepts and products that don’t work as such, it’s clear that the Korean tech giant is gearing up to compete with companies like Facebook and Apple as they move closer to more and more the release of mainstream AR headsets.

Known leak ‘WalkingCat‘posted two videos showing a pair of separate device concepts. WalkingCat was also involved in leaking photos of Oculus Quest 2 ahead of its launch, and Lenovo’s latest ThinkReality AR glasses for businesses ahead of its announcement at this year’s CES.

This first device appears to be smart glasses intended for casual media consumption, called “Samsung Glasses Lite”. The video (seen below) shows what we expect from a pair of smart glasses tracked by 3DOF, which is the ability to view traditional Flatsceen media through a virtual monitor.

An interesting idea outside of the norm, however, is its ability to use active shading so that it can not only compensate for high ambient lighting, but co-opt that feature to use them as “ dumb ” sunglasses. This may mean that the company wants to make devices to wear all day.

The second device offers a much more immersive set of features. Simply called “ Samsung AR Glasses, ” it seeks to introduce the 6DOF Tracking Headset for work applications such as 3D product design and in-person “ holo calls. ”

It’s important to note that these devices, as we see them in the videos, are most likely just ideas on paper at this point.

The “ Samsung AR Glasses ” don’t appear to include optical tracking, and the bezels themselves appear to be simple plastic frames with no discernible display, be it a waveguide or a birdbath (the guides waves can be seen on Glasses Lite, but that’s not the case (say a lot). Despite the large plastic frames, they are also considerably small.

If the Samsung AR glasses existed as we see them in the video above, it would mean a truly magical leap in mobile processing. Being able to fit all the required computing power, batteries and display technology into such a small package is a dream, but currently not a reality.

So while we might not see these types of devices from Samsung for a while, it’s an interesting look at the state of the industry. Facebook and Apple are both low-key about their respective AR products, but you’d expect Samsung to know more about what its competitors are doing than the general public. The division between smart glasses as a “Lite” option and AR glasses as a workforce multiplier is an interesting choice that could be Big Tech’s first gambit in mainstream AR; that is, offering cheaper smart glasses with tight software integration and more expensive AR glasses for businesses and prosumers.