VR

Virtual reality has been held up as a symbol of just how different, how extraordinary, the future could look. The ability to explore and inhabit worlds beyond our own was once the preserve of science fiction – today, we are closer than ever to bringing this vision to life.

But for all the hype, virtual reality has not yet taken off in the way we might have imagined. It holds such promise for commercial applications like designing, training and remote operation. However, the simple truth is that the experience is not yet good enough to allow us to step properly through the looking glass and inhabit the virtual world. We are still onlookers.

The main reason for this is that today’s VR headsets do not engage the full range of natural visual cues that make up our perception of 3D space in the real world.

Vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC)

In most headsets, the optics are set to a single focal plane in the distance. This forces the user to decouple their eyes’ natural accommodation response to vergence (the natural triangulation of the eyes, as objects move closer or further away).

The resulting mismatch impacts the experience in a number of ways. It makes virtual worlds appear unrealistic, while also causing eyestrain and nausea. It also means that virtual content needs to be designed to stay at least one metre away from the user. This creates significant limitations, holding back the potential of VR in a wide variety of consumer and commercial applications.

Adlens is developing Stimulated Eye Engagement technology (SEE), re-engaging our accommodation and associated visual cues to enable the human eye to focus on virtual content in a completely natural way:

Enhancing believability and immersiveness

Stimulating the eyes’ natural accommodative response to overcome vergence accomadation conflict (VAC) – the eye strain and nausea that typically restricts usage to 20 minutes.

Removing the “one metre barrier” that limits engagement with virtual content and restricts potential commercial uses.

Vision correction

Today’s headsets are designed for those with near perfect vision and not for the 60% of us who need some form of prescription. Anybody who has worn glasses under a VR headset knows the solution is suboptimal.

As a result, a large proportion of us are not yet able to enjoy the true visual quality of the system by immersing ourselves and fully engaging in virtual worlds. This issue cannot be solved by enhancements to software or increased screen resolution. Customising the optical interface to your personal requirements holds the key.

Adlens is developing a range of products that will allow the optical interface in VR headsets to be customised for user’s personal prescriptions making sure you enjoy the full visual fidelity of your headset. Ensuring that VR is open to everyone.