SCHOTT AND LUMUS PARTNER ON AR TECH

摘要

GERMAN SPECIALTY GLASS MANUFACTURER SCHOTT HAS ENTERED into a strategic partnership with Israeli augmented reality (AR) display firm Lumus to mass-produce Lumus' reflective waveguide technology for use in consumer AR displays. Waveguide technology is considered key for making AR glasses that are lightweight and comfortable to wear while still delivering solid optical performance, compared to the "bird bath" technology used in early AR devices like Google Glass, which has limitations in high light loss and a narrow field of view (FOV). There are three types of waveguide for AR: diffractive, holographic, and reflective. Although each has its tradeoffs in optical performance and unique manufacturing challenges, they all hold promise for making consumer AR displays a mainstream product. "Waveguide is the only technology that allows you [to create] something sleek that looks like a real pair of glasses," notes Zine Bouhamri, an analyst for Yole Developpement. He says the first consumer AR headsets based on waveguide could hit the market in 2023.