What is a 3DoF vs 6DoF in AR Glasses？

Adapting to user is crucial: Ideally, the most comfortable range for eye movement in daily use is around ±15°. When viewing content on a large screen, users will unconciously tilt their heaad and eyes to focus better, or shift their postition to be more comofrtable. With AR glasses, this experience can be enhanced with 3DoF capabilities, providing a more comfortable experience by minimizing the need for extensive eye movements. For example, imagine you're gaming with your AR glasses. Your eyes rapidly move around the screen as you check your HUD, your health bar, the mini-map, and so on. Without adjusting your screen, you might turn your head to check the mini-map only to find that the screen drifts along with you, making it difficult to see all the important details. 

Augmented Reality (AR) can only reach its full potential with controlled and stable display management (3DoF /6DoF); otherwise, it remains a head-mounted display. In fact, AR glasses lacking Depth of Field (DoF) capability can't truly be considered AR glasses.

In the industry, to reduce power consumption and the size of the glasses, the most common approach is to place the display unit in the glasses while externalizing the computing unit. Simply put, software is installed on various devices, or "hosts," relying on the computing power of the host to process image calculations.
Principle: By transmitting the IMU data (head movement and posture data) collected from the glasses back to various terminals, the terminals compute and output a corresponding motion-rendered video, which is then transmitted to the glasses for display.

However, due to the inconsistent performance of these "hosts", spatial computing software struggles to adapt universally across all and any device, resulting in a less-than-ideal implementation of 3DoF screens through software installation.

In recent years, AR glasseshave companies introduced self-developed, smart host devices to address interface compatibility and adaptability issues. These devices can either work independently, or can be used as a "spatial adapter", enabling 3DoF on additional devices. For example, XREAL created the XREAL Beam and XREAL Beam Pro to enable 3DoF for their range of AR glasses.

XREAL's One / One Pro series glasses pioneered a significant technological breakthrough in the industry through integrating a self-developed chip directly into the device itself. This innovation marked the XREAL as the first to achieve built-in 3DoF capabilities within the glasses themselves. By incorporating the computing component directly into the glasses, XREAL has eliminated dependency on external hosts for processing, allowing for seamless and consistent performance. This trailblazing approach not only enhances user experience but also positions XREAL as a leader in the AR market, offering a glimpse into the future of self-contained AR technology.

M2P Latency :  Since the data pathway in most software solutions involves external devices like smartphones, the M2P latency remains high. This results in slower image correction, leading to instability in the 3DoF spatial screen.

With self-developed host devices, the data transmission process is similar to the software solution, so the latency issue persists and cannot be fully resolved.

Through extensive optimization of the data pathway, M2P latency has been dramatically reduced from over 20ms to an industry-leading 3ms. When users interact with the 3DoF spatial screen, the visual correction occurs at a speed undetectable by the human eye, offering the most stable experience possible. This improvement minimizes stutter, jitter, blurring, flickering, and tearing during head or body movement. Additionally, it reduces power consumption and heat generation in the host device.

Since the self-developed host devices is a computing unit specifically designed for pairing with the glasses, it exhibits perfect compatibility in terms of interface, system, and chip adaptability with the glasses. As for pairing with certain gaming console devices, users can experience spatial screens through adapters or wireless streaming methods.

In the past, when glasses were paired with various devices, differences in terminal performance often led to issues. Some devices, particularly those with lower processing power, struggled to handle the computational demands of spatial screens (3DoF), resulting in stuttering, screen tearing, and overheating. Now, the realization of the spatial screen experience no longer relies on smartphones or other terminals but is entirely achieved on the glasses themselves. This innovation eradicates dependency on the performance of external devices, enabling the glasses' spatial screen capability to be used across a wider range of devices. Users no longer need to worry about terminal compatibility—as long as the terminal device can output DP video, users can experience consistently excellent spatial screen performance. 

With the spatial screen functionality now integrated into the X1 chip within the glasses, devices that previously couldn't utilize spatial screens through apps—such as gaming consoles like the Switch, PS, and Xbox—no longer require assistance from other devices (like connecting to Beam or BP for streaming) to gain spatial screen capabilities. Users only need a pair of X1 chip-equipped glasses to enjoy the spatial screen experience (3DoF).

The ultimate in portability is achieved as there is no longer a need to carry the host device.