Physics / mechanism
AR overlays digital content onto the physical world; VR replaces it entirely. Both pipelines share a common optics stack: display (micro-OLED, microLED, LCoS, or laser scanning), waveguide or lens combiner, and tracking (IMU + SLAM + eye-tracking). Key parameters: field of view (current AR ~50–60°, target >90°), exit pupil, see-through efficiency, and photon-to-photon latency (<20 ms threshold for comfort). Waveguides — diffractive (surface relief gratings, volume holograms) or reflective — are the critical bottleneck; coupling efficiency and rainbow artifact suppression remain unsolved at volume yield. MicroLED arrays (1–5 µm pitch) are the likely long-term display winner but fab yield at colour is <40% today.
Competitive landscape
Meta Quest 3 dominates volumetric VR; Apple Vision Pro anchors premium passthrough AR at $3,499 — neither is a mass market device. Competing form factors: smart glasses (Ray-Ban Meta, no waveguide), laser-scanning retinal (Bosch, Dispelix), and holographic waveguide (WaveOptics/Snap, Lumus, Vuzix). Key substitutes are 2D mobile and large-format displays — incumbent inertia is enormous.
| Approach | FOV | Efficiency | Fab complexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRG diffractive waveguide | 50–60° | ~5–15% | High (nanoimprint/etch) |
| Reflective waveguide (Lumus) | 50–55° | ~70% | Medium |
| Retinal laser scan | ~70°+ | High | Medium (MEMS) |
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.