From Vision to Reality: The Latest in AR Tech

Augmented Reality is on the rise. According to the market estimation numbers available, from 2017 to 2025, the augmented reality market size is set to increase by over 195 billion US dollars, from nearly 3.5 billion in 2017 to more than 198 billion US dollars in 2025.  

This growth would not have been possible had AR not proved its mettle across several real-life use cases, including medical training, retail, repair and maintenance, design & modeling, business logistics, tourism, education, entertainment, public safety, and more. 

The entry of AR in our modern life has been so effective that tech leaders like SAP have qualified its impact as synonymous with the future of manufacturing. It finds usability for everything, from asset identification to knowledge transfer. It has helped improve product development standards, simplified processes, streamlined our warehouse management efforts, increased worker engagement, and – perhaps the most important – reduced risks by allowing workers to practice tasks virtually. 

Such growth of AR has always enjoyed the backing of a robust scientific community involved in innovating and expanding the boundaries of what AR could potentially achieve. 

Today, we shall look into one such innovation that would prove crucial in spreading the applicability of AR further. 

Shrunk AR Displays With Expanded Use Cases for Seeing and Visibility

The study came out in the journal ACS Photonics and was titled “Hybrid Meta-Optics Enabled Compact Augmented Reality Display with Computational Image Reinforcement.” 

The researchers found that it was challenging to reduce the size, weight, and off-axis aberrations of projection lenses. The challenge led to creating obstacles in miniaturizing AR devices like glasses. As a solution, the researchers presented a meta/refractive hybrid lenses-based AR projection display illuminated with a MicroLED. The solution enables commercial ability with an entrance pupil diameter of 3.2 mm and a total track length of less than 7.7 mm. The result offers superior resolution and minimal off-axis aberrations with less than 2% distortion across a 30-degree field of view. 

To enhance the solution further, the researchers empowered it with a hardware-inspired correction neural network powered by a point-spread-function feature. To reinforce the AR image quality, the researchers arranged for a pre-deconvolution from a light source that could further correct the residual system aberration. 

While all these might sound too technical, let us relook into the solution from a perspective that would help gain a clearer perspective for commoners who are not that heavily into optical science. 

What the Research and its Achievements Mean for the Common User

The purpose that AR has been taught to serve is to take digital images and superimpose them onto real-world views. That’s how it gained its foothold in many interesting and popular areas of adoption, including video games, performing surgeries, and operating self-driving cars. The research that we are discussing here is aimed at making AR more convenient in ways it could be integrated into common personal devices by combining two optical technologies into a single, high-resolution AR display. The eyeglasses prototype the research offered came with an enhanced image quality where distortions could be removed by computer algorithms. 

The Advantages of the Research

Manufacturers of AR devices will benefit greatly from the research and the advancements it could guide us to. AR hardware must become more portable, lightweight, and wearable for the user. However, it still consists of bulky goggles and heavy head-up displays. The researchers, by finding a way to combine a metasurface and a refractive lens – two distinctive optical technologies – could create a compact, single-lens hybrid AR design. 

The inclusions did not take a toll on the device’s hardware as the metasurface only involved an ultrathin, lightweight silicon nitride film etched with a pattern that could shape and focus light from the green micro-LEDs. 

The solution took care of the minutest of imperfection – often overlooked – by using computer algorithms that could enhance the projected image’s resolution and correct the flaws before the light left the microLED. 

The researchers checked the efficiency of their solution by testing it on a reprojected AR image of a Red Panda. The reprojected panda – with the new solution deployed on it – was 74.3% structurally similar to the original image — a 4% improvement from the uncorrected projection of the image.

Elaborating on the future utility of the solution, the researchers said that their solution was capable of extending its services from green to full color and enabling the production of a new generation of AR glasses that had all the potential to go mainstream. 

While this research has all the potential to become pioneering, many other AR-related researches could leave a lasting impression on this field. 

In the forthcoming segments, we look into some more such research.

The World’s First Flexible and Transparent AR Display Screen

Source: The University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne researchers, along with KDH Design Corporation, a Taiwanese company, and the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, achieved a ground-breaking advancement in the field of augmented reality display technology. They came up with the world’s first flexible, transparent augmented reality (AR) display screen that used additive manufacturing and leveraged low-cost materials. The researchers believed that their solution could revolutionize the use of AR by creating a technology that was simultaneously flexible and capable of adjusting to different angles of light sources coming into a viewer’s eyes. 

In terms of its applicability, the researchers could find the usability of the solution in areas that included gaming, education, and healthcare. More specifically, the gaming industry could benefit significantly by 

Since the display screen was flexible, it could adapt to a range of versatile forms and shapes, including curved and irregular shapes. Being transparent, the display screen could enable users to have a view that was more natural and obstruction-free. Moreover, it was possible to overlay digital content to enhance the user experience altogether. 

The manufacturing mechanism of the product and its use of additive manufacturing techniques in fabrication ensured precise and meticulous control over the design and production of the display screen. The quality became much better, and the products more consistent. Additive manufacturing also ensured that it could be scaled up easily in a fashion that was potent for mass manufacturing, with the technology being more accessible and affordable. 

Breakthrough in holographic polymer nanocomposites – A Game-changer for AR Devices

A group of researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology incorporated liquid crystal E6M and discovered a technique to improve the materials used in AR glasses. Enhancing brightness and broadening the field of view are two long-standing issues that this method helps to resolve, both of which are essential to making augmented reality more useful and immersive.

Using E6M in these materials allowed the scientists to reduce undesired visual effects like haze and maintain display thinness, all while increasing the refractive index modulation, or the basic way light travels through the material. The result is a more effective, lighter, thinner material that increases the compactness and efficiency of AR glasses. This brings us one step closer to AR gadgets with brighter, clearer displays that feel more natural to wear.

This breakthrough might open the door for more practical and user-friendly augmented reality products in industries like entertainment, healthcare, and education. And as augmented reality glasses get more compact and effective, they also become more comfortable and easy to use in daily life, creating new opportunities for how we interact with the digital world in real-time.

“Our work demonstrates a major improvement in the optical performance of holographic polymer nanocomposites, which could transform AR device design. Achieving high diffraction efficiency with minimal thickness sets the stage for thinner, lighter, and more efficient AR displays.”

– Professor Hai-Yan Peng, one of the study authors 

Meta Orion

Research like these and more have inspired a lot of products. One of them is definitely Meta Orion. In late September this year, Meta (META +1.74%) introduced Orion, previously called Project Nazare, which, according to the company, is the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made. The solution is a breakthrough, for it has the look and feel of a regular pair of glasses but comes with the immersive capabilities of AR. 

Orion’s framework includes Meta’s smart assistant, Smart Companion, enabling users to get AI-powered assistance for routine tasks via voice requests and gestures. Real-time overlays on the glasses assist in everyday activities, like reading maps, receiving notifications, and even interacting with immersive digital material. It provides an easy-to-use interface that seamlessly combines the real and virtual worlds with its sophisticated, lightweight lenses.

With Orion, Meta hopes to reinvent personal technology by taking it beyond smartphones and into the world of hands-free augmented reality experiences. 

According to Zuckerberg, the Orion has been in development for the last ten years, and despite its promise, it remains a prototype with no clear way (at least yet!) to become a money-minting product just yet. The gadget still needs a wristband and wireless computing puck in order to work, and at $10,000 per unit, it’s obvious that Meta still has a long way to go before taking it public.

Ray-Ban Meta

While Orion is still far from launching, individuals who would like to test out Meta’s smart eyewear technology can try the Ray-Ban Meta.

A regular pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses costs only $299 and provides a far better user experience than many other VR devices we have on the market today. With Orion, users can connect to the cloud and their phones with ease, thanks to Ray-Ban Meta’s wide capabilities, including cameras, microphones, speakers, sensors, and an on-device large language model (LLM). 

Another pair of AR glasses that has attracted much attention is Snap‘s Spectacles 3 (SNAP -1.29%). Although Spectacles 3 and Ray-Ban Meta have several similarities, Ray-Ban Meta gained higher levels of acceptance because of its improved AI capabilities, better integration with the Meta ecosystem, and more sophisticated design.

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses also reflect Meta’s ability to draw lessons from earlier iterations of rival products, such as Bose and Snap’s respective foray into Spectacles and Bluetooth audio sunglasses. Although Snap did attract attention, thanks to its witty marketing and cool designs, it couldn’t really capitalize on it. Snap’s early success with Spectacles soon faded out due to a lack of innovation. Similarly, Bose’s audio sunglasses were useful but lacked the immersive and visual elements necessary to leave a lasting impression.

Click here for a list of top VR/AR stocks.

Meta

With its revenue up by 16%, Meta posted revenue of $134.9 billion in 2024, propelled by a 28% year-over-year increase in ad impressions. This comes despite a 9% decrease in average price per ad. Q4, in particular, proved to be a solid success for Meta, as the company’s revenue grew to $40.11 billion, up 25% year-over-year.

Another factor that worked in Meta’s favor was the exchange rate, as it’s revenues would have been $374 million less if exchange rates had remained steady.

In addition to revenue growth, Meta effectively managed its costs. Total costs and expenses increased by 1% to $88.15 billion in 2023. Meta incurred $3.45 billion in restructuring expenditures as it streamlined operations through layoffs and data center consolidations. It also repurchased $20.03 billion in stock, demonstrating its commitment to shareholders and long-term outlook for more practical and user-friendly augmented reality products in industries like entertainment, healthcare, and education.

Impressively, Meta not only increased revenue but also efficiently controlled its expenses. In 2023, total expenses and costs climbed by 1% to $88.15 billion.

Additionally, Meta incurred $3.45 billion in restructuring expenditures as it streamlined operations through layoffs and data center consolidations. It also repurchased $20.03 billion in stock, demonstrating its commitment to shareholders and long-term outlook.

On the expense side, Meta spent $28.1 billion on strategic capital investments in 2023. The company prioritized infrastructure expansion for AI, Reality Labs, and other long-term projects. Now, Meta plans to invest more in servers, AI hardware, and data centers in 2024 as its Reality Labs division develops AR/VR products and AI research drives infrastructure demand.

Conclusion

In conclusion, augmented reality is rapidly spreading to healthcare, education, and entertainment. Due to advances in optical science and innovative research, the AR market is expected to grow as this technology becomes more practical. Compact, high-resolution displays and flexible AR screens are making AR devices more user-friendly, lightweight, and practical for daily use. These technologies will change how we interact with the digital world, creating new immersive experiences in professional and personal spaces.

Click here for a list of top maverick companies redefining the AR/VR space.