Augmented reality (AR) is working its way into the mainstream. If you’ve ever captured little monsters through the screen of your smartphone while playing Pokémon Go, you’re already familiar with AR, which overlays images or data on the real world.
Simply put, this technology is one likely to usher in the next generation of computing and will have a tremendous impact over the next several decades.
IDC estimates that sales of AR glasses over the next few years will rival those of the Sony PlayStation, reaching $30 billion in headset sales by 2021 as technology advances and the commercial applications for AR expand.
To propel AR into the future and make the consumer experience more realistic, developers need a glass that widens the field of view (FOV) found in many devices.
For the developers of AR glasses, FOV is a key performance standard upon which lens material is evaluated. Ideally, AR glasses would match humans’ natural FOV, but so far they’ve been much more limited.
SCHOTT has recently made a breakthrough to enhance the AR experience.
SCHOTT RealView™ customized optical glass wafers are designed to maximize the FOV for AR devices through a high refractive index. Instead of confining the AR experience to the tunnel-vision view that devices made with regular glass provide, SCHOTT RealView™ offers a wide, expansive FOV.
To facilitate the best possible image quality, SCHOTT RealView™ is 10 times flatter, measured as Total Thickness Variation (TTV), than industry-standard glass wafers.