Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai) is developing AR smart glasses based on micro LED displays, according to industry sources.

The displays for the smart glasses have been developed by Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSRL) under government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the sources said.

Foxconn hopes to finish development of the AR glasses in 2022 and then put them into trial use in smart retail, smart factories and smart medical care, the sources said.

Since investing in US-based startup eLux in May 2017, Foxconn has been developing micro LED technology, the sources said, adding Foxconn has struck a 3-year cooperation deal with EOSRL for licensed use of micro LED technology developed by the latter.

EOSRL has developed blue-light micro LED of 5 microns in size and will match them with QD (quantum dot) technology to make panchromatic displays of over 2,000ppi in resolution, the sources said. Such displays are expected to be available in first-quarter 2021, and EOSRL will keep modifying the optical architecture to improve display effects and integrate eye-tracking sensors and other ICs, the sources noted.

It is relatively easy to develop micro LED displays for use in smart glasses, but using them in AR glasses involves more complicated design in optical architecture, which will take three years at least to complete, the sources indicated.

By DIGITIMES