Magic Leap

The Metaverse Standards Forum

The Metaverse Standards Forum is intended as the place for communication between stakeholders to create recommendations for standards to make an interoperable metaverse possible. The Khronos Group-founded organization counts almost 2500 companies as members. IDTechEx spoke to its chair, Neil Trevett, about the Forum's goals and work to date.

Three Predictions for 2023 in Augmented and Virtual Reality

2022 was a turbulent year for Extended Reality (XR). The popularization of the metaverse concept raised massive interest in Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) devices as the gateway to this future vision of the internet, with excitement gathering over an expected revolution in how we communicate.

Lumus

Lumus is an Israeli company which designs optical engines for AR and other head mounted display (HMD) devices. These optical engines are composed of a display and reflective (also known as geometric) waveguide combiner — Lumus' key expertise is in the design of these waveguides, which can expand the exit pupil in two dimensions. Although largely fabless, it has its own smaller production line for R&D and specialized orders.

VividQ and Dispelix: Pairing Holographic Displays with Waveguides

Holographic display technology firm VividQ discussed the development of a combined waveguide combiner and 3D holographic display system for AR headsets in conjunction with waveguide development firm Dispelix.

Three Predictions for 2023 in Augmented and Virtual Reality

2022 was a turbulent year for Extended Reality (XR). The popularization of the metaverse concept raised massive interest in Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) devices as the gateway to this future vision of the internet, with excitement gathering over an expected revolution in how we communicate.

Microsoft: HoloLens 2

IDTechEx tried out various demos of Microsoft's HoloLens 2 mixed reality-capable augmented reality headset at Laval Virtual 2022 and attended the company's presentation.

LetinAR

LetinAR is a South Korean developer of optical systems for augmented reality glasses. Its PinMR™ optical combiners are fabricated from plastic, offering cost and durability advantages. It recently built its own fabrication line near Seoul.

VividQ

VividQ is a Cambridge, UK-based firm which focuses on developing IP for computer-generated holography, both for software and optical engine hardware. Its method of generating holograms is efficient on common GPUs and its display solutions may be constructed from off-the-shelf hardware. The key use cases it targets are AR wearables and automotive HUDs.

How Extended Reality Optics Can Unlock the Metaverse

In 2022, hype around extended reality (XR) devices and the metaverse is at an all-time high, but hardware hurdles continue to hold back headset development.

Schott AG: Augmented/Mixed Reality Operations

SCHOTT AG is a large multinational company whose core is in specialty glassmaking. SCHOTT's product range encompasses virtually every area where glass is used, from telescope mirror materials to historical glazing for building restoration — this profile, however, focuses on its activities around augmented reality (AR), particularly in optical waveguide substrates. SCHOTT's head office is in Mainz, Germany.

Inkron

Inkron is a Nagase Group company which develops and manufactures siloxane resins and formulations, primarily for optical devices and packaging. It also produces materials for printed electronics and provides a growing range of OEM services. Inkron has considerable expertise in materials for wafer-level optics, such as the nanoimprint lithography resin required for many optical waveguides. Inkron provides wafer-level optics process development, process optimization, and piloting services. The company is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.

Mira Reality

Mira produces headsets using giant reflectors allowing the use of an iPhone as a head-mounted display (HMD) for smart glasses and augmented reality (AR) applications, in addition to offering software solutions to allow use of these headsets for enterprise applications. The headsets are low-cost, durable and leverage the use of trusted, secure devices.