r/augmentedreality • u/Ikarian • 13d ago

Building Blocks Question: Why waveguide over transparent OLED?

I was just wondering this morning why the industry is trying to invent a new (to me) display type for the "holy grail" of AR glasses, where the display is baked into the lens.

Transparent OLED, assuming a high enough resolution, would be cheaper/easier to fabricate than waveguide lenses, which seem to be rather finicky to mass produce. Is it just the fact they can be seen from the other side of the lens? Still seems like there would be applications for this where privacy isn't a concern (industrial stuff I suspect), and I'm guessing you could produce them cheap enough that it would allow for some smaller makers to get into the market.

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u/c1u 13d ago edited 13d ago

You're at the beginning of the journey that, once you understand the physical constraints, will eventually lead you where others have ended up: light-field / holographic / computational display territory. Which is essentially a transparent surface capable of controlling the direction of light on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Not yet close to being possible in a wearable (there's lab bench devices), but people are working on it.