PlayNitride demonstrates its latest microLED display prototypes and technologies at SID Displayweek 2022.
At the entrance to PlayNitride's booth, you can see a long 132-inch tiled microLED display, made from 192 modules (each 5" in size). The 7680x1080 59PPI display is completely seamless and offers 3,000 nits and a 116% NTSC color gamut.
MicroLED developer VueReal announced that it has raised $14.4 million in its latest (series B) funding round, led by Cycle Capital VC and joined by TDK, Vitro, Economic Development Canada and BDC Capital. VueReal says it will use the funds to enhance its production facility, expand the team, and gain new customers.
VueReal says that the new financing round will also enable it to offer a broader range of custom display products, for AR, smartwatches, smartphones, automotive, signage and transparent displays. Last year VueReal demonstrated high-brightness and high-transmittance transparent microLED displays which it is now offering to customers.
JBD announced a partnership with tooz to combine curved waveguide including prescription with a color microLED display engine.
The two companies say that combining these two technologies enable sharp, full-color virtual screens, in a slim and stylish for factor, while fulfilling individual vision correction. The two companies will demonstrate a first prototype next week.
Vuzix unveiled the Shield Smart Glasses for enterprise use, which are based on microLED microdisplays. The Shield is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR1 and features Vuzix' propriety waveguide optics.
The Shield was actually revealed before, referred to as Vuzix Next Generation Smart Glasses (NGSG). The company did not give any details on pricing and availability. Vuzix is using JBD's 0.13" microLED microdisplays.
TCL announced the Leiniao AR smart glasses, which are based on color microLED displays.
It seems as this is not a ready product yet, but more of a concept. This device seems very similar to the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition, which the company unveiled in October 2021 - which, we speculated, are based on JBD's monochrome 0.13" VGA microLED display engines.
Oppo announced a new "limited release" product, called the Air Glass, which is a monocle AR (or "assisted reality" as the company calls it). The device projects a 2D image for one of your eyes, and it can be attached to conventional glasses via the magnetic frame.
The Air Glass is based on a monochrome green microLED microdisplay. We do not know much, Oppo only details that it can reach up to 3 million nits (but practically it will average 1,400 nits). The device itself has a Snapdragon 4100 chipset, a 3-hours battery life (active mode) and weighs a total of 30 grams.
DSCC estimates that the MicroLED display market will grow to from $103 million in 2022 to $1 billion by 2026. MicroLED will be adopted by three major applications, TVs, Wearables and AR/VR devices.
DSCC sees MicroLED devices being chosen mostly due to the higher efficiency, brightness, response time - and the longer lifetime compared to OLED devices. The high cost of production remains a challenge, though.
TCL announced a new AR smartglasses product, which it calls the Thunderbird Smart Glasses Pioneer Edition. TCL did not reveal much, but it says the color display is based on microLED technology, with a pixel pitch of 4 um. TCL did not release any estimated shipping dates or a price for this new product, which is likely still at an early stage.
The video above is not clear, but it seems as if this solution uses three monochrome microdisplays, combined to show a single full-color image (the video shows one panel, but it later shows three monochrome images combined into one full-color display). This kind of solution was suggested by Vuzix, based on JBD's 0.13" VGA monochrome microdisplays. Which incidentally offer a pixel pitch of 4um, which leads us to speculate that TCL is also basing its Thunderbird glasses on JBD's displays.
AR developer Mojo Vision was chosen by The Walt Disney Company to participate in the 2021 Disney Accelerator. Mojo Vision is among the eight companies that will receive a three-month mentorship program that will connect them with the creativity, imagination and expertise of Disney.
Mojo Vision's AR platform is based on microLED microdisplay technology, produced on contact lenses. In 2019, Mojo announced that it has developed a 14k sub-pixel PPI Micro-LED microdisplay
Xiaomi announced its first smart glasses, called unimaginatively the Xiaomi Smart Glasses. These light-weight (51 grams) glasses will offer a monochrome (green) display and speakers, microphones and a 5MP camera, and will connect to your smartphone for notifications, navigation and will have applications such as real-time translation. It will support Xiaomi's XiaoAI Virtual Assistant.
Xiaomi says the microLED display is 0.13-inch in size, with a peak brightness of 2-million nits. The pixel pitch is 4 um. While not official, this is highly likely to be JBD's 0.13" VGA microLED display panel, revealed last year.
