This document discusses different types of augmented reality hardware platforms, including phone/tablet-based AR using apps like Pokémon GO, wearable AR displays like Google Glass and Microsoft Hololens, and non-wearable experiences. It describes some of the key technologies used in different AR headsets, such as waveguides and pupil expansion. While AR headsets are improving field of view and adding depth of field, constraints remain around FOV, light efficiency, brightness and cost. The document concludes by discussing future technologies that may improve AR hardware like new waveguide materials and metamaterials.
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How AR optics work
Google Glass
Lumus Vision
Microsoft Hololens
https://uploadvr.com/waveguides-smartglasses/
Pupil expansion technique
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Google Glass
• Monocular
• Prism optics
• Full-color
• Image plane very close
• $1500
x.company/glass. Image by JM Internet Group
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Google Glass
Video by Youtube user, JerryRigEverything
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Lumus Vision
Tech:
• Optical Engine only
• Reflective Waveguides
• ~40 DFOV
• Full-color
• Image Plane at infinity
Company Partners:
• Daqri, Atheer
CES 2018, Las Vegas. Image by Slashgear.
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Lumus Vision
CES 2017, Las Vegas. By RoadtoVR.
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Constraints
• Adds layer of content on real-world with no real
understanding of environment
• Single focal planes; No depth-of-field
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Microsoft Hololens
• Stacked Waveguides
• ~35 FOV
• Full-color
• Environment mapping
• $3000
Hololens by Microsoft.
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Microsoft Hololens
Demo by Abhishek Singh at New York Central Park
Vbandi.net
Mashable
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Magic Leap One
• Digital Lightfields
• Full-color
• Environment Mapping
• Visual Perception with
Machine Learning
A light-field creates the effect of depth-of-field, allowing objects in focus to appear
crisp and those not to appear blurry.
ML1 by Magic Leap.
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Magic Leap
Images courtesy of Magic Leap
Inc.
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Constraints
• Field-of-View (FOV)
• Light efficiency (light in vs light out)
• Brightness (nits)
• Cost of manufacturing
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Peppers Ghost “Hologram”
Tupac Shakur “hologram”, Coachella 2012
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Leap Motion Project Northstar (2018)
Leap Motion AR project Northstar
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Photophoretic trap volumetric display (2018)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25176 Courtesy of Dr. Daniel Smalley, BYU
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What’s Next?
• Newer waveguide technology - larger FOV
• More focal planes
• Variable optics
• Metamaterials (nonlinear optics)
• Small form-factor fiber displays
• Spatial-light modulators to control phase
properties of light
• Improved computer vision
• Robust eye-tracking
• Photonics manufacturing
This graphic illustrates a thin lens with long focal length (A), a thick lens with short
focal length (B), and a thin metamaterial lens with extremely short focal length (C).
University of Toronto, 2013
Courtesy of Object-Based Media, MIT Media Lab 2017.
Lumus: https://lumusvision.com/products/oe33/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/09/lumus-shows-off-the-latest-of-its-increasingly-tiny-augmented-reality-displays/
Lumus has more recently been the OEM supplier to both Daqri and Atheer.
Vuzix: https://gizmodo.com/the-vuzix-blade-is-what-google-glass-always-wanted-to-b-1821964545
Partners: https://www.theverge.com/ces/2017/1/5/14148182/lumus-maximus-sleek-augmented-reality-glasses-prototypes
Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behavior of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the dielectric polarization P responds nonlinearly to the electric field E of the light.
https://www.ece.utoronto.ca/news/new-metamaterial-lens/
This graphic illustrates a thin lens with long focal length (A), a thick lens with short focal length (B), and a thin metamaterial lens with extremely short focal length (C).