OptoFidelity Articles

When selling a pre-owned smartphone, sellers face the challenge of accurately describing the device's overall condition, both in terms of appearance and functionality, to ensure that the buyer's expectations are met and the price is fair. One aspect of the overall condition is the functionality of the camera. This article focuses on common defects in pre-owned smartphone cameras and provides examples of real-life issues that have been identified through an automated smartphone-testing system.

Description

When considering the user experience of the smartphones, characteristics such as display resolution, brightness, sharpness, contrast, uniformity, and color accuracy are important. All these properties, with the exception of the resolution, may have deteriorated on a pre-owned smartphone. Depending on the display technology, OLED or LCD, the quality of the display gets poorer over time due to aging in different ways. For example, OLED displays suffer from burn in, which means that statically displayed brightness patterns can get burned into the display so that they can be seen on a blank display or in most severe cases even on top of other content. Burn in can also happen unevenly on different color channels leading to color distortion throughout the whole display.

LCD displays, on the other hand, may suffer from aging of the backlight components or the liquid crystal substances leading to nonuniform brightness or color. Physical wear and tear, as well, damages the quality of the display.

Introduction

Cosmetic condition is an essential aspect to consider when purchasing a pre-owned smartphone. The condition is usually communicated to the consumer via a given grade. The grading scale ranges from A, indicating like-new condition, to D, indicating visible wear and tear. More often than not, these gradings tend to be subjective and vague.

In an age where technology advances at a rapid pace, smartphones have become indispensable tools that connect us to the world, facilitate communication, and streamline our daily tasks. As a result, the demand for pre-owned smartphones has surged, offering cost-effective alternatives for consumers and companies. However, when buying a pre-owned smartphone, one must exercise caution, and this is where the importance of objectivity and repeatability in testing and cosmetic grading becomes paramount. 

OptoFidelity opened a state-of-the-art factory in Zhuhai, China in 2019. Having a strong, in-house manufacturing capability was a strategic decision for succeeding in a dynamic global market for high-tech consumer electronics. Despite prevailing geopolitical challenges, China remains a prominent hub for manufacturing consumer electronics. This has enabled our Zhuhai facility to serve both regional and global markets. With a focus on designing and producing optical instruments, testing tools, metrology, and calibration fixtures for consumer electronics, we also offer customized solutions that align with the industry's demands.

In the world of metrology, achieving precise optical alignment is critical for accurate measurements and ensuring the reliability of the system. The WG-IQ metrology system is no exception, and it presents a unique challenge when it comes to aligning its camera, which is mounted on a 180° rotation stage. In this blog post, we will explore the innovative use of two autocollimators that enable the formation of a stable optical axis, making the optical alignment of the WG-IQ metrology system possible and efficient.

The Quest for Enhanced Visual Experiences:

This blog starts a series of test case descriptions that give insights into tested phenomena and what really is behind the resulting performance value. I will start with the measurement of Angular Jitter.

In the rapidly expanding field of augmented reality (AR), the precise measurement of diffractive gratings used in AR devices is crucial for optimizing their performance and user experience. Therefore, the choice of measurement technique can significantly impact the accuracy and efficiency of the process. While Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEMs) have been a popular choice, Littrow diffractometers are emerging as the superior alternative for evaluating AR diffractive gratings. In this blog post, we will delve into the reasons why Littrow diffractometers should be your go-to choice for assessing the performance of diffractive gratings in AR devices.

State-of-the-art cosmetic defect detection with AI is a key enabler for making profitable business in the refurbishment of smartphones. It is accurate, relentless, and objective and it beats humans in repeatability. 

OptoFidelity FUSION, the All-in-one functional tester for refurbished smartphones, received its Q4/2022 SW release in December. 

The new release includes:  

• GPS test
• LiDAR camera test for iPhones
• Capability to export image and sound data from tests to the customer's external server for postprocessing and/or archiving
• Multiple improvements in compatibility, test sequence optimization, and safety features

Since OptoFidelity launched the FUSION robot for functional testing of smartphones we have constantly been developing it to meet the needs of our customers. Over the years FUSION has been used to test millions of smartphones with excellent repeatability.

You may have seen our BUDDY robot at the exhibitions and in our marketing content. But what is the story behind the robot? Read about our development and what drives us further to enable a smarter future.

When testing the Motion-to-photon (MTP) latency of a Head-mounted display (HMD), variables like CPU/GPU load and network bandwidth can affect the result. Therefore, it is quite common that users would like to utilize certain visual content with the HMD during the test, to better match the actual conditions where the device is being used. But there is a fundamental challenge with additional content as the image on the screen is the exact source for the virtual world viewer orientation and location information. And to be able to get that information from an image, certain reference content needs to be viewed.  

OptoFidelity´s automated test systems measure the optical and tracking performance of metaverse headsets and enable products to deliver a premium user experience.

Learn more about OptoFidelity´s testing solutions in the Enabling Metaverse Quality article from Dr. Nikhil Pachhandara, Chief Innovation, and Growth Officer. 

Metaverse is the 3D extension of the internet into the virtual world. This world is accessed through AR/VR/MR/XR glasses. HMDs and NEDs play a crucial role in accessing the metaverse. The core of the user experience in the metaverse is dependent on the quality of the headsets. 

OptoFidelity is the global leader in designing and manufacturing automated test systems for measuring the optical and tracking performance of AR and VR systems. OptoFidelity BUDDY and OptoFidelity HMD IQ provide accurate and repeatable measurements of various critical image and optical qualities of headsets´ display characteristics, tracking performance, and component verification.

With OptoFidelity BUDDY, a temporal performance testing and calibration system for head-mounted displays is provided. Test cases available for measuring temporal performance include: display temporal characteristics (pixel persistence and refresh rate), motion-to-photon latencies (motion-to-photon latency with or without motion prediction, initial latency), motion tracking accuracy (spatial jitter, drifting, prediction overshoot and undershoot, tracking repeatability) and AR world-locking performance (hologram-locking accuracy to real-world features, hologram stability, and simultaneous localization and mapping verification). 

OptoFidelity HMD IQ is a measurement system for validating the image quality of head-mounted displays and various near-eye displays and their optical modules over the entire FOV and eye-box. It is designed for both product development and mass-production testing and calibration. 

Read more from Enabling Metaverse Quality article in the Consumer Electronics Magazine.

To ensure a seamless user experience and to protect their bottom line, manufacturers should implement automated human-like testing of touchscreen user interfaces at every phase of a product’s development cycle, says Dr. Nikhil Pachhandara, Chief Innovation and Growth Officer at OptoFidelity.

Read more about the topic from the Human Touch article in the Consumer Electronics magazine.

OptoFidelity’s touch testing systems TOUCH and STYLUS offer a human-simulating approach, bringing a new level of quality and efficiency to the evaluation of touch UI. OptoFidelity TOUCH provides fast and accurate performance testing for chipsets, touch panels, and final products, adding value to the entire testing process. OptoFidelity STYLUS offers automated testing for stylus products using high-accuracy motion robotics. 

The automated test systems from OptoFidelity bring many advantages over manual testing, like repeatability and precision, and higher efficiency.

Read the Human Touch article to learn why manufacturers should consider implementing touch UI testing processes at each stage of a product’s development cycle. 

OptoFidelity’s BUDDY is a leading comprehensive measurement system for head-mounted displays (HMDs) in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) applications. Now with 6DOF (six degrees of freedom), BUDDY accurately mimics human movement – allowing for automated testing of headset performance including motion-to-photon latency, content stability, pose-drifting and world-locking. As the AR/VR market heats up, so does the competitive landscape. An early edge in the development process can mean all the difference.

Every year, we have a number of summer trainees at OptoFidelity, who have actively supported our work and learned a lot of new things in the process. In 2022, eight new summer trainees worked with us for several months. In this blog, some of them will talk about their experiences at OptoFidelity.

AR and VR are quickly becoming critical toolsets in the medical field. One of the earliest uses was in training surgeons. Medical professionals use AR to create a three-dimensional model of the patient's body that they could view from different angles, which allows surgeons to practice surgeries before performing them on an actual patient. From training to surgical procedures, AR and VR are used to improve medical treatments' quality and accuracy. Using AR/VR in medical applications has expanded beyond training purposes. Some current trends include:

Since OptoFidelity launched FUSION robot for functional testing of smartphones we have been constantly developing it to meet the needs of our customers. Over the years FUSION has been used to test millions of smartphones with excellent repeatability.

With the ramp-up of head mounted display (HMD) production, there’s an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage through manufacturing efficiencies. Waiting to solve these problems in the production stage no longer serves you. We suggest moving testing into the earliest stages of product design. Integrating performance test engineering into your mass production process can help discover bottlenecks and challenges before and during production.

What are the implications of implementing earlier testing, like labor requirements, equipment, and the additional time to market? Automated optical metrology testing systems can help to alleviate these barriers and solve performance issues before they even appear. We have identified a few steps that you can take to make sure you can improve productivity and establish world-leading quality and performance in your optical technology.

Steps to improve and maximize your HMD production process:

1. Gain end-to-end system performance visibility with the shift-left approach
2. Get performance improvement recommendations based on comprehensive statistical analysis
3. Apply technology-agnostic testing strategies suitable for any device, form factor, or use case

Technology drives our economy, and its leaders can shape its impact on climate change. The world has finite resources, so adopting and promoting a circular economy will advance the reuse of resources to benefit businesses, consumers, and the environment. What is a circular economy, exactly? Today’s linear economy takes finite resources from the Earth, which later become waste. A circular economy aims to develop products that can be reused over again, either as the same product, or using the parts for a new byproduct. The concept of a circular economy is changing our approach to product design, production, and brand promise, while in many cases, opening opportunity for new lines of revenue and margin improvement.

With the development of the metaverse moving at an accelerating pace, the expansion of AR, VR, and MR, is inevitable. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst in creating a virtual world where we can experience many of the same social events and interactions that we enjoy in the real world. Company investments are shifting – and the performance of head-mounted displays (HMDs) and other smart device technology will progress with it. Recent statistics show the forecast of the market and are drivers behind the increased investments in AR/VR/MR technologies.

Before high-scale production, developers of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices need to address any performance gaps. Comprehensive testing is the solution to close the disparity in performance. There are several components used in AR/VR systems that require performance measurements, such as sensors, cameras, processors, GPS, displays, and a microphone. Performance is vital, but turn-key solutions for automated testing are limited.

An automotive head-up display system, or HUD, aims to improve passenger safety by projecting information such as navigation, warnings, and points of interest, to the driver’s visual field, ideally in real-time. The intention is to keep the driver’s focus on the road by reducing the eyes-off-the-road time and increasing situational awareness. Conventional HUDs produce a 2D image with a fixed, or static, projection. However, Augmented Reality (AR) HUDs produce a 3D image that adds depth and curvature to conventional HUD imagery and features a variable, or dynamic, projection.

In our previous blog, we discussed about factors impacting the growth of refurbished smartphone market, and the current practices utilized in the field. There are multiple factors like lower prices and more sustainable consumer habits that contribute towards the growth. There is room to improve the quality of the refurbishment and grading process, and one of the keys to success is automation.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in his keynote speech while accepting Ceres' Sustainability Award opines that Refurbishing smartphones is the way of the future. At OptoFidelity, we have been providing several automation/grading products and solutions to smartphones' refurbishment industry for over 5 years. We have noticed that practices utilized in the refurbishing processes are sub-optimal. There is a lot of potential for improving quality of the refurbishment process and customer satisfaction, which will lead to faster adoption of refurbished smartphones.  

End consumer experience with new technologies and products is paramount for their successful adoption. Head-mounted displays (HMDs) such as Sony, Pico, DPVR, HTC Facebook's Oculus, and others promise an immersive experience in augmented and virtual reality. For delivery of the promised experience, many factors are critical including motion-to-photon (MTP) latency. Poor performance of motion-to-photon latency leads to spatial disorientation, motion sickness and dizziness. In this post, we explore the importance of motion-to-photon latency, how to measure it and optimize HMD performance.

OptoFidelity testing approach 

OptoFidelity through its history has been mimicking human perception by designing sensors and actuators to “replace” human senses and touches. For example, in area of touch testing there has been fingertips with specific materials to mimic softness or capacitance of fingertip or added sensors to sense force or haptics. Sometimes the requirement has been to press touch screen with 1g force in 10um accuracy in XY location or recognize setting icon or read Arabic text. 

Touch screens

Touch screens are devices that recognize the presence of contacts and generate responses. The presence can be delivered via touch gestures or stylus. The response can be various such as haptic, visual, audio, etc. Hence, touch screens are input/output devices.

OptoFidelity Automotive Test Suite simulates human interaction inside a vehicle. The testing expertise covers the following areas:

Display Color Properties

Displays of all kinds are the main channels for human interaction with various devices. Whether it is a mobile phone, tablet, PC, cars, home appliances, info screens, or machine controllers, displaying information and content on display is the most natural way to interact with people. As the variety and usage of displays increase, the color optics of display performance grows in importance. Can the user see the content clearly from various angles? Are the colors vivid and natural at the same time? Are there unevenness or visible defects on display? Do the colors of two in-device displays match when it comes to dual-screen devices?

Humans are gifted with five senses namely sight, hear, touch, taste and smell. These senses help us perceive the world and get the best of the experiences. Technology has certainly adapted to give us best experience by the means of touch. From phone to a watch, from car to fridge, from ATMs to POS, everything is embedded with a touch capacity for human interaction. Delivering such interactive technology comes with a requirement of quality assurance to keep the product consistent and enhance the customer experience. Having shipped a poor quality of touch panels in any device has a significant impact on the quality of device. This certainly affects the device brand and the future of the product. Having a thorough testing cycle in R&D as well in manufacturing line, improves the quality of production, which helps getting better business yield.

Consumer VR headsets have been available since 2015, when a large number of companies announced their own versions of the products. By 2016, more than 230 companies were working on their own VR HMD projects. Most of these projects have since ended and companies have gone bankrupt, but some keep releasing new products, both stand-alone and tethered versions, on an almost annual basis. Oculus (Facebook) released new Quest and Rift devices in 2019, while HTC came up with a new VIVE and Valve announced their Index glasses. Then there is Varjo, a company that keeps amazing their fans with human-eye resolution products, as well as numerous new Chinese companies that are also catching up fast in product design and performance. In CES 2020, there were dozens of new players and products coming to both the VR and AR markets. ^{[1] [2]}

Production is the key process in bringing the end user products into the market. For our customers, this involves production technology validation, traveling to the factories, meeting tight line ramp-up deadlines and ensuring that production costs are within the business case for the product. In a later phase, the focus moves into production line efficiency improvements and maintaining the systems. Equipment vendor capabilities and level of experience has significant influence on the level of required effort. This blog is outlining our experience for how to create successful projects, a checklist for the key ingredients.

We at OptoFidelity are enthusiastic about the accuracy of our test and measurement systems. In order to pursue the highest possible accuracy and repeatability, we have integrated several technologies into the TOUCH test system, such as purpose-built mechanics, linear motors, multi-axis synchronized motion, machine vision based positioning, robot calibration methods, and camera calibrations.

Smart devices are electronic devices which integrate various sensors and actuators which enable product features. Smart devices are generally connected to other devices or networks and can operate to some extent interactively and autonomously. Development of a smart device starts from component and technology selection and continues with product R&D, manufacturing and after sales. End user experience is the key differentiator for any smart device product. It is built from well performing components and skillfully integrated product hardware and software.

Each year we seek enthusiastic, bold and open-minded Trainees to join our troops. This summer was no different and we were excited to have overall six new OptoFidelitians. We promised that these Trainees will have a summer with cool robots, awesome colleagues and unique projects – how well did we succeed with this promise? Let’s find out from the authors themselves: Sini, Joonas, Olli-Pekka, Ismo and Juho!

Sini and Joonas, you worked as Software Trainees, what did you get to do here?

Sini: During the summer I got to do a lot of work directly related to my education and interests. This was the most important thing for me, since as someone mostly focused on users, UX and UI design back-end coding is not inspiring to me. I was surprised how much people here were eager to hear my opinions and how much those really affected the outcome of the projects.

I designed and made prototypes of a few user interfaces and got to develop one from start to finish. In the university I hadn’t learned a lot about UI programming and the experience from here is patching up important holes in my know-how.

What really made the summer enjoyable here was my project team. The average age of the team was probably somewhere in the mid to late twenties, which helped us connect and have fun too on the side of work. I look forward to continuing as a part-timer when I start my studies again!

Diffractive waveguide gratings are one of the most promising display technologies for head-mounted augmented reality (AR) devices. Verifying the quality of these gratings requires extremely accurate optical measurements, a key expertise at OptoFidelity.

We at OptoFidelity are happy to introduce a new image quality testing solution for AR/VR head mounted devices – OptoFidelity™ GoldenEye HMD IQ!

Is it safe to buy a refurbished smartphone? This is one of the most common questions written to Google when a consumer is considering buying a used smartphone. “Are they any good?” “Will they function well?” “Can I trust that it works?” The answer is a resounding “Yes,” if you ask OptoFidelity. “Based on our experience from the reverse logistics of smartphones, the quality of second-hand phones for sale is excellent, especially if you buy them from established suppliers in the business,” Hans Kuosmanen, SVP from OptoFidelity, confirms.

Maturity of AR/VR/MR devices is improving significantly during 2019. In order to offer seamless UX for consumers, more comprehensive testing methods are needed. A novel content tracking method for AR/VR/MR testing purposes is introduced by OptoFidelity, the leading test solution provider for HMD UX testing.

In 2019, we can expect a wealth of exciting virtual and augmented reality devices arriving: for example, Oculus is going to release the standalone Quest headset, and Nreal raised $15M of funding to produce a sunglass-sized AR headset. In CES 2019, there were almost a hundred exhibitors in the AR/VR Gaming category.

Quick development of the new technology gives rise to the need to verify performance in product development as a part of continuous integration. This post focuses on measuring head tracking accuracy, which is comprised of many measurable elements: drifting, jitter, motion-to-photon latency, cross-axis coupling… you name it!

Kick-start for HMD UX testing was done in 2017, when OptoFidelity's first offering BUDDY-1, previously known as VR Multimeter was launched. BUDDY-1 is a solution for benchmarking the motion-to-photon latency with one degree of freedom. Our BUDDY testers are equipped with a smart camera which captures and analyzes the frames displayed on the headset. BUDDY-1 tracks the optical flow of a target pattern placed in the virtual world and compares that to the physical rotation angle over time, yielding motion-to-photon time. BUDDY-1 is a good work horse for basic motion-to-photon latency measurement e.g. to catch some fatal performance regressions.

OptoFidelity worked in co-operation with University of Jyväskylä, Department of Physics. Our co-operation was related to academic research in the area of HMD testing technology. Our interest was to find new optical measurement technologies and methods for VR headset tracking performance. As an end result, we developed a novel technology for testing HMD´s. If tracking performance of HMD is poor, it will effect drastically to end user experience. OptoFidelity has been working with user interface testing for years. As HMD´s are getting more and more popular, we believe better testing technology is needed as well.

Refurbished smartphone testing is not possible with traditional testing approach. Novel technology and thinking is needed in order to overcome the challenges. Especially you can see the problem, when you are trying to automate Android functional testing for refurbished phones.

There are 2.3B Android smartphones in use globally (*). And more and more smartphones are getting a second life as well. This means reselling the phone to another user when the primary user wants to get an upgrade. This reverse logistics business requires testing as well. If you want to sell it with a good price, the phone must work well.

OptoFidelity was nominated by Photonics Finland as the Photonics Company of The Year. We are very pleased and proud of this nomination. We took the opportunity seriously and had a little celebration at our office the other day. While having a glass of sparkling wine with our team, we also discussed some recent experiences with photonics and its relation to testing. We have been investing in the photonics industry for years. And a few truly interesting cases were brought up by the team. ”How do testing and photonics, and specifically test robotics and photonics, fit together?” you might ask.  

“Values are personal and reflect the vibe around the company”

Creating a new product concept from scratch is like a thrilling voyage. It’s  at least a combination of a vision of the destination, good itinerary, guts and good luck. And the final result, alive and kicking product, can be as rewarding as the dream journey. When developing and launching one of our latest products, OptoFidelity^TM Fusion, I really thought it was like winning the Amazing Race. And that’s a lot to say – for a Finn.

”As a company, we don’t define ourselves by our output, but by the challenges we solve”