Could 2017 be the year of augmented reality? A new partnership between Lenovo and Kopin just may make it so. Earlier this week, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG) and Kopin Corporation announced the formation of a new joint venture titled Lenovo New Vision. It’s the newest subsidiary of LCIG, and will focus on “AR smart headsets for a broad range of enterprise applications.”
“AR/VR is the next generation technology that will change the world after PC Internet and mobile Internet. It is a required technology investment direction for virtually every enterprise,” said LCIG President George He. “We truly value the cooperation with Kopin, and believe that this cooperation can further accelerate the growth of the enterprise AR market by bringing users optimized products and services.”
In the collaboration, Kopin (known best for making display devices), will be bringing its industrial design solutions to leverage “key Kopin components” that will be used in Lenovo New Vision. These components include micro-displays, optics, and software for AR headsets.
“We are very excited to enter into a strategic relationship with Lenovo,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, Kopin’s President and CEO. “By combining Kopin’s advanced wearable technology and Lenovo’s strength as a global IT and equipment solutions provider, both parties can accelerate the commercialization of AR products and succeed in the fast-growing China and global AR markets.”
Both companies are clearly invested in bringing AR technologies to the forefront, as both are showcasing various AR and VR products at CES in Las Vegas. The hope, of course, is that by working together, the two companies will be able to accelerate the growth of a technology that, as of yet, seems to be largely underutilized. But with the huge success of some mainstream AR applications in 2016 (think Pokémon Go), the time may be right for Lenovo New Vision to create its own vision for the future.
