MAD Gaze Vader
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| MAD Gaze Vader | |
|---|---|
| |
| Basic Info | |
| VR/AR | Augmented Reality |
| Type | Head-mounted display |
| Subtype | AR Glasses |
| Developer | MAD Gaze |
| Manufacturer | MAD Gaze |
| Announcement Date | November 2017 |
| Release Date | Kickstarter campaign November-December 2017; on retail sale by January 2019 |
| Price | US$769 (retail MSRP); Kickstarter pledges from US$499 |
| System | |
| Operating System | Android 6.0 |
| Chipset | MediaTek MT6737V |
| Storage | |
| Storage | 32 GB |
| Memory | 3 GB |
| Display | |
| Resolution | 1280x720 per-eye |
| Image | |
| Field of View | 45° diagonal |
| Optics | |
| Ocularity | Binocular |
| IPD Range | 59-71 mm hardware adjustable |
| Audio | |
| Camera | 8 MP |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS |
| Battery Capacity | 1200 mAh |
| Battery Life | Up to 5 hours (manufacturer figure) |
| Device | |
| Sensors | Accelerometers, gyroscopes, ambient light sensor |
| Input | Hand gestures, multi-touch, voice control |
MAD Gaze Vader is an augmented reality head-mounted display developed by the Hong Kong company MAD Gaze. It was announced and crowdfunded on Kickstarter in late 2017, with deliveries to backers estimated for April 2018.[1][2] The Vader is a binocular headset with dual lenses that runs Android 6.0 and has a 45-degree field of view. MAD Gaze described the image as the equivalent of a 1280 x 720, 90-inch screen seen from three meters away.[2]
The Vader followed the company's Ares and X5 glasses, which were closer in form to Google Glass and placed a small AR display in front of regular glasses.[3] It uses a camera for hand gesture control and for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), so that virtual objects can be placed around the walls, floor and ceiling of a room.[2] Its retail price was US$769.[2][4]
History
Background
MAD Gaze was founded in 2013 by Jordan Cheng, its chief executive.[5] In a 2018 interview with Hive Life, Cheng said that after building his first AR platform in 2013, he concluded that mobile phones were poorly suited to AR because they have to be held in the hand. His team then bought and tested Google Glass and the Epson Moverio BT-300. They found problems with both, including a battery life of 50 minutes and displays that were hard to see outdoors, and decided to build their own smart glasses.[6]
MAD Gaze brand director Chelsea Miu told Wareable that the company had first worked with Google Glass for clients interested in augmented reality before developing its own hardware. According to Miu, the Vader is a refinement of the Ares and X5. Unlike those two models, it has dual lenses that cover both eyes, and Wareable compared its look to a larger pair of 3D glasses.[2]
Kickstarter campaign
MAD Gaze ran a Kickstarter campaign for the Vader, titled "MAD Gaze: Best AR Smart Glasses for Work & Entertainment", from 16 November to 16 December 2017. The campaign was listed from Hong Kong and priced in Australian dollars. It raised AU$207,296 from 221 backers against a goal of AU$50,000.[1] The Hong Kong site Techapple reported that the campaign reached its goal within one day and had raised more than HK$650,000 from more than 180 backers by 23 November 2017.[7] Miu told Wareable that one of the main reasons for the campaign was to gauge demand, and that some potential backers had asked whether the product would launch at all.[2] Hive Life later reported that the company's main motive for using Kickstarter was PR and marketing rather than raising funds.[6]
Each hardware reward included the Vader with a MAD Gaze portable keyboard. The "Super Early Bird" tier cost AU$649 and was limited to 150 units, and the "Kickstarter Special" tier cost AU$779. Larger tiers bundled 4, 10 or 25 units for families, enterprises and distributors. Every hardware tier had an estimated delivery date of April 2018.[1] In US dollars, Wareable reported a Kickstarter price of US$499 and said the price would rise to US$769 after the campaign.[2] Hong Kong technology site ezone.hk reported the early-bird bundle with the keyboard as about HK$4,044.[8]
Release and later history
In March 2018, Hive Life described the Vader as the company's latest product, alongside the X5 and Ares, and said its release was expected in May.[6] MAD Gaze showed the Vader at CES in January 2019. ETCentric, the news site of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, reported at the time that the glasses were available at an MSRP of US$769.[4]
In August 2019 MAD Gaze previewed the Glow, 75-gram glasses that connect to a smartphone over USB-C. In its report, Next Reality listed the Vader among the company's earlier wearables.[3] A February 2020 Forbes report on the company's funding listed its AR glasses as the Ares, X5, X5S, X5P, Vader, GLOW and GLOW Plus.[5]
The electronics analysis firm TechInsights published a teardown of the Vader on 14 September 2021.[9]
Design and hardware
The Vader is a binocular device with dual lenses that completely cover the wearer's eyes.[2][7] Techapple reported that the optics were adjusted horizontally to allow for interpupillary distance. Nearsighted and farsighted users can have corrective lenses made by local optical shops.[7] ETCentric noted removable, moderately tinted sunglass lenses that sit over the AR lenses.[4]
Wareable listed Android 6.0, 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS, accelerometers, gyroscopes and an ambient light sensor.[2] TechInsights' teardown found that MediaTek had the most design wins in the device, supplying the MT6737V application processor, the MT6625LN Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS chip, the MT6328V power management and audio codec chip, and the MT6169V RF transceiver.[9]
MAD Gaze gave the battery capacity as 1200 mAh and the battery life as five hours of continuous use.[7][8] ETCentric listed a three-hour battery life in its CES 2019 report and gave the display as 720p at 30 fps.[4]
Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 1280x720 per-eye |
| Field of view | 45° diagonal |
| IPD range | 59-71 mm hardware adjustable |
| Price | US$769 (retail); from US$499 during the Kickstarter campaign[2] |
| Operating system | Android 6.0[2] |
| Application processor | MediaTek MT6737V[9] |
| Memory | 3 GB RAM[2] |
| Storage | 32 GB[2] |
| Camera | 8 MP[2] |
| Wireless and location | Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS[2] |
| Sensors | Accelerometers, gyroscopes, ambient light sensor[2] |
| Battery | 1200 mAh; up to 5 hours (manufacturer figure)[7][8] |
| Input | Hand gestures, multi-touch, voice control[8] |
Software and features
The Vader is controlled by touch, voice and hand gestures.[8] According to Wareable, the gestures are made in front of the glasses: the user pinches to zoom and swipes and taps to drag and drop. MAD Gaze gave the example of dragging a document and placing it on a person in the room.[2] Cheng told Hive Life that the Vader needs only one camera, of the kind used in mobile phones, for gesture control, while Microsoft HoloLens uses four.[6]
The SLAM system uses computer vision to track the wearer's position in the room and to measure walls, floors and ceilings so that virtual objects can be placed around them. MAD Gaze said these features were developed by a newly hired chief scientist whom it did not name. Miu said a partnership with IBM gave the company access to image recognition and machine learning tools, which were built into the software and operating system.[2]
A button switches the display between 2D and 3D, so the glasses can be used to watch 3D films.[7][8] Techapple reported that the glasses can show app notifications from a phone and take calls over Wi-Fi.[7]
The Vader has an SDK for developers building AR apps. Miu said more than a thousand developers were working on apps for it, but noted that because the headset runs Android, those apps can move easily to other Android-based AR headsets. Two examples named at launch were The Hopping Dead, a zombie shooting game, and a game that Wareable compared to Pokemon Go.[2]
Reception
Wareable's Husain Sumra wrote in November 2017 that the software, with its gesture control and SLAM, was the main selling point of the Vader. He wrote that its 45-degree field of view gave it an edge over the 35-degree field of view of HoloLens.[2] Cheng told Hive Life that the display was larger and brighter than those of competitors whose fields of view were 30 and 23 degrees.[6]
After a demo at CES 2019, ETCentric's Phil Lelyveld called the glasses "very impressive under the demo conditions of CES". He noted that the glasses offer only 720p at 30 fps and a three-hour battery life, but have a 45-degree field of view and a responsive hand and finger gesture interface. He added that the removable tinted lenses gave bright AR images with good blacks.[4] Next Reality compared the Vader's design to AR headsets from Osterhout Design Group and ThirdEye.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 MAD Gaze. "MAD Gaze: Best AR Smart Glasses for Work & Entertainment". Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madgaze/mad-gaze-best-ar-smart-glasses-for-work-and-entert. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 Husain Sumra (2017-11-30). "MAD Gaze wants to slip its Vader AR headset in before the 2020 rush". Wareable. https://www.wareable.com/ar/mad-gaze-vr-headset-before-2020-340. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Tommy Palladino (2019-08-16). "Mad Gaze Joins China's Consumer Smartglasses Gold Rush with Glow Wearable". Next Reality. https://next.reality.news/news/mad-gaze-joins-chinas-consumer-smartglasses-gold-rush-with-glow-wearable-0203477/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Phil Lelyveld (2019-01-11). "Interesting AR and VR Tech Found Around the Edges of CES". ETCentric. Entertainment Technology Center at USC. https://www.etcentric.org/interesting-ar-and-vr-tech-found-around-the-edges-of-ces/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Charlie Fink (2020-02-24). "AR Smart Glass Maker MAD Gaze Snags $19 Million Investment". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2020/02/24/ar-smart-glass-maker-mad-gaze-snags-19-m-investment/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Beatrix Chau (2018-03-20). "Hong Kong Startup MAD Gaze Enters the AR Race". Hive Life. https://hivelife.com/hong-kong-startup-in-the-ar-smart-glasses-race/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 TechApple.com editorial team (2017-11-23). "香港初創 MAD Gaze 新款 AR 智能眼鏡：只花一天就完成 100% 眾籌". Techapple.com. https://techapple.com/archives/17146. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 shiuhk (2018-01-17). "MAD Gaze Vader AR 智能眼鏡畫面達 90 英吋！隨身個人影院". ezone.hk. https://ezone.hk/article/1992538/MAD+Gaze+Vader+AR+%E6%99%BA%E8%83%BD%E7%9C%BC%E9%8F%A1%E7%95%AB%E9%9D%A2%E9%81%94+90+%E8%8B%B1%E5%90%8B%EF%BC%81%E9%9A%A8%E8%BA%AB%E5%80%8B%E4%BA%BA%E5%BD%B1%E9%99%A2. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Deep Dive Teardown of the MAD GAZE VADER AR Smart Glasses". TechInsights. 2021-09-14. https://www.techinsights.com/products/ddt-2106-801. Retrieved 2026-09-27.