Tag: augmented reality glasses

A new type of wearable technology could redefine the AR experience.

Andrew Maimone, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill PhD student, has developed augmented reality (AR) glasses that would allow users to digitally interact with the real world, except Maimone’s glasses are sleek, compact, and light and are realistically wearable and less of a “gimmick” in comparison to conventional AR devices.

The new AR glasses provide a wide field of view.

Maimone commented that while it is possible to utilize a tablet or a even a smartphone to call up a virtual place and character and superimpose it on the real world via a small mobile screen, this experience is not “very compelling” because the experience does not occur through a person’s vision. The smartphone or tablet only allows the user to look at the virtual place through a small window.

On the other hand, traditional augmented reality glasses are bulky due to several components that are required to make the technology work, such as lenses, waveguides, reflectors, beam splitters, and additional optics that relay a digital image to the eye and place it at a distance where it can be focused on by the eye. Unfortunately, all of the bulk this tech creates can limit a person’s field of view.

Maimone’s device is called a Pinlight Display and he has been working on this device in collaboration with three researchers from the University of North Carolina and two from Nvidia Research. The Pinlight Display does not rely on standard optical components. Instead, it utilizes an array of “pinlights”, which are essentially bright dots.

Maimone explains that “A transparent display panel is placed between the pinlights and the eye to modulate the light and form the perceived image.” He added that “Since the light rays that hit each display pixel come from the same direction, they appear in focus without the use of lenses.”

Early prototypes of the augmented reality Pinlight Displays have demonstrated 100 degree fields of view.

Currently, the best commercial augmented reality glasses only offer a field of view of up to 40 degrees, while Maimone’s glasses have demonstrated fields of view of 100 degrees or higher. While this is no doubt impressive, the present prototype is not without its problems. It currently has image quality and low resolution issues. Maimone says that the next step is to work on improving these elements. He firmly believes, however, that with the proper engineering and research, the technology could be made into something realistic for use in everyday life.

This was the first time that the augmented reality headset had been used for this purpose.

For the very first time ever, a surgeon in China used a Google Glass headset device to broadcast the full procedure of an orthopedic surgery so that it could be viewed, live, by his colleagues in other parts of Asia, as well as in Europe, on their tablets and smartphones.

The surgery was conducted by a highly known and reputable orthopedic surgeon at a hospital in China.

The surgery was conducted by an expert in the reattachment of limbs that have been severed. The doctor wore the Google Glass augmented reality device in order to be able to live-cast the complete procedure using the 500 megapixel camera of the wearable technology gadget. While this event may have been only the first of its kind, recent reports have been suggesting that this could be situation that becomes increasingly common in the future.

The hospital is currently in talks to help to expand the use of Google Glass and other forms of mobile technology.

Technology news reports – such as those in the Wenwei newspaper, which is state operated – have stated the Shanghai 6th People’s Hospital is currently in discussions with app developers in order to be able to broaden the exploration of the possibility of interactions between humans and machines, on site in the hospital. Among the possibilities that could be among those being discussed is the ability to conduct surgical procedures through the help of 3D images that are displayed in augmented reality while wearing AR glasses.

The surgeon’s name is Chen Yunfeng. While he is not the first to use augmented reality glasses in the operating room, he is the first one to use them in order to transmit a live broadcast to doctors in other locations such as other continents.

The medical industry is among those that is seeing the most potential for Google Glass. There are an increasing number of reports being released as various doctors and hospitals come up with new and clever ways to use the technology in order to improve the healthcare that they are able to provide.