Chapter 363: Technical bottlenecks in new products
In fact, to put it bluntly, whether it is AR or VR, there are only three aspects that restrict its development and true popularization: hardware, system, and content.
Hardware is the foundation and the first difficulty that must be overcome. Only by overcoming the limitations of hardware can it be possible to develop and produce software and content.
The system is also the most important part of a technology product. Half of the quality of a product depends on the excellence of the system. In addition to super high computing speed and super intelligent thinking, a good system requires
And a simple and comfortable interactive system.
In addition to the UI interface, this interactive system also includes human-computer interaction methods and so on.
Content is the most important thing for a product to attract people. The previous hardware and systems are just to build a communication and interaction bridge between people and content.
Good content can often make a product popular, just like when MP3 and MP4 format music and movies became popular more than ten years ago, it quickly made MP3 walkman and MP4 players popular when they had just entered the market.
The same example is actually that after the game "Chicken Fighting" became popular, because of the high demand for computer hardware, especially memory, it drove the development of the entire computer hardware market, especially the memory stick market, almost overnight, making the memory stick market more popular.
The price increased several times in a short period of time.
Another example is that after the release of some popular games, they drive the sales of related Xbox or PS game consoles. These are classic cases of content-driven product development.
Therefore, Wu Hao attaches great importance to the content aspect. He previously set up a project team to take charge of this aspect. Later, after Lin Wei's 'Micro Media' was established, he handed over this aspect to Lin Wei to take over.
Responsible.
In addition to aggressively acquiring some film and television and game rights, Wu Hao also asked Lin Wei to enter the live broadcast of sports events and actively communicate with several major football and basketball events to strive for the live broadcast rights in this area.
At the same time, they are also using the intelligent three-dimensional rendering technology they have developed to develop and produce related games, film and television animation works. They strive to produce some eye-catching high-quality games and films when related products are released.
Anime works come out.
However, for Wu Hao and others, the current priority is to complete the research and development of related project products.
Yes, this time they have included AR and VR in the research and development plan and are conducting research and development simultaneously. Although the two products have certain differences, they still have a lot in common in some aspects. So simultaneous research and development seems to be scattered.
Strength actually promotes and complements each other.
At present, the two R&D teams are facing the difficulty of display technology. In layman's terms, the technology of display screen has not yet been overcome.
Whether it is AR or VR, one important component cannot be avoided, and that is the screen. Although the requirements of the two are different, there are also many similarities.
For example, regarding the choice of display screen technology direction, the two teams reached a tacit agreement.
First of all, the two teams still hope to make a breakthrough with the TFT-LCD panel production factory and research institute in Shudu.
Since Wu Hao and the others acquired the TFT-LCD panel production factory in Shudu, after some renovation and transformation, they immediately organized relevant workers to start operating it slowly and always maintained a low production speed.
The products produced are also supplied to related mobile phone and TV brand manufacturers at low prices. Wu Hao and the others do not intend to make profits from this factory immediately, but hope that it can maintain a low level of operation.
So that the production line will not stop being abandoned.
At the same time, they also started recruiting people on a large scale and established a new generation display panel research institute in this factory.
The main task of this display panel research institute is to develop a new generation of display panels through some "special technical information" "given" by Wu Hao.
This includes a new generation of 8K240HZ LCD high-definition display panels and "independently developed" LCD transparent display panels.
Although we have obtained some technical information provided by Wu Hao, the development progress of hardware is much slower than that of software. So far, these two projects are still under development. Although there have been certain research results, there is still a long way to go.
Practical requirements are still some way off.
Therefore, both AR and VR are currently paying close attention to the research and development progress of the Shudu Facial Research Institute. It can be said that it has reached a stage of waiting for rice to be ready.
Of course, the two teams cannot just wait. While waiting, they are also developing Plan B.
Setting up Plan B is a backup plan to prevent the Shudu Panel Research Institute's project from failing, and it is also an attempt by the R&D team to develop a new display technology.
This solution was also a sudden inspiration for the R&D team when watching 3D movies, that is, whether micro-projection technology can be used to project the image onto the corresponding screen through optical lenses to display the content.
In this way, there is no need to wait for the results of screen research and development over there. Compared with screens, this projection method is more energy-saving, less harmful to the eyes, and theoretically less technically difficult.
However, the technical difficulty of integrating projection technology into a device the size of a pair of glasses was something that members of the R&D team never imagined.
Projection technology is readily available, and there is no need for them to conduct research and development. Moreover, the various projection technologies currently on the market are very rich, giving them a lot of room for choice. But no matter what kind of technology they are, they want to miniaturize them into such a small size and put them on the market.
You can imagine how difficult it is to maintain the clarity of the picture in an area the size of a spectacle lens.
Moreover, projection technology has another disadvantage, that is, it is a light and shadow technology, so it is very sensitive to light. VR is a closed environment that is isolated from the outside world, which can eliminate the influence of external light.
But AR is not good. It must interact with the external environment. Not only is it easily affected by the intensity of light, but it is also difficult to match and track the surrounding environment.
There is another problem, which is also the most fatal, that is, the angle between the lens set used for projection and the curtain must be accurate enough. Therefore, this requires that the entire equipment must be maintained in a stable enough environment and be as stable as possible.
Affected by the external environment.
But Wu Hao and others are making AR and VR glasses. Whether it is daily wear or some sports bumps, it may affect the accuracy of the lens set and light and shadow projection.
Although these can be solved through adjustment and correction, it will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of use, which is not conducive to the promotion and use of this product.
So after going full circle, the two R&D project teams still pinned their hopes on the Display Panel Research Institute in Shudu.