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VividQa creator of holographic display technology for augmented reality gaming collaborates with waveguide designer Dispelix to create new 3D holographic imaging technology.
The companies said the technology was nearly impossible just two years ago. They said they designed and
manufactured a “waveguide combiner” that can accurately render simultaneous variable-depth 3D content in a user’s environment. For the first time, users can enjoy immersive AR gaming experiences where digital content can be placed in their physical world and interact with it naturally and comfortably. The technology can be used for wearable devices, such as AR headsets or smart glasses.
The two companies also announced the formation of a commercial partnership to develop the new 3D waveguide technology for mass production. As a result, headset manufacturers can now jump-start their AR product roadmaps.
Early augmented reality experiences seen so far through headsets such as Magic Leap, Microsoft HoloLens, Vuzix and others produce 2D stereoscopic images at fixed focal lengths or one focal length at a time. This often leads to eye strain and nausea for users and does not provide the necessary immersive three-dimensional experiences. For example, objects cannot be used naturally at arm’s length, and they are not precisely placed in the real world.
To deliver the kinds of immersive experiences needed to mass-market AR, consumers need an adequate field of view and the ability to focus on 3D images at the full range of natural distances – anywhere from 4 inches to optical. infinitely, at the same time – in the same way they naturally do with physical objects.
A waveguide combiner is the industry’s preferred method of displaying AR images in a compact form factor. This next-generation waveguide and associated software are optimized for 3D applications such as gaming, meaning consumer brands around the world can unlock the full potential of the market.
Waveguides (also known as “combiners” or “waveguide combiners”) provide a lightweight and conventional-looking (i.e. look like normal glass lenses) front-end for AR headsets, and are necessary for widespread adoption. Aside from the form factor advantages, the waveguides on the market today perform a process called pupil replication. This means they can take an image of a small display panel (known as an ‘eyebox’) and effectively make it larger by creating a grid of copies of the small image in front of the viewer’s eye – a bit like a periscope but instead of a single view, it creates multiple views. This is essential to make the AR wearable ergonomic and easy to use.
Small eyeboxes are notoriously difficult to align with the user’s pupil, and the eye can easily “drop” off the image if they aren’t aligned correctly. It requires the headsets to be precisely tailored to the user, as even variations in the interpupillary distance (IPD) of different users can mean that their eye may not line up exactly with the eyebox and be unable to see the virtual image.
Since there is a fundamental trade-off between image size (which we call “eyebox” or “exit pupil”) and field of view (FoV) in rendering, this replication allows the optical designer to make the eyebox very small, relying on the replication process to give the viewer a large effective image, while also maximizing the FoV.
“There has been significant investment and research into the technology that can create the kinds of AR experiences we’ve dreamed of, but they fall short because they can’t even meet basic user expectations,” said Darran Milne, CEO of VividQ . “In an industry that has already seen quite a bit of hype, it can be easy to dismiss each new invention as more of the same, but a fundamental problem has always been the complexity of displaying 3D images that could be used in the real world. are placed with a decent field of view and with an eyebox large enough to accommodate a wide range of IPDs (pupillary distance or the space between the user’s pupils), all encased in a lightweight lens.
Milne added: “We solved that problem, designed something that can be manufactured, tested and proven, and we established the manufacturing partnership necessary to mass-produce them. It’s a breakthrough, because without 3D holography you can’t deliver AR. Simply put, while others developed a 2D screen to wear on your face, we developed the window that allows you to experience real and digital worlds in one place.”
VividQ’s patent-pending 3D waveguide combiner is designed to work with the company’s software, both of which can be licensed by wearable manufacturers to establish a roadmap for wearable products. VividQ’s holographic rendering software works with standard game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine, making it very easy for game developers to create new experiences. The 3D waveguide can be manufactured to scale and supplied through VividQ’s manufacturing partner Dispelix, an Espoo, Finland-based maker of translucent waveguides for wearables.
“Wearable AR devices have huge potential around the world. For applications such as gaming and professional use, where the user needs to be immersed for long periods of time, it is vital that the content is truly 3D and placed in the user’s environment,” said Antti Sunnari, CEO of Dispelix, in a statement. statement. “This also overcomes the issues of nausea and fatigue. We are very excited to be working with VividQ as a waveguide design and manufacturing partner on this groundbreaking 3D waveguide.”
Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, VividQ has been demonstrating its software and 3D waveguide technology for device manufacturers and consumer technology brands, with whom it is working closely to deliver next-generation AR wearables. Breakthrough in AR optics means 3D holographic gaming is now a reality.
The companies’ task was described as “almost impossiblein a research paper published in the Nanophotonics Journal in 2021.
Existing waveguide combiners assume that the light rays entering are parallel (hence a 2D image), because they require the light bouncing around within the structure to all follow paths of the same length. If you were to use diverging rays (a 3D image), the light paths would all be different depending on where on the input 3D image the ray came from.
This is a big deal because it basically means that the extracted light has all traveled different distances and the effect, as shown in the image on the , is seeing multiple partially overlapping copies of the input image, all at random distances . That essentially makes it useless for any application. Alternatively, this new 3D waveguide combiner can adapt to the diverging rays and correctly display bank images.
VividQ’s 3D waveguide consists of two elements: first, a modification of the standard pupil-replicating waveguide design described above. And second, an algorithm that calculates a hologram that corrects for waveguide distortion. The hardware and software components work in harmony with each other and as such you cannot use the VividQ waveguide with someone else’s software or system.
VividQ has more than 50 people in Cambridge, London, Tokyo and Taipei. The companies started working together at the end of 2021. VividQ was founded in 2017 and has its origins in the UK photonics department of the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Judge Business School.
The company has so far raised $23 million in investment from deep tech funds in the UK, Austria, Germany, Japan and Silicon Valley. When asked what inspired it, VividQ CTO Tom Durant of GamesBeat said in an email: “Understanding what the restrictions were and then figuring out how to get around them. Once we established that path, our multidisciplinary team of optics and software researchers and engineers began to take turns solving each problem. Rather than seeing this as just an optical problem, our solution is based on hardware and software tuned to work together.”
As for how this differs from competing technologies, the company said existing waveguide combiners on the market can only present images in two dimensions at fixed focal lengths. These are usually about two meters in front of you.
“You can’t bring them closer to focus on them or focus past them on other digital objects in the distance,” the company said. “And when you look at these digital objects hovering in front of you, you can get eye strain and VAC (vergence-accommodation conflict) very quickly, which causes nausea. For gaming, this makes it very limited. You want to create experiences where a user can grab an item in their hand and do something with it, without needing a controller. You also want to lock multiple digital items in place in the real world with the freedom to focus on them and real objects nearby as you please, leading to a strong sense of immersion.
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