It’s becoming more & more obvious that one display just isn’t enough for many people. If you’d rather not clutter your desk with an entire bunch of screens, Lenovo may have the solution, the ThinkReality A3, a pair of Augmented Reality (AR) glasses which will project up to 5 virtual displays around you.
Where Virtual Reality (VR) envelops a user during a completely artificial world, AR works by overlaying virtual images over the real-world. The highest-profile version was in fact the ill-fated Google Glass, but since then Microsoft has haunted the mantle with HoloLens. Most phones now have some kind of AR functionality too, albeit it’s usually only for catching Pokémon or giving yourself bunny ears in selfies.
But Lenovo has more enterprising endeavors in mind-for the ThinkReality A3 unveiled at the online only CES 2021, the corporate claims it’s all about increasing efficiency & aiding collaboration, specially while working remotely. To do that, the headset packs a pair of 1080p displays into a frame that does not look too bulky, as far as this stuff usually go. Dual fish-eye cameras track the room in three dimensional to work out where to put the virtual objects and an 8 Mp RGB camera can record or stream 1080p video.
As name suggests, these fancy specs are built on the ThinkReality platform, the AR & VR system that Lenovo has been pushing for a couple of years now. The new A3 model appears to be a more compact version of A6 which the corporate showed-off last CES.
There are 2 models of the ThinkReality A3 depending on what you would like to do with it. The PC Edition plugs into a desktop, laptop or notebook computer via USB-C to place-up to 5 virtual monitors into your field of view. It will let users to set-up big workspaces without having to take-over the entire kitchen table or work from different places without lugging giant screens everywhere.
The Industrial Edition, meanwhile, is formed to connect to Motorola smartphones, so it’s a little more portable. The thought is that it might be used on factory floors, retail, hospitality & other industries to visualize information, monitor conditions & train new staff, among other things.
Lenovo says the ThinkReality A3 are going to be available in mid-2021, but thus far hasn’t specified a price. Check it out in action in the video below:
