Augmented reality and virtual reality technology has been hyped for decades, but it has yet to realize its full potential. Still, companies like Apple and Meta have invested heavily in the space, and the market is projected to hit $40.4 billion this year and more than $200 billion by 2030.
Both AR and VR will assuredly have their moments. But what will it take to get there?
What’s Wrong With the VR and AR User Experience?
- VR headsets are heavy and can cause eye fatigue that induces headaches.
- AR images can be small, blurry, dim and lack vibrant colors.
How Do AR and VR Fall Short of Expectations?
User Concerns With VR
Looking at VR, you might imagine someone actively moving around a space, deeply engaged in another world; or maybe you think of a pilot or astronaut doing some sort of simulation training. At this point, people expect something amazing, transformative and accessible.
In an attempt to drive widespread consumer, industrial and military adoption, the big VR players are pushing hard to lower the cost of devices while simultaneously building and facilitating the creation of more compelling experiences, interactions and content. They just haven’t gotten there yet — so far failing to generate the degree of sustained adoption, usage and growth we all anticipated.
The truth is that while people know about VR, most still haven’t purchased a headset, and perhaps more troubling, those who have barely used it. If they do, it’s only for a short duration due to the poor user experience. VR headsets remain too heavy, cause too much eye fatigue and induce headaches. Simply, the experience just isn’t compelling enough with limited dynamic range and field of view.
Companies can throw billions of dollars at content, but if the hardware fundamentals aren’t there, the VR headset is just going to sit on the shelf.
User Concerns With AR
On the AR side, things are even further away from fulfilling the promise of the tech. Companies have struggled with brightness, field of view and transparency while maintaining a thin and lightweight profile.
Few AR headsets on the market have done more from a visual standpoint than cast a virtual image from a phone in front of the eyes of the wearer (essentially a monitor replacement) while connecting audio and camera functions. They do not offer a composite view of the real world and virtual content, and the images are often too small, too blurry and too dim, lacking true and vibrant colors.
The reason for this is the reliance upon conventional optical designs, which when limited to the available physical dimensions of modern eyewear fail fundamentally to match the viewer’s demands of fully visible large, bright images. We can expect future incremental improvements, but they bring challenges of manufacturing (red microLED efficiency, or OLED deposition precision or pixel density) or costs related to exotic materials and complex processes.
These are really complicated issues to solve. What tech companies and VCs have done while they try to figure them out is to compensate by over-rotating on content and driving down the price of commoditized headset components. But they fall short here as well on the overall user experience and face the limitations of the devices they are building for.
As AR and VR move closer and closer together, users will want an experience that uses the best of both systems and leaves behind the constraints. People want the performance of VR with the form factor, comfort and transparency capabilities of AR.
How Anamorphic Technology Can Improve UX
Researchers have developed a new method for AR and VR optics that caters to viewers’ demands (including brightness, precise color, field of view and highlights).
What Is an Anamorphic Approach to Extended Reality?
An anamorphic approach to extended reality increases the physical size of the optical system by maximizing the use of the available space horizontally along the eyebrow. It projects an elongated display through this top surface into the eyewear lens which, acting as a transparent waveguide, relays the image down and eventually out toward the eye. Cylindrical imaging elements accommodate the stretched input image while capturing all the increased available light.
This approach allows for greater brightness and related efficiencies over conventional designs. This innovative optical design can achieve high performance imagery and throughput efficiency similar to VR pancake lenses with the form factor and transparency needed for AR, improving traditional AR and VR designs as well as opening up possibilities for high-fidelity hybrid approaches.
Anamorphic design also has positive implications for size and weight, since less battery will be required to power a system that is fundamentally brighter by design, as well as correct color. Additionally, improved specifications related to eyebox size, field of view and brightness help to reduce the amount of refocusing your eyes will need to do, reducing headaches and increasing the duration of time headsets can comfortably be used — a major pain point today for use cases including social media, gaming, manufacturing, surgery, military and beyond.
Fortunately, this novel approach does not need to use hard-to-find chemicals or components or require complex processes that complicate manufacturing, which will make it straightforward for headset makers to incorporate, should they choose to differentiate themselves by delivering a better experience.
The Future of AR and VR
In order for AR and VR to make a leap forward, stakeholders must assess their priorities.
Do they continue pushing content and driving down existing headset costs? Or will a new paradigm be necessary to reset perceptions of the user experience? With the latest advances in imaging, will device makers take advantage? Will they invest in new technology that can upgrade the experience as well as open a whole new world for content creators and developers?
By collaborating with scientists and investing further in research and development that improves the experience now — without abandoning content development in the process — AR and VR can become something extraordinary, something people love and depend on for everything from educational training to health and wellness, to military and industrial applications and to simply having a good time and escaping their everyday world.
With improvements in natural language processing and projection systems, perhaps this will one day make our mobile devices obsolete.
