Has a Swiss startup cracked the code for all-day, cheap AR glasses?
Add this to the long list of reasons why neither augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) have become reality: focus.
CREAL – as in “see real” not Fruit Loops—is a five-year-old Swiss start-up that claims to have brought focus into computer vision. It can show a computer-generated 3D image and adjust the light field to approximate a “natural” depth of field anywhere from “zero to infinity,” and in so doing, has solved the final problem in AR, according to material supplied to the media.
“By enabling continuous focus from up close to infinity—matching the real-world depth perceived by users—CREAL enables a natural and healthy visual experience with no substantial trade-offs regarding image quality, computational requirements or system architecture (unlike competing solutions),” said Tomas Sluka, co-founder and CEO of CREAL.
In other words, you won’t get sick.
VAC Attack
It is the flitting between different planes, all in sharp focus in a conventional AR or VR display, that makes us nauseous, CREAL material claims.
The AR industry has come up with a term for the disorienting mismatch between what the eye is focusing on instead of what it should be
focusing on: VAC, aka, vergence-accommodation conflict. AR devices all hope your eyes will focus on the objects projecting on the visor, which appears at a synthetic, aka vergence, distance away. When the eyes do so, they are said to be accommodating and everything is hunky dory. It’s when the eye (or eyes) focus on the display itself, or flit between the two distances, that problems arise, that is, vergence-accommodation conflict.
It is a problem that CREAL claims to have solved – and it is the first do so.
Why Focus?
The human eye/brain combination knows all about focus – and the lack of it. We are able to only see objects clearly at a certain distance, near or far, because our lenses change shape. We depend on binocular vision to converge on an object to give us a sense of distance. It’s what keeps us from knocking drinks off a table or hitting pedestrians. But as far as accurate depth measurement, it could do better. Our vision, which we view (pun intended) as an advantage despite its limitations, makes us want to “correct” computer displays. The lens systems we have created, like telescopes and cameras, all have a depth of field with objects in focus or not. The depth of field gets smaller as the focal length gets longer. Computer vision, and more recently modern camera systems, are less limited by the depth of fields. The latest iPhone, for example, stores a 3D scene without regard for depth of field but in order to look “natural” or when in “portrait mode,” and allows you to have a depth of field at any depth you choose.
The simulation of a depth of field with a computer display is known as a light field.
The lack of focus would have a technical advantage if less rendering is needed except in the chosen light field. Objects outside the light field can remain in early stages of ray tracing or lower resolutions of image generation.
Nausea afflicts some wearers of AR/VR devices, but most find AR/VR headsets so disorienting that they cannot be worn for long. The displays are of limited in resolution and slow to catch up with head movement. A typical VR device makes you blind in the real world and has you tripping over furniture. Plus, they are heavy. And then you look like a gamer. Or goofy. Or both.
AR headsets have an advantage over VR headsets as they let you see the physical world, including furniture, around you. Perhaps the most popular AR headset, Microsoft’s Hololens, may be smaller than its predecessors but still has the weight of a helmet.
Some companies, such as Lenovo, have mixed reality (MR) headsets with forward-looking cameras so that even the fully enclosed display will show real world obstacles or pitfalls, but still their mass prevents them from being worn all day.
How Does It Work?
CREAL’s solution to a heavy bulky AR, VR or MR headset: eliminate it. CREAL puts the AR hardware on what would be the arms of spectacles and projects the image onto a clear surface, which actually has a holographic film made of ferroelectric liquid crystal applied to one side. But from the front, who can tell you have anything on other than normal glasses? The film can be applied to a lens of any size and prescription, according to the company.
How the CREAL system decides what light field to use, that is what to bring into focus and what remains fuzzy, is not yet clear. The system does not use laser eye tracking nor does it have forward looking cameras, according to what is shown above.
We still hope for a future in which we all have light-weight, all-day wearable eyewear that looks cool—or at least doesn’t have us tripping over the furniture. CREAL may have brought the future into focus.
How Much?
The CREAL hardware necessary to run the AR system will cost less than $100 when made in quantity, according to the company.
About CREAL
The CREAL plan is not to make AR eyewear or headsets themselves, but to license the patented technology to AR device manufacturers.
CREAL is another Lausanne (Switzerland) based startup. The company has raised approximately $18 million, including $12 million in equity funding, since its inception in 2017 and has 30 employees who constitute 25 full-time equivalents. Most importantly, 10 of them have PhDs in optics, physics, microtechnology and electronics, according to the company-supplied FAQ.