Microsoft is making progress in making more capable, comfortable and compact augmented-reality (AR) glasses. The researchers at Microsoft have developed a prototype pair of eyeglasses that allow the wearer to see a full-color, see-through holographic display that adds virtual objects to real world surroundings.
According to New Atlas, it diminishes several shortcomings of the existing products that use the technology, such as, New Microsoft's HoloLens.
The prototype includes an 80-degree field of view into a pair of normal-sized eye glasses, whereas, current AR glasses only include around 20-degree horizontal field of view, which restricts the users from seeing the entire scene at once in a realistic way, the website reported.
However, the prototype has its own disadvantages, like it only offers a monoscopic (single eye) display with external essential electronics and to be more usable, it does need the addition of a stereoscopic display and internalized driving electronics, said the publication.
Microsoft's latest prototype's holographic display is also more improved in terms of controlling the focus. Unlike other multi-focused options, holograms are capable of responding to focal depth on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Combined with high-tech eye-tracking, this focus control will make the scene the sharpest where the user is looking at, which would be the same as the way human eye works and that would give a more realistic and comfortable experience to the user.
In the paper, Microsoft researchers also explain how holographic image rendering software was able to include vision correction for astigmatism, so that, individuals with this type of vision problem can see the AR display without the help of their prescription eyeglasses.
While this prototype doesn't necessarily indicate some huge future trajectory, it does note the fact that tech giants are spending a lot of their resources to develop holographic displays for virtual and augmented reality, which as per several experts will become a major computing platform in the near future.
