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The Force Behind Augmented Reality

The imaging luminance measurement device type II-based method is a promising way to verify the conformity of the legibility of automotive displays.

Technology is designed to reduce blue light exposure and promote melatonin production.

THE BAY AREA CHAPTER OF SID RECENTLY ORGANIZED A ONE-DAY conference focused on the latest advancements in extended reality (XR) displays, optics, and waveguides. The timing was ideal, coinciding with Apple's Vision Pro and Meta's Orion AR headset announcements, signaling a new era of innovation and heightened consumer interest in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Strong attendance reflected this momentum, creating an energetic environment for discussion and idea exchange.

Bernard Kress, director of XR Engineering at Google, delivered an engaging keynote on “Display Engines for All-Day Use Smart Eyewear,” which offered a comprehensive overview of display engines, optics, and waveguides for viable smart eyewear. He highlighted how the mass adoption of smart glasses has been slow because of technical and market hurdles but projected that advances in artificial intelligence (AI), lightweight designs, and evolving user expectations would drive substantial growth post-2025. Kress emphasized that future success hinges on making designs consumer-friendly, socially acceptable, and seamlessly blending digital functionality with fashion to position smart glasses as the next essential tech accessory after smartphones.

He elaborated on the ideal future AR headset, likening it to a three-layered cake system requiring robust AR hardware, a reliable operating system platform (such as Vision OS or Horizon OS), and AI-powered applications (such as Gemini/Astra, Apple Intelligence, or Meta's Llama). Creating such a product will be a complex challenge, requiring the integration of numerous high-tech components, including display engines, waveguides, head tracking, eye and face tracking, gesture sensing, connectivity, and efficient power management. This ambitious vision demands collaboration across multiple industries, and it is clear that fully realizing it will take time.

A particularly relevant example of early progress is the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, introduced in 2023 by EssilorLuxottica and Meta. These wearable devices integrate advanced technology within a fashionable, socially acceptable frame, enabling users to make calls, capture and share media, and livestream. The speaker highlighted this as an important first step, showcasing how consumer-friendly design can expand the appeal of AR wearables in conjunction with AI applications.

Kress then provided an in-depth look at the smart glasses display subsystem, discussing the light engine's types: LCD transparent microdisplays, LCOS, microelectromechanical systems digital light processing (MEMS DLP), microLED, microOLED, and laser beam scanning engines. He also addressed complexities of waveguide combiners, explaining their types (diffractive, holographic, and reflective) and the manufacturing methods, such as nanoimprint lithography and deep ultraviolet etching. This area has become a hotbed for mergers and acquisitions, underlining the significant commercial interest.

THE ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD (OLPC) PROGRAM HAD A SIMPLE PREMISE: IF EVERY child in the world had access to a free or low-cost laptop, vast learning opportunities would be within any child's reach. This access to technology and information would help narrow the educational gap between children with limited resources and those with ample means.

The idea for OLPC came from discussions between computer scientist and educator Seymour Papert and architect Nicholas Negroponte at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) Media Lab in the early 2000s,¹ where the two were professors. Papert likened computers locked in the laboratories of higher learning institutions to books chained to the shelves of medieval libraries: Only those with privileged access were able to benefit from the knowledge hidden within. Negroponte compared the sharing of a computer with the sharing of a pencil. What if two people needed to write something—or learn something—at the same time?

Negroponte's belief was that the main barrier to providing advanced educational technology to the masses was the cost. In 2004, laptops and small desktop computers sold for more than US$1,500 each (approximately $2,500 in 2024 dollars). At the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Negroponte urged the technology industry to solve the problem by creating a $100 laptop. He even demonstrated an early prototype of what such a laptop could look like.² A low-cost computer could enable millions of the devices to be sent worldwide, bringing knowledge to every corner of the world. Thus, the OLPC program and the non-profit organization of the same name were born.

Early in the program, it was clear to Negroponte that the key to reducing the laptop's cost was to reduce the display's cost, as it was the costliest component. When Negroponte returned to MIT from Switzerland in 2005, he met Mary Lou Jepsen, the display pioneer and SID Fellow. Their discussions turned to the display innovations required to enable a low-cost laptop that also would be extremely power efficient. Jepsen then signed on as one of the principals of the project and led the core development team.

SID member Scott Soong, who hails from the family-owned tech giant CHIMEI, learned about the project through the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a research and development organization in Taiwan. Soong had studied global development at the University of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and had a keen interest on the effects of poverty on personal and economic development. When he learned about the project, he grabbed a 7-inch picture frame display, made by CHIMEI's subsidiary Chi Lin, hopped on a plane to Boston, and met with the OLPC team. “Ya gotta let me be a part of this!” said Soong. The team agreed. He then went back to the folks at CHIMEI and convinced them to be a part of the project.

Initial thoughts were that maybe a black and white e-i

Inventor, Technologist, Risk-Taker, and a Man with a Thousand Ideas