日前， Source: Star Daily
Author: Song Ziqiao
① Researchers have discarded traditional backlight systems and adopted digital holography and ambient light interference technology, significantly enhancing outdoor display performance through specific optical design and a deep learning-based Control System.
② The approximate appearance of the AR glasses resembles a pair of ordinary glasses, weighing roughly the same as Meta Ray-Ban, with completely transparent lenses supporting binocular display, featuring one camera on each side at the top.
Recently, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ the USA Patent and Trademark Office publicly disclosed a patent for AR glasses named "Backlight-free Augmented Reality Digital Holographic Technology" (Patent No. US20250004275A1).
This patent was submitted on June 14, 2024, and officially published on January 2, 2025. The patent inventors include industry experts Jonghyun Kim, Ward Lopes, and David Luebke.
How to make AR devices lighter and improve display quality has always been a focus of research for AR glasses developers. NVIDIA's new patent aims to address this issue.
Research papers related to NVIDIA indicate that traditional AR display solutions often use heavy folded optical devices, making AR glasses and similar AR devices bulkier, which leads to poor user experience issues such as facial light blockage and low contrast.
NVIDIA researchers have discarded traditional backlight systems, employing digital Holographic Technology and ambient light interference technology (self-interference holography), significantly enhancing outdoor display effects through specific optical designs (blocking incident light instead of adding light from additional sources) and a Control System based on deep learning neural networks, achieving a more natural and clear presentation of virtual images, helping to enhance the immersive experience while reducing the power consumption and weight of AR devices.
Among them, self-interference holography is the technological core of the patent. This technology uses phase-adjustable spatial light modulators (SLM) to create destructive interference with ambient light, achieving selective shading without the need for additional light sources, thereby reducing power consumption and weight of AR devices. That is, AR devices can utilize digital Holographic Technology to achieve selective shading without requiring additional light sources, and this precise selectivity can significantly reduce the power consumption of augmented reality devices, fundamentally addressing the issue of poor display performance of AR glasses in bright environments.
This system can be imagined as adaptive color-changing lenses that can selectively darken specific areas of the field of view. Unlike traditional sunglasses that darken the entire lens, this system creates precise dark areas only where AR content needs to be displayed. This selective dimming method not only saves power but also maintains a natural visual experience in other areas.
The patent also shows that the general appearance of the AR glasses resembles a pair of ordinary glasses, weighing approximately the same as Meta Ray-Ban, with completely transparent lenses that support binocular display, and one camera located on the upper left and right sides of the glasses.
Overall, digital Holographic Technology and ambient light interference technology are expected to bring several substantial improvements to AR glasses:
Significantly reduce power consumption: no backlight source is required, greatly reducing energy consumption.
A lighter and thinner design: Simplifying the optical structure to achieve a lightweight and thin appearance more suitable for daily wear.
Excellent outdoor performance: Maintaining clear AR display effects even in bright light environments.
Enhanced user experience: The non-AR areas remain completely transparent, improving wearing comfort.
This is not NVIDIA's first reveal of the technology. NVIDIA disclosed the results of its collaboration with Stanford University in June 2024, utilizing AI-driven holographic algorithms to optimize the display effects of holographic AR glasses. The new display component—the Spatial Light Modulator (SLM)—does not manipulate the intensity of light but rather its phase, thus enabling the reconstruction of 3D holographic images in front of or behind the SLM. Using this principle, the team launched holographic glasses that are only 2.5 millimeters thick, utilizing waveguides, holographic near-eye displays, and geometric phase lenses to create ultra-thin holographic AR glasses.
AR glasses are regarded as the next heavyweight product in the consumer electronics sector, but short-term shipments remain low; NVIDIA has not yet launched specific products and is primarily still in the technology research and patent application stage.
Currently, CES 2025 will be held from January 7 to 10, and companies including Sony, Thunderbird Innovation, and DPVR have already begun to promote new AI glasses. Industry speculation suggests that 2025 may become the year of AI glasses. CITIC SEC Research Reports point out that the AI glasses sector is still in the stage of thematic investment; if key products from important manufacturers appear as hits subsequently, it is expected to drive the thematic investment towards fundamental investment.
Editor/Jeffy
