In the past, electronic products such as computers, laptops, PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, etc. were used for work or entertainment in the virtual world. In recent years, in order to have more interactions with the virtual world, VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) have been launched. ) and MR (Mixed Reality) related products.
VR, Chinese for virtual reality, allows users to escape from the existing actual environment and enter a completely virtual world. It is most commonly used for entertainment, allowing game players to personally become game characters and experience the game in the first person. It can also be combined Professional knowledge provides understanding of complex structures and concepts, or like Mindmaze assisting stroke patients in their rehabilitation through VR; AR, Chinese for augmented reality, brings virtual objects such as images, videos, information, etc. into the real environment , is a technology that brings the virtual world into reality, but AR only places virtual objects into the environment and does not interact with the environment. Many exhibitions today use this technology to increase the interaction between the audience and art. The most famous one is Pokémon GO uses this technology to add fun to the game; MR, which is mixed reality in Chinese, also adds virtual objects to the environment, but the virtual objects will be interspersed in the environment and directly interact with the environment and the user, greatly improving the performance of the virtual objects. Reality can be regarded as an advanced version of AR.
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According to IDC statistics, global VR/AR helmet shipments in 2023 will be approximately 8.1 million units, of which Meta’s Quest has a market share of more than 50%, followed by Sony PlayStation VR, ByteDance’s Pico, HTC XR, etc., in order. The number of shipments is much lower than that of NB, PC, and mobile phones with annual shipments exceeding 100 million. The main reason is that the application fields are limited to a few specific scenarios such as games, movies, virtual online meetings, etc., and the penetration rate is low. Recently, Apple sold the company’s first MR product, Vision Pro, in early February 2024. The price is as high as US$3,499. It is currently only sold in the United States. It is much more expensive than the HTC XR Elite at US$1,099 and the Meta Quest Pro at US$1,000. , regarded as one of the best high-end products in the VR/AR market.
Vision Pro has two 23 million pixel micro OLED screens in front of its eyes, providing a single-eye 4K visual experience. The ratio of MR and VR can be progressively adjusted through the rotating knob. The operator can easily communicate and contact the real world without taking off the helmet. ; The operation part uses eyes and gestures to make selections, multiple windows can be opened simultaneously, and the size of the video playback window can also be freely selected. The Vision Pro is equipped with Apple’s self-developed M2 and new R1 chips manufactured by TSMC, memory supplied by Samsung and hynix, WiFi 6 chips supplied by broadcom and skyworks, Micro OLED screens supplied by Sony, Yujingguang and Yangmingguang. 3P pancake and Pengding, a subsidiary of Zhending, supply components such as PCBs and flexible boards, which are then assembled by Luxshare Precision.
Among AR/VR devices, the optical module most directly affects the user experience. In the past, AR/VR devices used aspherical lenses and Fresnel lenses. The light passed through the lens vertically and then focused, resulting in a total lens length of 40~50mm for the AR/VR device. The center of gravity is forward and heavy, which may easily cause discomfort when worn by the user, making it difficult to wear and use for a long time. The new AR/VR device uses 3P Pancake, which is composed of reflective polarizer, 1/4 glass plate, semi-transparent and semi-reflective film, linear polarizer… and other components, and through a series of light reflection, transmission, refraction and The conversion method effectively reduces the total lens length to 18~25mm, greatly improving the problem of thick and heavy AR/VR devices and improving user comfort. The unit price of Pancake lens modules is about 10 times higher than that of previous Fresnel lens modules. Currently, only Sunny Optical, Goertek, and Yujingguang have larger shipments. Dingmao believes that, as mentioned above, AR/VR devices are small in quantity and have limited contribution to the supply chain. However, each device must be equipped with 2 sets of Pancake. The degree of benefit is expected to expand as AR/VR shipments continue to grow.
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