The X2 MR Glasses weigh just 300 grams and claim to be the world’s smallest Mixed Reality glasses. Nick Cherukuri, CEO of ThirdEye Gen, says the devices can give front-line medical personnel treating COVID-19 patients access to critical life-saving data and communicate with emergency rooms and command centers in real-time.
“A doctor located 100 miles away could see exactly what the medic sees live from the camera point of view of the glasses. So the medic is handsfree, they can still be helping out the patient,” says Cherukuri, explaining that ThirdEye’s remote help platform allows on-the-scene medical professionals to stream what they’re seeing directly to a remote expert and receive live feedback all while remaining hands-free.
The company normally provides immersive hardware and software solutions for enterprise customers in industries such as healthcare, construction, automotive and manufacturing. Its MR glasses and AR software platforms are currently used by companies like Verizon, Department of Defense, and Boeing.
The pilot scheme is being rolled out by Marcus Hook Trainer and Upper Merion fire departments in Pennsylvania, spearheaded by Congressman Curt Weldon and sponsored by Energy Transfer and Sunoco LP, which are paying for eight pairs of the X2 Glasses.
“This is about protecting the men and women who are on the front lines,” Weldon told 6abc Action News in a recent report adding that his goal was to push the government and corporate sponsors to provide one of these sets off glasses for every fire and rescue unit in America.
The military-grade technology glasses are equipped with a thermal sensor that allows a paramedic, for example, to take a patient’s temperature with a thermal scanner without needing to touch them, generating a thermal heat maps to detect if the patient has a fever.
Another feature Cherukuri mentions is that it could quickly bring up a patient’s relevant medical history automatically through face recognition technology.
These types of hands-free functionality are obviously useful in all manner of practical scenarios, but a pandemic situation where it is also imperative to minimize how much you touch surfaces, this could be additionally helpful in managing the virus spread.
“This is something we feel can help and save people’s lives and also improve efficiency,” said Cherukuri.
The glasses, which run on Android 8.1 have a 42-degree field of view and are powered by a Snapdragon xR1 Qualcomm processor chip.
The devices also feature a built in SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) system with dynamic occlusion, visual odometry tracking and environment meshing-domination plane detection.
The ThirdEye App Store already has over 500 software developer partners creating AR/MR free and paid applications which range from B2B to entertainment and gaming. The custom software development tool for the X2 glasses also includes an AR training platform for developers.
The X2 MR glasses are available for pre-order at $1,950 USD. There is also an option to lease the glasses on a two-year program, which spreads the costs in smaller payments.