36 Krypton | The eve of the mass ar market, "tens" won the Chinese Sequoia China a round of financing

36 Krypton was informed that the AR optical display technology provider, the dim light, announced access to a round of financing, financing scale in tens, the investment side for Sequoia China. Funds will be mainly used for cutting-edge technology research and development, product iterative optimization, as well as the preparation of its own production lines, the introduction and training of professional personnel. The company was awarded tens of millions of dollars in 2016 pre-a round of financing, the Oriental Rich Sea, and June Capital VR industry funds and Western capital with the investment.

The dim light was founded in the end of 2014, the core research and development team mainly from Peking University and Tsinghua Optical Laboratory, focusing on AR optical display technology research and development, the main focus of AR products optical engine.

The optical display is the most difficult and the most important device that affects the user experience in AR equipment. So far, several schemes such as Off-axis, Prism, freeform surface and waveguide have been developed. Different from the prism, free surface and other schemes, the optical waveguide lenses can be thinner than the ordinary lenses, and achieve a clear image of the large field of view angle. Founder CEO Zheng told 36 Krypton that optical display is the most important piece of the AR industry chain missing.

As a domestic independent research and development of optical waveguide technology companies, Lumus, Microsoft is a global range of a few optical waveguide technology to achieve.

The official said that at present, the company has provided partners with stable production of AW60 optical engine and reference prototype Mini-glass. According to official website information, AR optical scheme AW60 using LCOS image source, can do 36° field angle, 1.7mm lens thickness, 16mm out pupil distance, 1280x720 HD resolution. Mini-glass is a reference prototype based on AW60, equipped with a variety of sensors, support binocular 3D display.

Mass production is one of the most difficult problems in optical waveguide scheme. The dim light Tells 36 Krypton, connect already with the AR equipment manufacturers at home and abroad to develop for the B-end market AR glasses, AR optical engine will be in 2018 to achieve a larger scale production, and a new product release.

Zheng said: Optical waveguide technology is the basis and core of the consumption-level AR display technology. After overcoming a number of technical problems, the next generation of the new product in the cost, volume and display effect will meet the needs of the first generation of consumer-grade AR products. In the future, the combination of optical waveguide and MEMS can further enhance the effect of AR display, and the Digital optical field technology based on optical waveguide can also solve the problem of visual convergence regulation conflict (VAC), which is the technical breakthrough that the connection is focusing on.

At the moment, AR is being considered to be a potential alternative to mobile phones for the next generation of computing platforms, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other global technology giants are actively in the layout. The mass AR market seems to be in a calm before the outbreak. At this year's F8 conference, Facebook confirmed that it was developing AR glasses; Recently, one of Apple's leading suppliers, quanta computer, revealed that Quanta is developing AR devices for key customers based on optical waveguide technology; at the Fourth World Internet conference in 2017, Apple CEO Cook said he will build the world's largest AR platform Microsoft, which has already launched its first generation of HoloLens, is also actively preparing for its second-generation products, and Magic Leap, a heavily invested investment by Google and Alibaba, also unveiled its new product Magic Leap one in the previous days.

At the same time, the AR industry also ushered in high-speed growth. According to IDC's report this month, 2018 AR and VR output will reach $17.8 billion trillion, up nearly 95% from 2017 's $9.1 billion trillion, and global AR/VR products and services will continue to grow at a similar rate in the 2017-2021 forecast, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 98.8%.

Based on such optimistic expectations, a number of domestic enterprises in the AR Field recently also won the favor of capital. In November this year, Nreal.ai announced the completion of the millions of-dollar angel round financing, from shun for capital and Hung Tai Fund jointly led the investment, Siasun Ventures. September, the Owl Dragon Technology completed tens of millions of Yuan pre-b round of financing, the investment side for the Gobi venture. August Bright Wind Taiwan announced the completion of nearly billion B-round financing, Ropeway Capital, letter to the capital, source star Capital and the United States and other companies to vote.

About this investment in the dim light, Sequoia Capital China fund partner Sun Yu said: "AR hardware does have its challenges, the first to have a mature supply chain, while requiring the development of optical technology, to both hardware and software to do the best at the same time, it is very difficult; but in the hardware industry chain, the core components have very important value, In the past 5-10 years, the field has been born a lot of hundreds of billions of market capitalisation of enterprises, which still contain huge opportunities, and Sequoia China's investment in the dim light, it is optimistic about the AR Core Optical display technology has already had the first advantage.