Motorola Designs 5G Neckband To Help Shoulder Burden Of AR/VR Goggles
The master of flip phones is flipping the script for AR/VR headsets with a ‘5G Neckband’ that it has developed with telecommunications giant Verizon.
AR/VR gadgets are notoriously clunky and heavy and can give their wearer a neckache after prolonged use, so it isn’t so surprising that adoption for them has been pretty slow, even though they’ve been in the market for years. Motorola proposes that this problem can be easily fixed with a hands-free neckband that carries some of the functionality built into headsets, shifting a fraction of the weight to the shoulders.
The company envisions that the neckband—depicted like a lanyard and a pendant—can deliver high bandwidth, processing, and power to the mixed-reality (XR) experience, leaving the headgear to focus on immersive displays. This enables designers to create more compact gear, like slim AR glasses and goggles.
Motorola’s neckband runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform, Qualcomm’s most powerful 5G platform yet.
With the smart accessory, Motorola and Verizon hope to make lightweight, user-friendly AR/VR experiences attainable and also portable.
“Motorola’s wearable neckband and ultra-lightweight AR smart glasses leverage Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network and mobile edge compute platform, enabling us to deliver immersive technology in many fields, such as sports training and fan experiences, as well as making VR theaters scalable,” details Brian Mecum, Vice President of Device Technology at Verizon, in a statement via Neowin.
Pricing and release details aren’t available yet, but Verizon and Motorola say they are already developing AR/VR applications to demonstrate the device in the coming months. They have also clinched deals with major retail channels to build educational and sports products with the neckband.
