At Lenovo’s Tech World conference in Beijing, the Chinese tech giant unveiled a new AR headset prototype that aims to appeal to business travelers on-the-go.

Officially called the Lenovo AR Concept Glasses, the headset features a relatively small and sleek profile, no doubt in part because the headset connects to a PC via cable, meaning it likely doesn’t hold an on-board SoC or built-in battery like Microsoft’s standalone AR headset HoloLens. The news was first reported by German publication MIXED.

The concept AR glasses are said to let users simulate multiple monitors, with the added benefit of user privacy so that you can work in a public space, like on a train, without having to worry about someone looking over your shoulder.

Although it’s uncertain if Lenovo intend to actually produce the AR glasses, the company did say the virtual monitor use case is “just one of the many features coming soon on the new Lenovo AR glasses,” which could imply the company is looking to flesh out its capabilities in effort to launch the device to business-savvy travelers.

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As it is now, the glasses appear to feature three sensors and what could be ‘bird bath’ style optics, much like the Nreal headset shown off at CES 2019 in January. This is however conjecture at this point, as the company hasn’t publicly specified any of the headset’s specs.

Image courtesy Lenovo

Most recently, Lenovo launched its ThinkReality A6 HMD back in May, an AR headset, that like HoloLens, is targeting business applications.

A few months later, the company announced a refresh of Lenovo Mirage AR, its consumer-focused AR headset. Originally launched in 2018 alongside its sole title, Star Wars: Jedi Challenges (2018), the headset is now said to arrive with 6DOF controllers and a new AR game, MARVEL Dimension of Heroes.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Moe Curley

    I’m sorry but the reference to “birdbath style optics” went right over my head. Can you clarify what you mean by that?

    • Shawn MacDonell

      Interesting read on the differing types of optics / display technology for current AR ventures (found it since was also curious what they meant by that term lol)

      https://medium.com/@RDelly/how-augmented-reality-headsets-work-diving-into-different-optical-designs-50d6240933ef

      • Moe Curley

        Thanks Shawn, that’s an informative article!

    • psuedonymous

      Looks like they mean “collimated optics”.

    • Jack H

      Basically there is a concave mirror (looks like a bird bath/ dish) in the optics, used to focus the image source so you can see it despite being so close to the eye. They tend to be used as part of a “folded” optical path, where the light passes through a “junction”, reflects off the dish but in the return direction the “junction” of a polarisation sensitive mirror reflects the light out 90 degrees to the eye. It can make the display system more compact and reduces the problem of chromatic aberration (rainbow effect).

  • JesuSaveSouls

    Why cant we acquire literally almost no ar units ?

  • Hivemind9000

    Wake me up when they release some hard specs.

  • 144Hz

    I’m down.

  • Lenovo is trying to do many XR things, and most of them are not going good.

  • dk

    here we go the flood of nreal like wave of glasses is pretty close

  • dota

    wow wonderful
    Hope it will come down for public.
    the product I’d like should be connected to cellphone

  • Ardra Diva

    What I would want out of AR glasses/goggles is translation. I want to walk down the streets of Tokyo and be able to see English translations of signs, so that I am confident I am walking into a restaurant, not a bath house.

    • Harald Heide Gundersen

      Nreal glasses works well with Google translation. Made an app to prove it…