An AR|VR|MR journey together with TRIOPTICS

The wearability and responsiveness of AR|VR|MR devices are already well understood to play a vital role in their functional performance. For general adoption in shared spaces, their unobtrusiveness is probably far more important than we imagine.

The first introduction of AR glasses over a decade ago was met with quite a few negative reactions. The earliest devices were launched into a vacuum of sensitivity for what the market – and not least, the people surrounding the wearers who had not bought into the concept – would tolerate. While clearly promising to be a revolutionary piece of technology, AR|VR|MR glasses were in direct conflict with the customer expectations at that time. The glasses’ bulky shape and heavy weight was one of the biggest bottle necks with high impact on the AR/VR/MR impression.

Since then, times have changed dramatically in many aspects of life in shared spaces. From vacations to leisure activities to work, the sheer numbers of wearable devices are exploding. The rate of acceptance may even have been accelerated by the COVID pandemic, as people tended towards online conferencing and remote working in shared spaces. In fact, if people do not use wired or wireless headphones while in conference, the people around them think that they have no manners.

Today, vacationers rarely consider taking bulky and large devices with them when they travel; they now capture images and videos, access and share all kinds of information quickly and easily with a device such as a tablet, watch or smartphone. With the advent of widely available 5G, outdoor activities such as watching live sports, playing games or attending concerts are now promising to be augmented by additional information about the players, performers or viewing angles. On the work front, many businesses are investigating the use of AR|VR|MR technology to increase efficiency by enabling creative workers to have meaningful intellectual interactions with their colleagues, connecting experts to work together on complex shared projects, wherever they may be in the world.

Device comfort, wearability and lag are essential features for long-term use. As wearable AR|VR|MR technology progresses, so too will the demands for comfort and ease of use for consumers.

Bringing AR|VR|MR into the real world

The future of AR|VR|MR technologies lies in the hands and minds of developers and innovators to take us beyond what we currently can imagine. Cellid, an AR startup based in Tokyo, Japan, is just such an innovative developer.

Founded in 2016 by CEO whizz kid Satoshi Shiraga (a former member of CERN responsible for parallel computing in the Higgs Lab), Cellid first focused on developing software for creating 3D models from videos taken by regular cameras. Their proprietary software technology was initially a spatial recognition engine. Armed with their ability to interpret complex 3D environments, the leap to building a handshaking AR/VR/MR device was a clear and necessary path forward to make the most of their innovation. Their hardware breakthrough was the nanostructure-based Cellid Display Module, a combination of waveguide and micro projector which provides the world’s largest full color field of view of over 60°. By combining spatial recognition, waveguide and projector technologies, Cellid has succeeded in optimizing the performance of the entire solution.

In addition, one of the most significant achievements Cellid has brought to the AR|VR|MR market is the overwhelming lightness and thinness of their waveguides, enabling development of AR/VR/MR glasses with the same level of shape as ordinary eyeglasses that many have been waiting for. The waveguide consists of a thin see-through display, so unobtrusive that the device looks and weighs like an ordinary pair of glasses. As a consequence, long-term use of the product places zero strain on the user, a more natural user experience, and zero stress and concern on the user’s surrounding environment. Cellid could only achieve this innovation through the rapid design and testing iterations made possible by TRIOPTICS technology.

“TRIOPTICS makes one of the best measurement machines for the optical quality of AR devices”, says Masashi Mitsui, Development Engineer at Cellid R&D. “TRIOPTICS have a well-established presence in optical testing, respected globally throughout the industry. Optical quality means everything in our devices. That’s why we chose TRIOPTICS”.

The Cellid Waveguide is a highly novel, proprietary diffraction-based device. To get a head start, Cellid’s software experts coded their own waveguide simulator tool in-house, enabling them to optimize the design of the diffractive optical element (DOE) nanostructures in a much shorter time. This accelerated the Cellid nanostructure development cycle to a matter of a few months.

TRIOPTICS systems were used to measure the manufactured waveguide performance level, which was essential to prove to Cellid’s customers the superiority of the Cellid design. “As with all innovative technologies, seeing the proof data is the only form of believing in the performance. The measurement data is essential to our sales process”, says Shinji Hayashi, CRO at Cellid.

The Cellid waveguide is set to disrupt the market significantly, giving strong competitive advantages over current AR glasses on the market using conventional waveguide designs. The incumbent systems have thick and heavy glass elements. These are perhaps fine for limited use in a challenging factory environment, for example, but they are not amenable to outdoor and indoor consumer use. Cellid envisions AR glasses that can be worn every day by ordinary people in the city. In other words, AR glasses for everyday use, hiding in plain sight. All the information you want to receive, like notifications from your smartphone or smartwatch, would be immediately projected to your plane of vision.

AR glasses for daily use?

Cellid is taking AR glasses to the next level of wearability, suitable for daily use. The Cellid waveguide will be designed and manufactured to suit any brand of AR glasses. TRIOPTICS systems give Cellid immediate feedback of the performance of prototype designs, thereby acting as a plausible gold standard measurement platform in the AR/VR/MR industry.

From lab to fab with TRIOPTICS – AR|VR|MR in your hands

TRIOPTICS brings 30 years of experience in optical metrology right up to the customer´s fingertips. Easily customizable solutions are smoothly integrated into the customer´s production process. This is how TRIOPTICS accompanies customers on their journey from laboratory to production.

Team up with TRIOPTICS and set AR|VR|MR free through quality!

Talk to TRIOPTICS today to see what a difference we can make to the development of your AR/VR/MR device.