Lenovo has released a business-focused mixed-reality headset as it looks to help companies of all sizes explore the possibilities of the metaverse.
The ThinkReality VRX all-in-one headset boasts a Snapdragon XR platform, pancake optics, four front-mounted cameras with 6DoF tracking, and two high-resolution passthrough cameras.
“Our customers are looking for reliable, flexible and scalable gateways into the growing enterprise Metaverse. They need business-class solutions for the new realities of working in hybrid scenarios and virtual environments,” stated Vishal Shah, GM of XR and Metaverse, Lenovo.
Pancake Optics (Folded Optics)
With a color passthrough functionality made possible by “pancake lenses”, Lenovo’s new release looks to combine augmented and virtual reality into a slimmer mixed reality device.
Pancake Optics (Folded Optics) allows lenses to remain small while still focusing on the user. Via polarization, these lenses can control which light beams are passing through, then take each color and reflect it several times, returning the color, and subsequently the image, to the user in proper focus with a fraction of the lens distance.
As opposed to the recently released Quest Pro by Meta or Pico 4 by ByteDance, Lenovo’s ThinkReality VRX is “the VR solution for workers everywhere,” the company says.
Lenovo notes that the device can offer options ”from improving efficiency in employee training and virtual collaboration to expanding design and engineering tasks in 3D, XR (extended reality) technologies are becoming more important than ever for businesses enabling hybrid workers to do more.”
Lenovo states that with the help of virtual reality, businesses are seeing four times faster training on soft skills, 275% more confidence in soft skills, and decreased injury risk by 43%.
Lenovo’s ThinkReality VRX headset will be available as early access units at the end of 2022 and released worldwide in early 2023 – however pricing information will remain undisclosed until release.
