Since then, the AR industry has quickly ushered in a wave of development climax, but it has soon been "eclipsed". The slow progress of production technology and high terminal cost make it difficult for AR industry to really enter public life.
20 14 JUNG WOO, a graduate student in Peking University, always believed in the bright future of AR industry, and he set his eyes on AR equipment. "The most popular and natural way of interaction must be to adapt the device to people." Driven by this idea of "a flash of light", JUNG WOO founded the Lingxi Twilight Team, which is committed to creating an AR glasses that is as convenient and easy to use as ordinary glasses.
In the research and development direction, Linxi LLL team decided to focus on the bottleneck technology of AR equipment-optical display, focusing on the core device optical engine. By building a compact optical engine module, it is possible to manufacture "convenient and easy to use" AR glasses.
At the end of 20 14, JUNG WOO established Beijing Lingxi Microlight Technology Co., Ltd., which has received several rounds of investment so far. The last time was in May, 20 19, with tens of millions of A+ rounds of investment led by Yu Shun V Fund and Zhongguancun Qi Hang Fund. Previously, Lingxi Microlight received a round A investment of10 million yuan led by Sequoia China on 20 17; 20 16 received the Pre-A round investment of10 million yuan from Oriental Fuhai, Hejun Capital VR Industry Fund and Western Capital. 2065438+In August, 2005, it obtained an angel round investment of RMB 3 million from Hejun Capital.
At present, Lingxi Microlight has provided core technologies for many well-known brands. AW60, the company's optical waveguide scheme, adopts LCOS image source, which can realize 36 field of view and 1.7mm lens thickness. Based on this, a number of AR equipment manufacturers have developed "like ordinary glasses" AR glasses. The company recently developed the world's smallest AR optical module AW70S, which has also entered the mass production stage.
Near-eye display systems of ar and Virtual Reality (VR) both form long-distance virtual images of pixels on the display through a series of optical imaging elements and project them into people's eyes.
The difference is that AR glasses need perspective, not only to see the real world, but also to see virtual information, so the imaging system can't stand in front of the line of sight. It is necessary to add one or a group of optical combiners to fuse the virtual information and the real scene in the form of "cascade", complement each other and "enhance" each other.
20 14 JUNG WOO, a graduate student in Peking University, stumbled across Google Glass released two years ago. He is keenly aware of the great prospect of the integration of virtual and display, but after consulting the related materials of Google Glass, JUNG WOO was disappointed to find that this is far from his imagined ar glasses.
The basic requirement of AR glasses is to see both the real outside world and virtual information. At that time, Google glasses could only pass through the small grid (processor equipment) at the upper right of the frame, "eyes should be aimed at the upper right corner", and the field of vision was narrow, inconvenient and cumbersome.
"To some extent, Google Glass inspired me. Through insight into the shortcomings and drawbacks in its development, I realized more valuable content and the final form of AR glasses. " JUNG WOO believes that AR glasses are the final product form in the AR industrial chain.
The reason why most consumers can't fully accept AR glasses is that the optical display system can't meet the size and shape that most people can accept and can't provide good display effect, which points out the direction for Linxi LLL team.
From the point of view of ordinary users, devices infinitely close to the shape and comfort of ordinary myopia glasses and sunglasses are most likely to become the explosion point of consumer-grade AR glasses.
JUNG WOO led Linxi LLL to study various schemes in the industry. He found that "no matter whether it is a free-form surface, off-axis reflection or prism scheme, almost all of them have shortcomings such as large volume, small field of view or unsatisfactory display effect". In contrast, optical waveguide technology is almost an "excellent" optical solution for consumer-grade AR glasses because of its thinness and high penetration to external light.
Therefore, Lingxi LLL focuses on the optical display of AR equipment, focusing on the optical engine, which is the "CPU" of AR glasses.
The advent of new technology is not achieved overnight, and it needs a long incubation period.
When Linxi LLL team decided to develop an optical waveguide scheme for AR glasses, only a few companies around the world did some research in this direction. Therefore, for Linxi LLL team, all R&D and production are almost "from scratch".
JUNG WOO recalled that there were only a handful of AR companies in those years, and we were the only one doing AR and optical waveguide in the whole exhibition hall. At that time, the product could achieve a 32 field of view and its shape was relatively small. At that point in time, it has subverted many people's inherent "pessimistic" cognition of AR technology.
However, although Linxi LLL had certain advantages in technology at that time, it still faced many problems in production.
"The reason why optical waveguide technology is valued is mainly because it has the characteristics of high penetration and portability. But it is not easy for optical waveguide technology to achieve these two points. The process of optical waveguide technology is: after the optical machine completes the imaging process, the "waveguide" couples the light into its own glass substrate, transmits the light to the eyes through the principle of "total reflection", and then releases it.
This brings three difficulties: it is difficult to reduce the volume of coupling part, the inherent bright and dark stripes of optical waveguide, and the difficulty of mass production of optical waveguide by new technology.
However, Linxi LLL team persisted in exploring and constantly broke the conventional thinking mode, and many innovative solutions came into being. In 20 17, the team developed the optical waveguide scheme AW60: adopting LCOS image source, achieving 36 viewing angle and 1.7mm lens thickness. The volume of coupling module is greatly reduced, which is half of Lumus, the top enterprise in the industry; 20 18 Linxi LLL is further improved on the basis of AW60. AW6 1 solves the problem of bright and dark stripes, and also significantly improves the contrast and light energy utilization.
In order to solve the "three difficulties", the only remaining problem is the mass production of new technologies. Linxi LLL team is once again "ingenious": "Optical waveguide is a new technology, and it is obviously unwise to hope for optical manufacturers who are still using traditional technology. Therefore, we deeply participated in the process research and development process, achieved breakthroughs in some key process points, and took the lead in realizing low-cost mass production of optical waveguide lenses on a global scale. "
In 20 19, Linxi shimmer began to plan the location of the production base, and Wuxi, which has a complete upstream and downstream industrial chain, quickly entered the vision of Linxi shimmer team. During the investigation, JUNG WOO was deeply attracted by Wuxi's lean and efficient manufacturing concept. With the strong support of Wuxi Municipal Government and High-tech Zone, Lingxi Microlight's production base was settled in Wuxi Overseas Students Pioneer Park, and it was completed and put into operation at the end of 20 19. Becoming the world's first pilot production line for mass production of AR optical waveguide lenses indicates that the AR market has entered the stage of mass production competition: from the simple market competition of AR display technology to the core competition of Industry-University-Research's integration and comprehensive mass production strength.
As early as a year ago, Lingxi LLL, which continuously improved its production technology, took the lead in realizing the mass production of optical waveguide display modules on a larger scale, further reducing the cost.
In recent years, the development of AR industry is quite tortuous. From the rapid rise to the gloom, and then to the promotion of giants, propaganda gradually picked up.
However, Linxi shimmer has not been greatly affected, neither impetuous nor negative, and has always maintained a good rhythm. JUNG WOO said that hardware, especially optical devices, is different from Internet companies, and its rhythm is steady progress rather than sudden explosion. "From the initial optical design, to proofing, prototype review, effect evaluation, and subsequent process optimization and small batch trial production, every process must be complete and meticulous", but this does not mean that we are behind closed doors. "At the same time of product development, we must follow up the feedback from customers and the market in time to ensure that the company can keep up with market demand."
Through deep integration and timely linkage with customers in R&D stage, Lingxi LLL can almost ensure that the final mass-produced products are "exactly what customers want and even exceed expectations".
The motivation behind the good rhythm of Linxi shimmer comes from continuous learning and expanding horizons. "The most common state of starting a business is to welcome new problems, accept new knowledge and come up with new solutions." JUNG WOO recalled the road to entrepreneurship. "From the beginning of prototype research and development to small-scale mass production and the first batch on the market, every stage is almost a brand-new stage. In order to make fewer mistakes and run faster, the team needs to keep an open mind, constantly communicate with the team and customers, and learn from the people who know the most. The problem will eventually be solved. "
In addition, "it is also important to expand the overall vision." Kevin·Z said, "AR, as an emerging industry, especially needs the cooperation of the whole industry chain to accelerate the industrial outbreak." As one of the upstream suppliers of AR industry, Lingxi Microlight has been committed to developing optical core display devices close to the needs of consumers in the end market since its establishment, thus helping the design and integration of AR equipment in the middle and lower reaches and manufacturers to develop products with real market.
At present, AR products equipped with Linxi LLL related technical solutions have been applied in many scenes, such as games, videos, translation and information tips, high-speed rail maintenance, disability assistance, face recognition and shooting, military industry and so on.
Especially in the face of sudden epidemic, Lingxi Twilight cooperated with partners to develop infrared intelligent temperature measuring glasses, which can not only realize the automatic temperature measuring function of traditional infrared temperature measuring cameras, but also preset the temperature threshold. When abnormal body temperature is detected, the glasses will give an alarm, start the face recognition function, and record the identity information of the person, which is convenient for tracking the movement track of the person with fever. At the same time, combined with AR remote communication and cooperation system, multi-terminal linkage is formed to create a solid defense line for epidemic prevention investigation. Thousands of orders have been signed for this product in the first quarter of 2020.
In addition, the intelligent security AR glasses pioneered by the police in a certain place and the world's first hearing-impaired AR glasses released in cooperation with a deaf-mute equipment company in China can realize remote guidance and auxiliary maintenance of high-speed rail maintenance. Achieve thousands of sets of shipments in 2020; Linxi's customized AR helmet for takeaway brother will soon be introduced to the market. ......
Since its establishment, JUNG WOO has become accustomed to the normality of capital market and public opinion environment for AR industry. In his view, no matter how the external views change, the most important thing for entrepreneurs is to keep their initial heart and make steady progress. "Only down-to-earth actions can truly create value for the world."
In the future, Lingxi Shuguang will continue to "be a scientific and technological innovation company, do more scientific and technological innovation work and promotion, and contribute to changing the world."
Author: Maker commune Shirun