Virtual and augmented reality headsets have the merit of existing, and if the experience they offer is sometimes striking, these devices are also heavy and bulky. Nvidia may have found the solution to make them more comfortable to wear.
Despite advances in progress and miniaturization, augmented reality glasses are still largely science fiction. Prototypes like Snap’s latest glasses today remain bulky and heavy, impossible to wear for several hours (if only because of their limited battery), not to mention the issue of social acceptability.
Nvidia prepares the ground
But by dint of investments, the industry is beginning to find technical solutions. Nvidia, which worked with researchers at Stanford University, may have found the way that will promote the design of light and discreet glasses. The Holographic Glasses have been designed around ultra-thin (2.5 mm) and very light (60 grams) glasses that can display three-dimensional holographic images.
Around this sandwich of optical layers that make up these glasses, there is a waveguide, a spatial light modulator and a geometric phase lens. In addition to holograms, these glasses can also project two-dimensional stereoscopic images, a technology similar to that of virtual reality headsets that we know today.
Everything is not yet perfect. The glasses are indeed extended by unsightly ribbons which allow the glasses to be connected to a computer. The field of vision is very small (22.8 degrees currently), far from the 100 degrees and more of other devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens. And then the Holographic Glasses only know how to display content, the whole interactive aspect is still absent.
Despite these limitations, this prototype is a new step towards augmented reality glasses that we can consider wearing at all times. Nvidia is in any case well in the race to impose its technological solutions.