Lifeboat Foundation

Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which failed to find a consumer audience for its internet-connected glasses about a decade ago, on Wednesday presented a prototype of augmented reality glasses aimed at the general public.

Circa 2020

A startup has built what it claims is the “world’s first true smart contact lens” with an embedded display that would bring augmented reality experiences closer to your eyeball than ever before.

The company is called Mojo Vision, and its Mojo Lens is the culmination of over a decade of research, development, and patent filings (it’s racked up over 100 patents to date). While it’s not shipping a product (yet), the company is currently demonstrating a working prototype.

Continue reading “These ‘smart’ contact lenses have a built-in display for augmented reality” »

Researchers have developed a new way to apply antireflective (AR) coatings to 3D printed multi-lens systems as small as 600 microns in diameter. Because these coatings help minimize light losses due to reflection, they are critical for making high-quality 3D printed systems consisting of multiple microlenses.

“Our new method will benefit any 3D printed complex optical system that uses multiple lenses,” said research team leader Harald Giessen from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. “However, it is especially useful for applications such as miniature fiber endoscopes, which require high-quality optics and are used for imaging under less-than-ideal lighting conditions.”

The researchers used a microscope to acquire tilted-view images of a 600-micron-diameter doublet lens system 3D printed on a 1×1 cm² glass slide. The doublet lens system is visible as the small dot in the center of the glass slide. The coin is included for scale. (Image: Moritz Flöss, University of Stuttgart)

Weber State’s new augmented reality sandbox uses 3D sensors and a projector to instantly display topographic maps on to the sand. The display moves with the sand, adjusting for different elevations, features, and weather events.

Circa 2020

Facebook has shown off a new proof-of-concept virtual reality headset, and it has a completely different design than most other VR devices on the market today. Instead of a bulky contraption that covers up the top half of your face and has to be strapped to your head, this proof-of-concept headset looks kind of like a pair of large sunglasses that can sit comfortably on your ears.

Yet Facebook is billing this new device as not a pair of augmented reality glasses, as common conceptions of AR devices go, but a legitimate VR product. They’re very thin, with a display thickness of less than 9mm, and Facebook claims they have a field of view that’s “comparable to today’s consumer VR products.” Here’s a top-down view:

Continue reading “Facebook’s newest proof-of-concept VR headset looks like a pair of sunglasses” »

There’s never been a house call quite like this. In a first for telepresence communication, a NASA flight surgeon was ‘holoported’ to the International Space Station (ISS), appearing and conversing as a virtual presence in real time, hundreds of miles above the surface of Earth.

If it sounds like Star Trek, you’re not too far off. (after all, Star Trek: Voyager did feature an artificial physician who was a holographic projection.)

But this isn’t science fiction. When NASA flight surgeon Josef Schmid was beamed up to the ISS in October of last year, the illusion was made possible thanks to Microsoft’s ‘holoportation’ technology, which lets users interact with 3D representations of remote participants in real time.

There is no doubt that the “metaverse” will continue to dominate conversations — in both marketing and culture — for years. But there’s no need to sit on the sidelines as the new paradigm of 3D or “spatial” communication emerges; it’s already here and consumers are engaged and creating. Get active in AR/VR/XR today to entertain your audiences and keep your brand top-of-mind for the influencers driving the next revolution in creativity.

Jason Steinberg is managing partner of Pretty Big Monster.

Continue reading “Waiting for the metaverse? The revolution is already here” »

Around the rim of the lens is an array of other electronics, including a custom-designed chip with a radio that streams content to the display and a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer for tracking the user’s eye movements. This eye tracking capability not only ensures that AR imagery holds still as the user looks around, but also makes it possible to control the device through eye movements alone.

Despite their efforts to pack as much into the lens as possible, it won’t be a stand-alone piece of equipment. Most of the computing power required to run AR applications will be contained in a companion device worn around the neck, which will stream the content to the lens wirelessly.

The lens also hasn’t yet been cleared by the FDA for human use, so early demonstrations involve looking through a lens on a stick just in front of the eye. At present it is only capable of producing images in a green monochrome. But according to CNET , the device allows a user to select a variety of apps arranged in a ring around the periphery of their field of vision using nothing more than their gaze. These make it possible to do everything from checking flight information to using a compass to navigate and track fitness data like heart rate and lap number.

In a remarkable development, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ‘holoported’ the first human being into space late last year. Holoportation is the process through which a three dimensional holographic representation of an individual is created, in a combination of a ‘hologram’ and ‘teleportation’. NASA revealed the development late last week, as it announced that it had transported flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid, mixed and virtual reality firm AEXA Aerospance’s chief executive officer Dr. Fernando De La Pena Llaca and others to the International Space Station (ISS) during October 2021 while the ISS was orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.

NASA Uses Microsoft’s Hololens Konnect Camera To Create Live Hologram of Flight Surgeon In Space

The event place last year when NASA’s Crew 2 astronauts were present on the ISS. The astronauts took to the skies in April last year and returned in November, soon after Dr. Schmid and others were holoportated to the orbiting space laboratory.