At Stanford University, I find myself in a lab looking at a pair of seemingly normal glasses. These glasses are at the forefront of VR and AR headset technology, thanks to a breakthrough by scientists in display technology. Led by associate professor Gordon Wetzstein, the team at Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab has designed a way to project moving, AI-generated 3D images on standard-looking lenses, paving the way for the future of immersive technology.
The breakthrough is centered around what the team calls a nanophotonic metasurface waveguide, which is essentially a piece of glass. The waveguide contains tiny optical elements that help guide light into and out of the glass surface. The result is cutting-edge technology that provides a realistic and immersive visual experience for the user.
While I can’t try on the prototype, I am able to hold the glasses as they are attached to a model human head. The combined weight of the glasses and the model is less than half a pound, significantly lighter than other competing mixed reality headsets on the market. The team’s goal is to create a perceptually realistic experience indistinguishable from the real world, providing a wide range of potential applications beyond gaming and entertainment.
One possible application is in the field of medicine, where a surgeon could use these glasses to plan intricate surgeries or a mechanic could learn to work on complex machinery such as jet engines. The team is working on further testing the technology on human eyes, as well as improving the compactness and power efficiency of the glasses. With continued advancements, the glasses developed at Stanford University could revolutionize how we experience and interact with virtual and augmented reality in the future.