Researchers have developed a fundamentally new approach to a see-through display for augmented reality, or smart glasses that has potential for people with visual impairments.
By projecting images from the glass directly onto the eye, the new design could one day make it possible for a user to see information such as directions or restaurant ratings while wearing a device almost indistinguishable from traditional glasses.
“Rather than starting with a display technology and trying to make it as small as possible, we started with the idea that smart glasses should look and feel like normal glasses,” says research team leader Christopher Martinez of the Laboratoire d’électronique des technologies de l’information (Leti) in France. “Developing our concept required a great deal of imagination because we eliminated the bulky optical components typically required and instead use the eye itself to form the image.”