The Future of Augmented Reality: A Breakthrough in Display Technology

I'm at a lab at Stanford University to check out these revolutionary glasses, thanks to a breakthrough in display technology that scientists made here. Glasses like these could one day be showing you hyper-realistic images in augmented reality. This seemingly normal piece of glass could be the future of AR glasses because it's not just a piece of glass designed here at Stanford's computational Imaging lab. It's called a nanophotonic metasurface wave guide, a fancy term that describes the tiny optical elements embedded in the glass surface that help guide light into and out of the wave guide.

Guiding Light to Create Clear Moving Images

The guiding mechanism is what creates clear moving images created using AI in 3D that can be projected onto your eye. This is called an optical see-through augmented reality experience, which uses a small projector that sends the image through the wave guide where it bounces around before reaching your eye. The scientists who developed this technology have been working on it for the last two years to create a perceptually realistic experience that's very similar to the real world and aims to achieve something that's indistinguishable from a real object.

Capturing Images with Precision

The images you're seeing right now were captured right here on this piece of glass. They were projected over there from this laser, which was then captured on this camera right here. Eventually, these glasses could end up in a pair of glasses like this one. The idea is to use a seemingly normal pair of glasses to get directions from Google Maps or get real-time stats from LA Sports. This is a proof-of-concept design, and the model hasn't been tested on human eyes yet simply because there are certain safety protocols that require special handling.

Limitations and Future Plans

Currently, these glasses have a pretty limited field of view, which is only about 12 degrees. However, scientists who work on this project say their goal is to get that up to around 100 degrees, bringing it in line with the Apple Vision Pro and The Meta Quest. When asked what you think about these glasses, some are excited for them to maybe come on the market someday. To share your thoughts, click the "comments" below. Don't forget to give this video a thumbs-up and subscribe for more content. We'll see you in the future.

Building Wave Guides

A fun fact is that scientists build wave guides by etching nanometer-size patterns in the lens. One nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter, which highlights the incredible precision required to achieve this technology. This level of detail is what allows us to see images like these in devices like the Apple Vision Pro. However, the challenge lies in putting that functionality into an everyday form factor like a normal pair of glasses.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm at a lab at Stanford University to check these out now thanks to a breakthrough in display technology that scientists made here one day glasses like these could be showing you hyper realistic images in augmented reality this seemingly normal piece of glass could be the future of AR glasses that's because it's not just a piece of glass designed here at Stanford's computational Imaging lab it's called a nanophotonic metasurface wave guide It's a fancy term to say there's a the bun of tiny Optical elements embedded in the glass surface that help guide the light into and out of the wave guide Guiding Light to create clear moving images created using AI in 3D that can be projected on your eye this is called an optical see-through augmented reality experience it uses a small projector that sends the image through the wave guide where it bounces around before reaching your eye what the fun fact scientists build wave guides by etching nanometer size patterns in the lens one Nan is 1 billionth of a meter we see images like these in devices like the Apple Vision Pro but the challenge is putting that functionality into an everyday form factor like a normal pair of glasses and that's what scientists here have been working on for the last 2 years what we're thinking about is to provide a perceptually realistic experience that is very similar to the real world and the vision is to go towards something that is indistinguishable from from a real object so the images that you've been seeing were captured right here on this piece of glass they projected those images over here from this laser they were captured on this camera right here and eventually they could end up in a pair of glasses like this one right here now imagine using a seemingly normal pair of glasses to get directions from Google Maps or get real-time stats from LA Sports to be clear this is a proof of concept design the model hasn't been tested on human eyes yet simply because there's a couple of lasers involved that require certain safety uh protocols for safety that would probably be the immediate Next Step so right now these glasses have a pretty limited field of view it's only about 12 degrees but scientists who work on the project say the goal is to get that up to about 100° that would bring it in line with the Apple Vision Pro and The Meta Quest so I want to know what you think about these glasses you excited for them to maybe come on the market someday let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up like And subscribe and I'll see you in the futureI'm at a lab at Stanford University to check these out now thanks to a breakthrough in display technology that scientists made here one day glasses like these could be showing you hyper realistic images in augmented reality this seemingly normal piece of glass could be the future of AR glasses that's because it's not just a piece of glass designed here at Stanford's computational Imaging lab it's called a nanophotonic metasurface wave guide It's a fancy term to say there's a the bun of tiny Optical elements embedded in the glass surface that help guide the light into and out of the wave guide Guiding Light to create clear moving images created using AI in 3D that can be projected on your eye this is called an optical see-through augmented reality experience it uses a small projector that sends the image through the wave guide where it bounces around before reaching your eye what the fun fact scientists build wave guides by etching nanometer size patterns in the lens one Nan is 1 billionth of a meter we see images like these in devices like the Apple Vision Pro but the challenge is putting that functionality into an everyday form factor like a normal pair of glasses and that's what scientists here have been working on for the last 2 years what we're thinking about is to provide a perceptually realistic experience that is very similar to the real world and the vision is to go towards something that is indistinguishable from from a real object so the images that you've been seeing were captured right here on this piece of glass they projected those images over here from this laser they were captured on this camera right here and eventually they could end up in a pair of glasses like this one right here now imagine using a seemingly normal pair of glasses to get directions from Google Maps or get real-time stats from LA Sports to be clear this is a proof of concept design the model hasn't been tested on human eyes yet simply because there's a couple of lasers involved that require certain safety uh protocols for safety that would probably be the immediate Next Step so right now these glasses have a pretty limited field of view it's only about 12 degrees but scientists who work on the project say the goal is to get that up to about 100° that would bring it in line with the Apple Vision Pro and The Meta Quest so I want to know what you think about these glasses you excited for them to maybe come on the market someday let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up like And subscribe and I'll see you in the future\n"