K-Glass
Gesture-based computer interaction, as depicted in the movie “Minority Report,” is likely to be realized soon.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on Feb. 20 that a research team led by Yoo Hoi-jun, professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at KAIST, successfully developed K-Glass. K-Glass is a high-performance and ultra-low-power head-mounted display (HMD) with a built-in augmented reality (AR) processor.
Thanks to the AR processor, K-Glass is 30 times faster than Google Glass using the conventional chip, and it can be used three times longer. Hence, the newly-developed HMD is expected to bring the era of augmented reality closer.
Augmented reality refers to the integration of the real world and reality-altered virtual media content. It is a technology that offers a real-time view of one’s immediate surroundings altered or enhanced by computer-generated information. For example, the tech makes it possible for people to feel that a three-dimensional dinosaur appears to be rising above a book when looking at a picture of the dinosaur in a storybook. If the direction is changed, the other side of the dinosaur can be seen.
Samsung and Microsoft filed for related patents. In particular, Google developed augmented reality glasses called “Project Glass” in May 2012.
However, Google’s technology has drawbacks. It cannot realize 3D augmented reality outdoors where markers cannot easily be installed, since it is operated in a manner that recognizes markers such as barcodes, and adds virtual content to a certain object. Furthermore, Google’s AR glasses cannot always be used in everyday life just like mobile devices, owing to the two-hour-long battery life expectancy.
Inspired by the Visual Attention Model (VAM), the newly-developed AR processor demands lesser power and functions well. VAM duplicates the ability of the human brain to process visual data by disentangling the most salient and relevant information about the environment in which human vision operates, thereby eliminating unnecessary data.
With the development of the processor, it was possible for the team to dramatically speed up the computation of complex AR algorithms.
The research team utilized a network structure similar to a human brain’s central nervous system in order to reduce power consumption. While data freely moves around in the processor, a bottleneck in the data transmission process can occur due to data congestion. However, the team effectively overcame the problem of a bottleneck in data transmission and a network bottleneck inside the processor by using the structure of a nervous system.
Using the 65 nm manufacturing process, the new AR processor delivers 1.22 tera-operations per second (TOPS) peak performance in the area of 32 mm2. In addition, the chip can be used for a long time, since it shows 1.57 TOPS/W high efficiency rate of power consumption under the real-time operation of a 30fps/720p video camera, a 76 percent improvement from other devices.
Professor Yoo explained, “There is a recent upsurge of interest in HMDs as next-gen mobile devices that follow smartphones.” The professor added, “K-Glass is likely to make innovate changes in the future mobile IT area, because compared to existing HMDs such as Project Glass, its computing function is vastly improved. On top of that, it uses far less energy than traditional HMDs.”
The KAIST team presented its research paper at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), which was held in San Francisco, CA from February 9 to 13.