Motorola has a new wearable 5G neckband that is designed to electricity light-weight VR and AR headsets (collectively acknowledged as XR headsets) this sort of as mum or dad enterprise Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 clever glasses, the company introduced currently. The neckband seems a large amount like a big plastic lanyard, and is outfitted with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a 5,000mAh battery, a touchpad, SIM card slot, speakers, and a assortment of sensors such as a gyroscope and accelerometer, Engadget studies. Motorola says it’s partnered with Verizon on the neckband, which is equipped to link to the carrier’s mmWave 5G community.
The thought is that the neckband, which Motorola doesn’t deliver an official product name for, will be able to act as the brains and brawn for a related VR or AR headset. By offloading components like a strong processor and large battery, the headset itself can turn out to be lighter and additional relaxed to don. For example, Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 sensible eyeglasses are frequently intended to be powered by laptops, but using them with a neckband could make them considerably extra transportable, related to makes an attempt to electrical power AR and VR headsets making use of smartphones.
From the push visuals, the lanyard-fashion neckband seems a very little goofy, identical to the many neckband speakers that have appeared above the a long time. But Motorola precisely cites business customers as one particular of its critical target buyers. In a statement, Verizon’s vice president of gadget technologies Brian Mecum mentions “sports coaching and admirer experiences, as very well as making VR theaters scalable,” as some of the likely use conditions for the neckband. So people may appear a minimal foolish sporting the accent, but they’ll theoretically be surrounded by a crowd of folks sporting the exact thing.
Although its advertising images show the 5G neckband becoming employed with Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 eyeglasses, Engadget experiences it’s also made to perform with other wise eyeglasses. It’s reportedly appropriate with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon VR platform, Microsoft’s Distant Community Driver Interface, and also attributes USB-C and DP1.4 ports.
There is no data on how much the accessory will price tag, when it’ll be obtainable, or who its first business customers may possibly be. But Verizon’s Brian Mecum tells Engadget that the corporation is chatting with companions in the retail house, sports activities leagues, and education and learning.
