IP Review Autumn 2017

The large amount of investment and development in the head-mounted display domain has made it quite the wellspring for innovation. 5 + of AR, and is designed to run as a standalone platform using only the devices’ on-board sensors and without the use of GPS or other external signals. Already featured on Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro smartphone, the Tango platform effectively handles some of the more technically complex tasks associated with executing AR applications, and will therefore allow for the development of more complex AR applications on mobile devices. This may involve indoor navigation, 3D mapping and environment recognition. This type of development platform will also complement developments in smartphone hardware, where we are likely to see the introduction of depth sensing cameras and more powerful graphics processors. The future’s mixed Although mobile device AR is currently forecast to be one of the next big things for smartphone tech, it lacks the immersive experience that has been promised to us through countless fictional depictions of AR (e.g. Tom Cruise desperately sifting through virtual screens in The Minority Report). But, similarly to how Star Trek’s Personal Access Display Device of the 80s has now become reality in the form of today’s tablet computers, a more immersive AR, or mixed reality, is now on the horizon, with the development of head-mounted displays (HMDs) being a domain of rising interest. Companies working in the HMD domain are focused on creating new hardware platforms that are capable of delivering a mixed reality experience that is a step ahead of “normal” AR. Mixed reality involves visualising and interacting with virtual objects as though they are part of the real environment. Generally speaking, mixed reality needs a transparent electronic display positioned over a user’s eyes, which is then used to display virtual objects over the user’s field of vision. Users can control these virtual objects as though they are part of their real surroundings using gestures or other control means. Although HMDs are currently expensive and out of reach for most of us, they are expected to commercialise in the next 5 years or so as a result of the large investment that has gone into this area in recent years by the likes of Alibaba, 21st Century Fox and JP Morgan. As a result of this investment, the commercialisation of HMDs is expected to break AR into a wider range of application areas including education, healthcare, design and engineering, analytics and entertainment. A large number of established companies and start-ups are working in the area of HMDs. Some of the biggest players include Microsoft, with its Hololens, and ODG, with its own range of smart glasses. Both of these technologies use the same concept of having a user look through a transparent monitor that displays virtual objects. In contrast, Magic Leap is known to be developing a HMD that instead uses light field technology to deliver AR. Rather than displaying virtual objects on a transparent screen, this works by projecting light directly into a user’s eyes to mimic how we perceive light from real objects. This organic method of visualising virtual objects is expected to create a much more realistic and immersive mixed reality experience, since it can overcome barriers surrounding depth perception and general realism, eventually allowing us to interact more realistically and intimately within an AR environment. In addition to these methods of AR delivery, HMD developers are also continuously improving on lower level functionality such as environment and body tracking, spatial audio, hardware specifications and other components that are essential for mixed reality applications.