KURA Gallium Mixed Reality Glasses Expected Prices and Release Date

Kura Technologies is a new Augmented Reality startup promising to launch lightweight augmented reality glasses, KURA Gallium, with industry-leading features including 8K resolution per eye, 150-degree field of view (FOV) as well as outdoor usage capabilities all of these due to some breakthrough innovations that the startup is working on currently. In an interview with Skarredghost blog, CEO Kelly Peng reveals that the production is scheduled to begin at the end of 2021 and that the glasses will initially be priced at $1,500 but prices will drop as mass production picks steam.

The XR community has shown some interest in the Kura Gallium AR glasses as they could herald a revolution in augmented reality hardware, a niche that is still dominated by headsets with a relatively small FOV window or where the hardware with larger FOVs still give poor quality visuals. The Kura glasses could thus bring a new immersive phase that might lead to the mainstream adoption of AR hardware.

The Kura Gallium AR glasses fulfil many requirements that might drive the hardware to mass adoption and mass production. Key among this is its very large 150-degree field of view which is bright enough for uses outside the home and which also weigh less than 100 grams. The startup has also released some news on the expected prices and release date of its AR glasses in an interview with blogger and developer Antony Vitillo of the Skarredghost blog.

In the Skarredghost interview, Kura CEO Kelly Peng commented on the state of development of the device and also confirmed the following specifications for Kura Gallium: –

• The AR glasses have a 150-degree diagonal field of view (FOV), with about 120 degrees horizontal, 82 to 90-degree vertical. It also features 75% area overlap of the eyes.
• It has an 8K resolution per eye with both foveation and frame prediction. The foveation is necessary since even the most recent Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset is incapable of handling dual 8K displays with a high framerate. However, on PC, it would be possible to realize a full-frame rendering. The foveated rendering is therefore implemented for the mobile versions.
• The Kura Gallium will have a framerate of 120Hz and this framerate can be adjusted either higher or lower depending on the situation and the use-case.
• The Kura Gallium also features a high-brightness (as high as 3M nits from image source) that is used for guaranteeing constant vividity of the augmentations irrespective of the environment light (indoor or outdoor) around the user.
• It comes with a USB-C connection to a compact wearable computing pack that provides the computational power for the AR device.
• The PC version of Kura Gallium works with Windows although Peng is promising that the startup will do its best to support both Android and Linux. Peng revealed that the official computational unit runs Android.
• Kura also features eye tracking, 6DoF tracking as well as gesture inputs with dedicated input controllers.
• The Kura SDK already supports Unity but Peng has promised that Unreal is coming soon. All the APIs have a plain C version.

You can read more on these specs in the Skarredghost blog.

The final form factor of the Kura Gallium will be very close to the images that have been shown so far. The startup has added a head mount for the back of the wearer’s head otherwise the glasses would fall off if a wearer bends over. The target weight for the Kura Gallium glasses is 80 to 82 grams.

Kura is Preparing for Mass Production

Kura is currently producing developer kits for its Gallium glasses by hand which are subsequently sent to partners and tech companies in a month or two. At the same time, Kura is planning to present its augmented reality in more detail via live streams. So far, the startup has only released a short video of its AR glasses.

Series production of the finished product is set to begin at the end of this year. The startup is planning to produce anywhere from 100,000 to 1 million devices. Peng revealed that most of the Kura team is currently working on finalizing the AR glasses.

Peng also revealed that the starting price of the Kura AR glasses is about $1,500 but prices will drop to below $1,000 once the production quantity increases. The manufacturing cost currently stands at $500.

About Kura Technologies

Kura Technologies was founded in 2016 in Silicon Valley and specializes in the development of AR displays. In the autumn of 2019, the startup first unveiled its Kura Gallium AR glasses and revealed that the glasses offer users 8K resolution and 150-degree field of view (FOV), which are industry-leading specifications for AR devices.

According to data on Crunchbase, Kura Technologies has so far received $5 million in funding. Peng revealed that a Series A funding will be coming up soon.

https://virtualrealitytimes.com/2021/02/20/kura-gallium-mixed-reality-glasses-expected-prices-and-release-date/https://www.xrcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/kura-gallium-mixed-reality-glasses-expected-prices-and-release-date-4.jpghttps://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/KURA-Gallium-AR-Glasses-150×90.jpg2021-02-20T23:34:47+00:00Sam OchanjiAR HeadsetsHardwareTechnologyKura Technologies is a new Augmented Reality startup promising to launch lightweight augmented reality glasses, KURA Gallium, with industry-leading features including 8K resolution per eye, 150-degree field of view (FOV) as well as outdoor usage capabilities all of these due to some breakthrough innovations that the startup is working…Sam OchanjiSam Ochanjisochanji@yahoo.comAdministratorVirtual Reality Times