Sailors used to hold pocket telescopes. Birdwatchers nonetheless carry monoculars. Geologists carry hand lenses. What these devices share, past the apparent optical perform, is a deliberate relationship to data: you increase the instrument once you select to interact with it, and the world stays unmediated the remainder of the time. That’s really a fairly refined UX philosophy, and it’s one your entire wearable tech trade has quietly deserted in favor of always-on overlays, persistent notifications, and the idea that extra entry to data is axiomatically higher. Yuxuan Hua’s Lens idea is a Silver A’ Design Award winner that makes the counterargument in {hardware} kind.
The idea is a removable AR smartwatch that splits into two objects: a wrist-worn puck for on a regular basis use and a handheld monocular for AR-enhanced outside exploration. The again face of the module homes a dual-lens optical array, a large digicam and LiDAR sensor tucked right into a vertical tablet recess, whereas the face doubles as a round show that overlays navigation prompts, species identification, and star charts over a dwell feed when held up like a area scope. The band itself is Alpine-loop textile, the lug system easy sufficient to counsel the module can swap throughout band types, and the entire thing is available in at 48mm vast and 68g. The rendering element is powerful: the indifferent module has the chilly, machined look of a top quality compass or a basic gentle meter, the form of object that rewards dealing with.
Designer: Yuxuan Hua
Hua interviewed hikers, foragers, and stargazers and located three constant frustrations: gadgets have been too cumbersome and fragile for rugged environments, and frequent display interactions broke the rhythm of being exterior. The phone-as-field-guide sample, pull it out, unlock, navigate to the app, watch for it to load, attempt to maintain it regular whereas pointing at one thing, is a sequence of six interruptions the place you really needed zero. Sensible glasses clear up the unlock drawback however introduce the way more annoying drawback of a everlasting digital scrim between you and no matter you got here outside to have a look at. The monocular is the factor you increase once you need to know one thing and decrease once you don’t, which is exactly how consideration works once you’re really engaged with a panorama.
Most AR idea {hardware} reaches for science fiction: translucent surfaces, glowing components, the visible grammar of a prop division. Lens reaches as a substitute for the instrument drawer: the indifferent module has the proportions and materials honesty of a top quality compass housing or a Leica gentle meter, machined aluminum with seen fasteners and a lens array that appears prefer it belongs in an optician’s toolkit. It doesn’t seem like the long run. It appears like a really well-made instrument, which is a considerably more durable design goal to hit.
Hua started growing Lens in 2021, through the pandemic, which is beneficial context. Lockdown-era design initiatives usually reveal what designers really miss in regards to the bodily world when it’s taken away, and what Lens mourns, obliquely, is uninterrupted consideration. The entire idea is an argument that the very best AR machine for outside use is one which disappears once you’re not utilizing it, one which earns its presence by staying out of the way in which till the second it’s wanted, then delivers precisely what the second requires. Whether or not the engineering can catch as much as that imaginative and prescient, packing AR projection, LiDAR, and a wide-FOV digicam right into a 68g coin of aluminum, is one other query fully. As a design proposition, it’s already executed its job.
