AR

The idea of immersing ourselves in fictional worlds through VR has gripped the imagination of artists, scientists and writers for as long as we have been able to conceive of such things. But it may be that augmented or mixed realities – those that blur the line between what is real and what is not – will have an even greater impact on the way we live and work.

However, like virtual reality, augmented reality (AR) has not yet had its breakthrough moment. Combining real and virtual content in a believable way still presents considerable challenges – some that are shared with VR, and others that are unique to AR.

Focal rivalry

In AR today, our eyes cannot naturally integrate real and virtual content into a genuine “mixed reality”. This is because we can only focus on one thing at a time. Virtual content can only be projected at one focal distance, so our eyes must choose between seeing either virtual or real content clearly.

This “focal rivalry” makes it impossible for us to focus on both simultaneously – what this means in practice is that we cannot place virtual content accurately and believably in the real world – so genuinely mixed reality remains a pipe dream. We are working to solve that.

The one metre barrier

Another major limiting factor is that virtual objects currently have to be kept outside of arm’s reach – the same is true in VR. The result is that we are not yet able to immerse ourselves and interact effectively with virtual content. It is particularly problematic in enterprise scenarios where work requires visual fidelity, precision and accuracy of overlaid virtual content (surgery or engineering, for example).

Overcoming these challenges

Adlens is developing Dynamic Focal Integration technology (DFI™) which will take AR beyond smart glasses and make it possible to place real and virtual objects together accurately and believably in the real world, creating a genuine mixed reality and allowing precision tasks to be completed safely and accurately.

Dynamic Focal Integration (DFI™) overcomes the focal rivalry that your eyes experience when looking at real and virtual content at the same time and allows content to come within arm’s reach.