AR glasses could deliver an even more realistic and interactive experience with the aid of holography. This is the main theme of a recently published whitepaper “Holography: The Future of Augmented Reality Wearables” by a company specializing in computer-generated holography. VividQ, a Cambridge-based tech software company, aims to perfect AR wearables through the implementation of advanced 3D holography.
Founded in 2017, the company achieved its first success at the University of Cambridge Photonics Lab, where the team developed the first holographic display algorithm. This led to securing funds from various UK and US angel investors allowing VividQ to develop the first minimum viable product, demonstrating that holography can be commercially feasible.
What Exactly Is Holography?
Holography in itself is not a new technology. It has been available for quite some time now, and famously used a few years ago to allow fans of rapper Tupac Shakur to see him performing, 16 years after he died. In essence, holography represents the process of creating a real-world recording of an object and then reproducing it as a 3D light field.
This technology used to be extremely expensive because it required immense computational power. However, lately, new algorithms and software are bringing holography to next-generation displays using standard computing power.
Benefits of Holography for Immersive Technologies
Coming back to VividQ’s whitepaper, it starts by highlighting the key benefits of implementing holography in AR wearables. These are:
- Image quality similar to retina-level resolution
- Precise environment matching
- Comfortable wear, free of eye fatigue
- Ability to create smaller sized and lighter AR glasses
- Adaptable brightness to offer perfect contrast in light and dark environments.
The VividQ team believes that these benefits can revolutionize AR glasses and encourage a faster adoption rate among consumers. Although sufficiently advanced to offer a satisfactory user experience, there is still room for improvement in their opinion.
Ways in Which Holography Can Transform AR Glasses
Further on, the authors of the whitepaper believe that holography can solve some of the major drawbacks of current models of AR glasses. These are:
1. Low Depth of Field
Depth of field creates the impression of a three-dimensional world. By engineering light, holography can create very realistic 3D objects. The level of realism is comparable to looking at a real-life object.
2. AR/VR Sickness
3D technologies currently used in AR/VR headsets cause some users to experience nausea, disorientation, eye fatigue, and vertigo. Holographic technology does not create this strain on the user’s eyes and brain, thus, users would no longer experience these symptoms after a period of wearing AR glasses.
3. Bulky AR Glasses
In order to integrate 3D computer-generated images into the real-world environment and adapt them to real-time user inputs, AR wearables need a lot of power. This means that the headsets need large batteries. A secondary issue is the heat generated by the device in use.
Holographic technology requires less power, thus devices can be lighter (as they would need smaller batteries) and would not generate as much heat as current models.
Holography Will Encourage Mass Adoption of AR Glasses
“Introducing real-time computer-generated holography into consumer display applications will bring a major shift in the way personal electronics are designed and used,” said the co-founder and COO of VividQ, Aleksandra Pedraszewska, in the whitepaper, explaining the impact of embedding holographic technology into AR wearables. “This can only be achieved at mass-scale through close collaboration between key innovators in the industry – from software and compute platforms to display hardware.”
The company believes that this is the right way to go in order to reach widespread adoption of AR at global level.
