Microsoft has been making a fair few headlines throughout 2017 so far. The company’s latest development in the augmented reality sector is quite interesting to take note of. Researchers successfully developed near-eye holographics by using optics that fit inside regular glasses. This is a major step forward, albeit the product will not come to market soon.

Microsoft Makes More AR Progress

It is always good to see technology companies make major progress when trying to bring augmented reality to the market. So far, this concept has had very little appeal to the average consumer. Wearing an AR headset may look even sillier than VR HMDs right now, which is not something consumers are looking forward to. However, all of that may come to change, thanks to a significant breakthrough.

Researchers and engineers working for Microsoft have come up with a convenient solution. A new true, near-eye holographic has been developed, which can fit into a pair of regular glasses. In theory, this means anyone with a pair of glasses can access augmented reality in the future. It will take some time until this product comes to market, though, but that is only to be expected.

To be more specific, this new product makes use of mirrors and liquid crystal embedded on a silicon surface. This surface can be mounted inside the frame of the glasses, while the electronic components have to remain on the outside. This compact size sounds quite innovative, especially when taking into account how it is capable of producing proper visual information. Contrary to what people would think, this new concept does not reduce the picture quality all that much.

It has taken Microsoft’s engineers some time to come up with this viable augmented reality solution, though. A new algorithm had to be developed, which generated high-detail holograms in real time. Additionally, the team had to account for vision correction and realistic focus, two aspects that will provide an impressive augmented reality experience. After all, this augmented reality is to be experienced without having to worry about eye strain.

While all of this sounds incredibly exciting, it does not mean Microsoft has any plans to bring this technology to market anytime soon. Microsoft has not officially revealed its hardware plans for augmented reality. It is possible this new technology will be a part of future generations of hardware, but for now, that is mere speculation. Moreover, the company wants to iron out some drawbacks and limitations first and foremost.

More specifically, the glasses using this technology can only produce a monoscopic picture. While using regular glasses is far more comfortable than an actual headset, providing users with a stereoscopic image is the top priority right now. Despite these limitations, it is still an impressive step in the right direction to make augmented reality more accessible and comfortable for everyone.

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