Apple sees the (augmented) light, buys holo-glass tech startup Apple has reportedly snaffled holographic glassware biz Akonia Holographics for an undisclosed fee, presumably to use its tech in augmented reality gadgets. Akonia is a six-year-old company with roots that extend back to InPhase and its holographic optical disks. It moved on from holographic storage to displays, and has …
Not really. Magic Leap have been hyping up their technology to gain funding, whereas in this scenario Apple are playing the part of the investor, and one that has the resources to perform due diligence at that.
I had a quick look at www.kguttag.com to see if he'd looked at Akonia, but a search returned no results. Karl Guttag has been a critic of Magic Leap's claims for some years now, and as an expert on HUDs is the guy iFixit consulted on their recent Magic Leap developer headset. His site is worth a browser as he explains the different techniques that could be used to superimpose an image over one's view, and has given hands-on reviews of various AR display companies exhibiting at CES.
Waveguides are the technique Magic Leap (and others) have used in their developer unit, after making a lot of noise a couple of years back about using Fibre Scanning Display. As Karl notes, to achieve a good resolution by spinning a length of optical fibre in a spiral to cover the field of view (akin to how a cathode ray scans back and forth to cover an area) would have said fibre exceeding the sound barrier, if you want a decent refresh rate.
As Karl notes, to achieve a good resolution by spinning a length of optical fibre in a spiral to cover the field of view (akin to how a cathode ray scans back and forth to cover an area) would have said fibre exceeding the sound barrier, if you want a decent refresh rate.
Quite apart from the velocity/refresh question - is it just me, or does that sound terrifyingly close to "here, put this weed-whacker / garden strimmer 2 inches from your eyeballs"?
Its the power. Not in terms of battery - though that obviously matters for weight - but in terms of heat. A phone may only dissipate a few watts but do it long enough and it'll get warm to the touch - maybe even hot for some phones. I suppose that might be nice during winter if you're outdoors, but the rest of the time you aren't going to want something trying to dissipate several watts of excess heat into your skull.
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