VIRTUAL REALITY IS a closed system where everything visible is virtually generated. Augmented reality overlays digital content on the real world. Thanks to the pandemic, VR hardware sales shot up last year, led by Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2, which allows people with headsets to gather as if at an in-person meeting. It doesn’t require a PC or other hardware. Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 mixed reality glasses are primarily for enterprise and defense applications. Amazon and Intel are also getting into this space, as is China’s Nreal with its mixed reality 5G tech. “The … AR and VR market will experience continued growth, thanks to a slowly warming reception and an increase in the number of new devices,” says Ramon T. Llamas of IDC’s Augmented and Virtual Reality team.
Magic Leap
The Magic Leap 1 headset uses a mixed reality viewer from Brainlab.
(833)456-2442 | magicleap.com
Snap
The Spectacles augmented reality glasses with 3D waveguide displays and immersive AR lenses overlay digital objects in front of your eyes.
spectacles.com
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Innovative Eyewear
Lucyd Lyte patent-pending Bluetooth frames offer a mix of designer styling, vision correction, protection and smart features.
(954) 826-0329 | lucyd.co
Facebook
The Oculus Quest 2 has no wires and twice the storage of its predecessor with a fast processor and next generation graphics.
facebook.com
Mojo Vision
Mojo Lens is an augmented reality smart contact lens with a built-in display.
mojo.vision
Nreal
The Nreal Light MR glasses are lightweight, comfortable and offer a wide field of view.
nreal.ai
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Third Eye
The X2 MR glasses are a standalone, wearable headset with on-board processing built for augmented reality computing.
(609) 423-1660 | thirdeyegen.com
Microsoft
The HoloLens 2 are mixed reality smartglasses that can connect to remote experts, holographically overlay patient data, and consult MRI images in 3D.
microsoft.com
Innovega
The eMacula contact lens corrects the user’s vision and passes imagery to microdisplays within the eyewear.
(425) 516-8175 | innovega-inc.com
Smart Ways to Sell Extended Reality
Jerome Legerton, ODInnovega, Bellevue, WA
Extended reality including AR, VR and mixed reality can all be delivered in eyewear. It is a slowly developing megatrend for two reasons: available technology and applications yet to be developed. I believe in personalized extended reality eyewear that requires ECPs to attend to individual fitting and binocular vision demands. We have become accustomed to clarity, sharpness and high-res images, and comfortable eyewear. Extended reality eyewear must deliver these. We’re developing a CL and intraocular lens that can be put on or in the eyes and paired with eyewear to deliver binocular extended reality experiences with a wide field of view. Expected to launch Q4 2022, our licensees will sell the eyewear and CLs to hospitals, clinics and ECPs.
Michael Nitsche, PhDGeorgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
We’ve designed a prototype of a VR headset to help AMD patients, in collaboration with Dr. Susan Primo at Emory Eye Center. We’re experimenting with software using commercially available headsets to allow doctors to render images to optimize views for their patients. When it comes to consumer electronics, the most advanced commercially available mixed reality headset on the market is Microsoft’s Hololens 2. Its eye tracking feature can optimize eye movement and offers a wider field of view than its predecessor. Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 VR headset is just one type of headset that the company is producing. To establish VR and AR in a consumer market, early use may be in specific fields like education or training. On the consumer level, they often find their way into the living room through videogames. It’s not possible to walk down the street wearing a VR headset but that is where augmented reality comes in.