What Display Daily thinks: Starting with the glass is half full: AR waveguides are a key enabling technology for glasses. Maybe headsets, too, but AR headsets are a pain in the neck, literally, and figuratively, they don’t have much of a consumer-fit argument. If AR glasses achieve widespread adoption then the IP is golden.
Now, let’s take a look at the glass is half empty: who cares? There is plenty of IP being built around AR glasses, and much of it is going to end up auctioned off at some point to a bigger company that will use it to protect itself from someone else’s IP. Forget the technical arguments, IP is a business strategy, and serves no other purpose.
So, it is going to be what gets past the post first, the glass is half full or the glass is half empty? For AR and VR IP, there will come a point where someone has to win something. And everyone else has to lose because that is the nature of the business. There isn’t a clear market definition, a market size, a market segmentation, and a fit with user profiles.
Am I diminishing the value of a whole industry? No, of course not. Lots of investment and lots of intelligence has gone into the market, but that doesn’t negate the fact that AR and VR IP has a very small window of opportunity to deliver some ROI. If Apple and Meta actually end up mass producing profitable headsets, they’ll own all the IP they are going to need, or maybe Qualcomm, too. There’s no finesse in the technology requirements. Apple proved that with the way it brute-forced its way into creating the Vision Pro, and look at how much that is going to cost the consumer.
Meta has proven that it can turn a pedestrian conversion of its user base into millions of VR headsets sold, but it has also proven that it takes a few thousand dollars per sale to make $500. AR glasses don’t fall into these categories and maybe there is a place for them, a heads up display for smartphones seems to be consensus. But, the next time you have to wear your prescription glasses why don’t you think back to the time when you hated having to accept the fact that you had to wear glasses.
And so, while the niche AR and VR industry remains a Pollyanna, since I cannot prove a lover, to entertain these fair well-spoken dreams, I am determined to prove a villain.
Vuzix Unveils Incognito Waveguide Tech For AR Glasses
Vuzix announced a new waveguide technology called Incognito that aims to eliminate light leakage on augmented reality smart glasses.
The technology manages internal light reflection to minimize forward light leakage on waveguide-based AR glasses. This improves image contrast and privacy while using the device, according to Vuzix.
Incognito waveguides have been developed over years of investment in intellectual property. Vuzix now has over 325 patents and patents pending related to displays and waveguides. The company says Incognito will be incorporated into Vuzix defense, industrial, and consumer products without increasing manufacturing costs per waveguide. Eliminating light leakage has critical applications in defense situations where any visible light could compromise safety.
Vuzix plans to ramp up waveguide production with the new technology at its newly opened manufacturing facility in Rochester, NY. The company develops smart glasses and AR technologies. Vuzix President and CEO Paul Travers said Incognito tech makes the AR display “virtually disappear” for improved user privacy. He called it a game-changing advancement for the overall waveguide-based AR industry.
Vuzix claims that companies are racing to develop augmented reality hardware for enterprise and consumer adoption, and demand for AR tech has increased, though efforts remain early stage.
