Lumus unveils Z-30 and Z-50 optical engines for smart glasses

Lumus has unveiled the Z-30 optical engine at Augmented World Expo; and showed off the high-performance Z-50 optical engine.

Z-30 is built on the Lumus Z-Lens waveguide architecture and features a 30-degree field-of-view, and is optimized for perfomance and design upgrades including a smaller projector and improved power efficiency and brightness.

“Z-30 is more than ready for mass-market consumer glasses,” said Ari Grobman, CEO of Lumus in a press release. “It’s compact enough to fit inside standard eyeglass frames, powerful enough to function in daylight, and efficient enough for all-day use. For AR to become a part of daily life, the hardware needs to disappear into familiar form factors while delivering extraordinary performance. With Z-30, we’re there.”

Lumus developed the Z-30 for social engagement, navigation, messaging, glanceable notifications and real-time translations all in a glasses-like form factor.

The Z-50, on the other hand, features the 50-degree field-of-view optical engine and combines luminance effciency with vibrant colour and sharp image quality, and is made for immersive experiences like media streaming. The Z-50 enables AR glasses, which are almost indistinguishable from standard eyewear.

“Lumus is building the optical foundation for the AR glasses era,” added Grobman in the press release. “From compact optical engines to wide field-of-view for next-gen immersion, we offer optical engines for every design application – and we’re just getting started. As the demand for more capable, more wearable AR systems grows, our optical engines and manufacturing capabilities are already aligned with what comes next.”

I’m a huge fan of smart glasses and tried out and Android XR at Google I/O. The XR glasses had a screen over one lens, and I was able to use maps, and talk to Gemini about what I was seeing with visual feedback. The Lumus smartglasses looks sick and as a fan of Android XR, hopefully, I get to try thhis out.