Kelly Peng reveals Kura 150° FOV AR glasses expected price and release date

Hello Kelly! Can you introduce yourself?

I’m Kelly Peng, founder and CEO/CTO of Kura. I’m an electrical/optical/software engineer. I’ve studied at important universities like UC Berkeley, and I’ve worked on many technical projects (for work or personal interest) in electronics, optics, brain-machine interface, natural language processing, etc…

What is Kura’s story?

I started Kura while still in school as a brain-machine interface startup: we worked with EEG/EMG and similar technologies and even managed to reach 85% accuracy in our detection engine. But soon we realized that it was pointless to keep working in better BMI sensors if there was not a platform where actually BMI input could be used, and we realized that AR could be the best platform for that.

But the biggest problem in AR was optics that didn’t work: either there was blurring, noise, little FOV, etc… I and some friends had a strong background in optics because of what we studied and we were good at problem-solving, so we wanted to solve these issues. We started talking with other professionals in the field, and they always kept saying to us “If Microsoft can’t do it, how can you do it?”. 

But we were motivated, so we started studying the problem. We evaluated various components, like different display technologies (OLED, LCOS, DLPs, lasers, etc…). Then people started joining also from other backgrounds like semiconductors, nanofabrications, but also management and the team grew a bit. The first 1.5-2 years, it was more like a research project, but then we got more structured 2 years ago: we created our roadmap, focusing more on enterprise customers and prosumers in the beginning… We started fundraising, and we also closed our seed round last year, with a series A coming soon.

Can you describe the Kura Gallium?

At first, I have to say that we have both developer kits and production versions of the Gallium, with slightly different features. 

Anyway, in both cases, the specifications are more or less these ones:

• 150° FOV diagonal, about 120° horizontal, 82-90° vertical, with around 75% area overlap of the eyes
• 8K resolution per eye, with foveation and frame prediction. Foveation is necessary because even the most recent Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset can’t handle dual 8K displays with a high framerate. On PC, it is possible to do full-frame rendering, though
• Framerate is going to be 120 Hz, just could be adjusted to higher or lower based on the use case and situation
• High-brightness display (up to 3M nits from image source) used to guarantee constant vividity of the augmentations notwithstanding the environment light around the user (e.g. indoor vs outdoor)
• USB-C connection to a compact wearable computing pack for the computational power
• PC version works with Windows, but we’re doing our best to support Android and Linux. The official computational unit runs Android.
• High-precision 6DOF tracking, eye tracking, gesture inputs, with dedicated input controllers
• The SDK will support Unity, with Unreal coming Soon. All APIs have a plain C version

Do you think the Gallium can be so thin as you promise?

Yes. All the above features do not occupy much space: for instance, cameras can be very small and be implemented at PCB level, and the same holds for eye-tracking modules, which can be as little as 1 mm. 

The form factor will be very close to the one shown on the website. In the last year, we have performed many ergonomic studies (for instance testing the glasses on different head shapes), and we are tweaking the glasses based on this. For instance, we had to add a headband on the back, otherwise, when people bent down, the glasses could fall off. We tried glasses like Nreal who don’t have a headband and saw the issue of front-heavy glasses without a headband that risk of falling in different situations

For the weight, our goal is 80-82g, and in any case, it won’t surely be above 100g with all the components described before.

How do you obtain that large field of view?

It’s the combined use of a customized image source, customized drivers with customized ASICs, projection optics, customized optics eyepiece optics, electromechanical structures, and software and control systems. We had to create those components ourselves because there weren’t suitable versions on the market. It’s not a single component (e.g. the optics) that provides the big FOV, it’s all of these working together.

On our website, we talk about “Structured Geometric Waveguide” for optics… but actually, it’s just a name we invented ourselves in English by translating some words from Chinese. We optimized all the patents on optics on different layers, obtaining the best transparency, efficiency, and uniformity, reaching the best combination between the light going from the image source (that is, the augmentations) and the light from the environment (that is, the real world around the user). Also, our glasses have no ghost image. 

We had to also build custom optical software to do that, and also work on custom chips, and custom displays. The great visuals are possible only because we have worked on all these custom solutions.

Actually, the big FOV and other good performances like 8K resolution are generated mainly before arriving at the optics, it is in the projection optics and system, and from the control of custom chips… this is actually the most complicated part, fighting with the semiconductor timeline. Optics has a simpler and quicker timeline. For 1 chip, there are 3-4 iterations of optics that you can do.

Do you use the same technology from LetinAR?

Ours and LetinAR’s are two projects born separately and have no relations. I think our solution offers better uniformity, transparency, FOV, resolution, and brightness.

Also, 8K full-color micro-OLEDs are probably not coming in the next 5 years… we solved the problem by using the micro-LED technology that is ready for manufacturing now to customize our own micro-LEDs to offer 8K resolution in combination with the rest of the optical system and control. It also has been the result of our creative work on the display side. Our optics work only with our display engine: if you take them and try to use them on other glasses, they won’t be able to provide the same performance as in our glasses. Everything is optimized up to the micrometer level, everything must be carefully alignment, and we also built an assembling and alignment process for that.

Are there any other cool tech details that you want to share?

As I’ve said, we tested many technologies for our glasses: DLPs, lasers, LCOS, etc… We created a good supply chain with trusted manufacturers that have helped a lot in building the Gallium.

In the end, we chose micro-LEDs because they are way higher efficient compared to micro-OLEDs, and they also offer way higher brightness with better power efficiency. Also, micro-LEDs don’t suffer from the color breakdown typical of LCOS: with LCOS, when you move your head, you see the colors separating, while this won’t happen with Kura Gallium. Besides that, micro-LEDs and OLEDs have better contrast than LCOS. DLPs instead have other problems: there is a company that already has almost all their patents, they cost a lot, and most probably very few products will be released in the upcoming years. We made many prototypes with these technologies and tested everything on the field, and we took decisions this way.

In the beginning, we assembled everything in the office, we have even a microscope and other cool types of machinery and we like going really hands-on on everything… if there is any engineer who loves going hands-on with the tech that is listening to this interview… if you want you can join us! And we are starting to transfer the process to manufacturing partners and make sure the process is more streamlined for a higher quantity of products. 

We’re really hands-on design engineers: we don’t care about your age or how many papers you have published, but just how much do you want to learn and get your hands dirty with the technology.

What is the current status of the project?

We have early internal units and demos at different iterations. We built demo units, or “developer kits”, that are close to the performances written on the website, but they’re not full-production devices, so for instance some holding parts are still 3D-printed. We’ve made demos with them to our early clients like some big corporates and government agencies, and now we’re going to send them small batch by batch. We have most of the components here, they have already been manufactured last year, and we are in process of assembly and iterations of improvement for higher volume production. The shipping of these devkits should start in 1-2 months from now.

The full production version should be sent instead starting from late this year. The production should be a comparable timely process because we had been designing everything with the production of 100K-1M+ units in mind. We are developing a full production pipeline with manufacturers and are not just assembling by hand here anymore. Now the biggest part of the team is focused on the production units.

What is the expected price? 

The expected initial selling price is about $1,500, and we are expecting it will drop to under $1,000 once the quantity goes higher, this is quite low compared with Magic Leap or Hololens‘ $3,000 price given the performance comparison. Currently, the cost for the production unit is around 500$ (it could go down to 200$ with scale economics in the future), on top of that we also sell the software SDK, with for instance computer-vision features for the enterprise, at 100$, and we are also able to generate and sell new SDK functions on demand (e.g. eye-tracking analysis to see if you have fallen asleep while driving).

What do you answer to people that are skeptical about you?

In the last 10 years, there have been many companies with large pockets that tried to do AR glasses, but the fact is that nothing works. There are lots of patents, same IPs filed at different places, but no real practical results. A startup works better in situations like this… like in the semiconductor industry, innovation happens at the engineering team level.

Decisions are critical in AR: if you choose a wrong optical method, you can spend months or years on a thing that in the end gets dumped. In large companies, there are fewer founders who are actually making the engineering or technical decision and do the R&D, but there are usually managers, decision-makers… and trying something new for them is always risky. It’s easier to go on the known path, so they are very slow in innovating.

We at Kura are a small, hands-on, and passionate team, we are responsible, we have a big technical knowledge and we take all decisions driven by performance-engineering. We have people from all the required technical backgrounds (software, optics, mechanics, etc…) and we work all close together, going hands-on with the technology and discussing without having biases. Big companies do not work this way, and in fact, a supplier told us that we are doing much more interesting inventions on display than its other big customers.

In which sectors are your glasses being used?

The pandemic attracted more interest, especially in some applications: telepresence streaming; remote collaboration where Kura is the best platform to do that due to our transparency which enables eye contact, big field of view, and outdoor usabilities; but also remote assistance; and 3D design showcase. Also, people in entertainment, medical, automotive, military training, and other enterprise sectors are interested in our glasses.

What is the feedback your customers are giving you?

It is very positive… usually, after our demos, people want to buy the devices! In the beginning, we wanted to do only 10-20 devkits, but then we got hundreds of requests with a projected roadmap to very high volumes… at a certain point we had to cut them off otherwise we would have delayed too much the start of the manufacturing of the production units!

Can I see something about them now?

Now it is not possible, since we have started moving our offices a couple of days ago and we haven’t set up our lab or prototype yet. We’re starting sending the first units to core strategic partners, even big computer companies, in 1-2 months. That moment we want to start doing livestreams, and also plan to ship some demo devices to investors and other partners, but we want to be careful because people can break them, since they are just devkits.

We expect batches of 5-10 devkits per time, and we are assembling all of them in-house.

What’s your forecast for the next 5 years in AR?

We will launch our product and target consumers. More and more vendors will target consumers, both with full-fledged AR glasses and with devices more like Google Glass for information display (e.g. for fitness). We could partner with large software companies and manufacturers to make our production and adoption faster and cheaper. 

The software ecosystem will be more built. At this time, we are building tools (SDKs, computer vision tools, algorithms, etc…) that will enable application builders to make AR apps faster and better, and when in the future these tools will be ready, developers can create compelling augmented reality applications easily. 2025 for sure will be the year of consumer AR, but a lot of work has to be done in semiconductors, integration, optics, dev tools, etc…

What is the difference between XR in China and in the US?

I came to the US when I was in high school, so I don’t know well the XR ecosystem in China, but HTC is our investor and is helping us in understanding more of the market there. 

I think in the US there is more familiarity with technology… people are working on optical lenses, micro-LEDs, silicon photonics, and working on deep tech innovations and inventions in general. In China, I see more content development companies, or entities working on tracking technologies. Also, China is very fast in manufacturing: if something is really ready for production, in China, it can go from there to mass production in a few months, like, really quick. I have a friend working for a company in Beijing, and everyone works 10 hours a day there, and if someone works less, it disappears, because others move too fast. DJI is even quicker than that. 

The US is more about the process and innovation, but process development takes time and iterations. EU and US innovate and focus on IP… in China instead “there are no secrets”, companies or individuals may not emphasize too much on IP and they are open to discuss what they do with other people sometimes, because even if you have IP, if you move slowly, others will copy you and then overtake you. We work on UI, design, and ergonomics in the US, but we manufacture PCBs in China, where companies are able to iterate and optimize them very fast.       

What’s your view on inclusion in XR? And about the Women In XR movement?

Having people from different backgrounds working together in XR is very important. Our XR supply chain is broad and includes European semiconductors, US design, and Chinese manufacturing. It is important that people are being open, respecting each other, and respecting contracts. 

AR has many use cases, like telepresence, that can make you meet people from all over the world, discovering different cultures and different ways of thinking. Thanks to my work, I can speak Mandarin with our Chinese manufacturers, and discover more about their culture, how they work, and what products are used in China.

Regarding “Women in XR”… there are people biased towards women, not only in XR but in all fields, especially in hard tech and semiconductors… anyway I don’t speak too much about “Women In XR”… I don’t like when people consider me for my gender and not for what I want to do: if people behave with me differently because of my gender, I call them out. I want to talk about ideas, not genders!

I know that sometimes discrimination also happens related to age…but we evaluate people for what they do, not for these criteria.

What lessons have you learned during these years?

When I’m looking for inspiration, I identify people to look up to… for instance if I want to grow my company, I identify the ones that have grown their companies, I reach out to them and ask them for advice, and also try to learn from them analyzing what they do.

Second thing: you must diversify your technical skills… this is important to all women in engineering… If you want to start a company in your 20s, you may have just a few years to build all your technical skills. So even before going to upper college, you must work to build these skills, taking challenging projects, and taking responsibility for all the projects, because only following them from the start to the end you understand all the problems that come out.

Also, timing is super-important in business. You must be “right in time”: if you launch too late, you can’t succeed… You have to manage the supply chain to deliver your product in time. Some people ask me why we don’t just file patents, wait for them to be approved, and then do an exit and I say no no no, I want to build my product. I want to see people using the product I’m building.

Besides that, “working hard really works”. I don’t believe in “work smart, don’t work hard”. You have to work smart, but if you don’t also work hard, you obtain nothing. If you are motivated like me in wanting to deliver a product in the hands of customers, and you work hard like me, you can motivate all the team in working hard. In the beginning, I was alone, now we are a team of 24 people.

What do you do outside your working life? 

I want to become a better analog electronics designer… because I started Kura when I was working more on the digital side of electronics  and I had not the time to work on that. I also want to enter more into analog design and nanofabrications. Maybe I could start another company besides Kura on one of these topics in the future.

Also, I would like to discover more about what is happening in China, what people want there, what products they are using… I hope to be able to create more telepresence between these two countries and other places.

Anything else to add to this interview?

If you need alpha dev kits, we don’t sell them on the website, so reach out to me or the sales department (you find our contacts on our website, or you can write at our sales department). We have limited quantities of those, but if you want demos and you have a good use case for that, feel free to reach out to us. And we are welcome potential partners/clients for both alpha and production units.

Mass production will start at the end of the year… so we are hiring, for multiple engineering roles (optical design in CodeV, Zemax, chip design in both analog and digital, nano fabrication, mechanical, software, etc…) with different contracts (full time, internship, etc…). We also want to partner with developers interested in creating apps. In any one of these cases, feel free to contact us!

Also, we welcome other interested investors… Our current investors are very important for us, one of our investors is one of the top optics manufacturers in the world, they produce items for Magic Leap, Facebook AR, and others. We also welcome partners in OEM, ODM, tracking, optics, etc…

In general, if you could be interested in a collaboration, feel free to contact us!