Lumus, based in Israel, is a developer of high quality waveguides for AR that it has been making for seven or eight years, through a partnership with Thales of France (and we have been reporting on the company since SID in 2005!). Much of the early demand was for military and simulation use and where Thales is a key supplier.
There are plenty of companies that are making waveguides using diffraction (Digilens, WaveOptix, Microsoft and Vuzix, for example). Lumus, on the other hand uses patented reflective technology which gives a wider field of view up to 55 deg (compared to 30 deg or less for others). The quality of the Lumus technology has always impressed us, but it is, relatively, complex. That means that it is likely to stay in the professional space, although the company told us that it has a relationship for glasses manufacture with Quanta and that should allow headsets to be made and sold at ‘less than $1,000’. Because of the relationship, the company is able to support brands and is looking for design wins and customers now.
We were impressed with the headset that Flex showed and started to promote to OEMs at CES (Flex Develops AR Headset Using ‘Sketch to Scale’ Concept) and that headset uses the Lumus optics. The company has also been working with Google and Qualcomm. Essilor is a partner for making glasses, as well.
Lumus told us that it is also working with Deepoptics, also based in Israel, which can make AR/VR optics that can be compensated, using LC materials, for different vision. It can also work on changing the focal distance of AR displays. (http://www.deepoptics.com/do_site/) (NEDs with Eye Focus Cues at Display Week – Roundup)
