To celebrate the launch of the RealWear Navigator 500, the next generation industrial strength assisted reality (aR) solution, our Head of Product, Tim Patrick, shares his thoughts on which features and updates he’s most excited about.
The Navigator 500 represents a huge step forward in the aR space, building on the ground-breaking HMT-1 from RealWear. The Navigator 500 keeps everything that is great about the HMT-1; it’s non-intrusive horseshoe design, full hands-free voice control, ruggedised design suitable for rough and ready use, swappable battery, and compatibility with standard PPE, just to note a few. But it refreshes the components and introduces a brand-new modular design to provide the best solution on the market.
Extending the Cradlepoint R Series family, the new R920 is a fully ruggedised LTE solution which is highly versatile and ideal for a wide range of use cases. It also supports the RX20 managed accessory that allows the addition of a 5G modular modem for increased performance and multiple network support, broadening the potential use cases even further.
Improving on the key noise cancellation feature set the Navigator 500 now works in environments of up to 100dBA, and the new 48MP camera is a big step forwards from the 16MP on the HMT-1 – and these are just two great examples of the sensible improvements made by RealWear to the components.
The addition of the Navigator 500 modular design into the RealWear line-up provides a future-ready RealWear experience, allowing customers to buy with confidence. The camera is a great example of how the modular design benefits its users; the 48MP unit can be replaced with a higher megapixel or specialised camera in the future, as and when they become available via a RealWear support upgrade path. This means customers can continue to benefit from a solid core product into the future, swapping out elements if and when needed.
It’s great to see RealWear creating such practical products, adding the functionality that make sense (such as the new modular architecture), improving what’s already working (such as the new battery design which now makes it easier to perform a true hot-swap) and really just delivering practical benefits that provide value to the end user (such as a lighter design, software useability improvements and much more). The new Navigator 500 is, in my opinion, ready to lead the market of industrial aR and provide the environment for customers to reap all the benefits of a connected worker. I’m really excited to see what our partners and their customers will do with all this capability!
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