Smart Glasses Technology Advancement in Supercon 2024: Focus on Photonics and Optical Layer Development
Understanding the Complexities of Smart Glasses: A Deep Dive into Optical Technologies
Smart glasses, now a growing market, present unique challenges when it comes to the integration of technology and optics. While the digital components are relatively simple to master, the glasses themselves pose a significant hurdle. Dev Kennedy, an expert in photonics and optics, recently spoke at the 2024 Supercon event to address these complexities.
The Quest for Good Optics
Kennedy began his talk with an apology, acknowledging the limitations of a short presentation in covering the intricacies of photonics and optics. He reassured the audience that his talk would be densely packed with technical information.
The QuickDemo slide, displaying an array of basic technologies utilizable for smart glasses, served as a testament to the extensive range available. The slide featured various illumination and projection technologies, from micro-OLED displays to liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) devices, illuminated by lasers. However, this spectrum only represents half the challenge, as creating a visible and clear image in front of the eye requires a separate approach.
Kennedy discussed various techniques for displaying these images, ranging from reflective waveguides to the amusingly-named birdbath combiners. The goal is to find a solution that offers a clear and visible image under all conditions while ensuring the user maintains a good view of their surroundings. High-brightness situations, such as daylight, pose specific challenges.
Another concern Kennedy addressed was the fusion of AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) technologies. While VR can be compared to a stack of pancakes due to its straightforward arrangement of layers, AR necessitates a more complex approach. Kennedy compared AR to an archer, as its technology must navigate around the user's face, bend and spread light, and ultimately converge it towards the eye. This disparity warrants separate consideration, as merging these technologies into a unified category can be misleading.
State of the Market
The talk also covered notable devices currently on the market, including Google Glass, Microsoft's Hololens, Meta's Project Orion, and the fifth-generation Snapchat Spectacles. Kennedy praised Meta for their advances in input modalities tailored for smart glasses interfaces, while suggesting improvements for Snapchat's design, focusing on comfort, weight, and aesthetics.
Despite the promising developments, mainstream adoption of smart glasses remains elusive due to unresolved issues, such as relatability, prescription integration, power consumption, and battery life. The challenges are substantial, but history serves as an encouraging precedent: it took decades to develop computers small enough to fit in our pockets (smartphones) or on our wrists (smartwatches). With continued advancements and focus on practical applications, smart glasses could soon become an integral part of everyday life.
Kennedy underlined the need for advances in both technology and optics to create clear and visible images in smart glasses, citing the example of AR and VR merging as a complex challenge, requiring the technology to navigate around the user's face, bend and spread light, and ultimately converge it towards the eye. The pursuit of better optics, in combination with improving hardware components like PCBs and sophisticated science, could potentially make smart glasses as commonly used as smartphones and smartwatches in days to come.
