Lenovo Unveils AR Headset, Smart Speaker-Projector And More

Lenovo has taken the wraps off a number of fresh concept products, suggesting that the Chinese technology firm is keen on carving out a niche in the augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) segments. The Beijing, China-based multinational company announced those fresh concepts at its third annual Tech World innovation summit, where Lenovo also unveiled new color variants of its 2-in-1 Yoga Book. One of the key concept products Lenovo revealed during the event is the daystAR headset, a standalone vision processing unit whose surface lenses feature a 40-degree field of view. Unlike existing AR headsets that are already available in the market today, daystAR requires no external devices such as a PC or mobile phone to be connected to. This is not the first time, though, that Lenovo dabbles in the AR category. In June last year, the company launched the PHAB2 Pro, an AR-powered smartphone. The company also forayed into the virtual reality (VR) space earlier this year with the launch of its own VR headset. The announcement of the daystAR headset reaffirms the company’s intention to make a name for itself in AR, though it remains unclear when the product would finally roll out to consumers and how much it will cost.

Another concept technology that Lenovo announced is the SmartCast+, an intelligent speaker-projector that Lenovo envisions to be far more capable than existing smart speakers out there, including Google Home. The smart speaker-projector is intended to recognize sounds and objects as well as beam images to a screen or wall in order to immerse users in an AR experience. Another smart concept introduced by Lenovo is a piece of clothing equipped with an electrocardiogram (ECG) called SmartVest. The concept technology is meant to keep track of a wearer’s heart condition all the time with the use of sensors. Also featured at the Tech World innovation summit is Xiaole, a customer service platform intended to provide a more personalized and natural conversation by learning from real conversations with people. On top of those concept technologies, Lenovo also aims to develop its own AI assistant that will be called CAVA. Lenovo intends for the AI assistant to analyze your commands and provide suggestions based on your message. To do so, the company says it will develop systems that recognize a human face and understand natural language using deep learning technology.

Since the concept technologies unveiled by Lenovo are still ideas, it remains to be seen whether those concepts will make it to production and whether the company will eventually release them to the marketplace. An update on Lenovo’s AR and AI endeavors are likely to follow in the coming months.

Lenovo Reveals AR Glasses And AI-driven Smart Speaker Concepts

Lenovo, a leading chinese digital device and tech company, which has been also manufacturing other digital products and has been successfull, now has began to share some of its visions of the future at its annual Tech World Innovation also known  as  TWI summit in Shanghai. If the next generation augmented reality or artificial intelligence, digital assistant and health monitoring concepts are any good future, the company is already moving beyond its usual making smartphones and laptops.

At the start, it is the Lenovo's DaystAR augmented reality (AR) headset, which has all the processing power it needs on board – which is it is ready on the go that depicts that there's no need to slot in a phone or connect it up to a computer anymore.

Lenovo did have a handful of prototypes on show, and says the AR glasses have a 40-degree field of view and can be used to scan, upload, and edit 3D objects. A bespoke Lenovo-made software platform will enable apps for remote assistance, gaming, and design, the company says.

Then there's the SmartCast+, like an Amazon Echo but better, according to Lenovo. It includes a projection unit, object and voice recognition, and some AR capabilities as well. So not only can it voice its responses to spoken queries, it can also show images and video.

One of the ways the SmartCast+ could be used, its makers say, is in education. For kids learning Chinese, words and icons would get projected up on the wall while the speaker talks the pupils through the lesson.

Like just about every other tech company today, Lenovo is thinking about launching its own smart assistant app, too. Called CAVA (Context Aware Virtual Assistant), it would be smarter than Siri and Alexa (at least in Lenovo's opinion), and get packed with deep learning, facial recognition, and natural language understanding.

By way of example, Lenovo says users could tell CAVA about a meeting in two hours and get a weather and traffic reported back so they know when to leave – which sounds exactly like what today's digital assistants can already do.

Finally, Lenovo also talked about a SmartVest top, equipped with an ECG monitor that checks up on heart rhythm around the clock. There are 10 sensors built into the smart clothing in all.

The SmartVest would provide valuable feedback for athletes looking to monitor their performance, as well as giving early warning of cardiovascular problems like tachycardia or atrial fibrillation.

You might have spotted a lack of pricing and availability details, and that's because all of these products are still at the concept and prototype stages, and Lenovo isn't guaranteeing that any of them will ever make it to consumers.

Even so, it's another sign of the biggest names in tech recognizing the need to expand beyond the standard products we're all used to, whether it's the HTC Vive or the Sony Xperia Projector.

Like Google, Apple, and others, Lenovo is also pushing artificial intelligence technologies, and says its new concepts rely heavily on AI. "As a company and industry we have to get the ABCs – algorithm, big data, and computing power – of AI right," Lenovo said in a press statement. "These factors together allow AI to make life better."