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Chinese scientists have developed a new type of lens that can be used for health care and augmented reality (AR). Based on radio frequency, the eye-tracking smart contact lenses don’t require battery or conventional silicon chips and are biocompatible and imperceptible.

Set to be used for human-machine interaction (HMI), the smart contact lenses rely on tracking eye movements. The lenses use methods like pupil center corneal reflection and electrooculography (EOG) to track eye movements.

Researchers in the emerging field of spatial computing have developed a prototype augmented reality headset that uses holographic imaging to overlay full-color, 3D moving images on the lenses of what would appear to be an ordinary pair of glasses. Unlike the bulky headsets of present-day augmented reality systems, the new approach delivers a visually satisfying 3D viewing experience in a compact, comfortable, and attractive form factor suitable for all-day wear.

“Our headset appears to the outside world just like an everyday pair of glasses, but what the wearer sees through the lenses is an enriched world overlaid with vibrant, full-color 3D computed imagery,” said Gordon Wetzstein, an associate professor of electrical engineering and an expert in the fast-emerging field of spatial computing.

Wetzstein and a team of engineers introduce their device in a new paper in the journal Nature (“Full-colour 3D holographic augmented-reality displays with metasurface waveguides”).

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seemed to take a hit at Apple’s Vision Pro in Meta’s first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg said he didn’t think augmented reality glasses would make it in the mainstream market until it had “full holographic displays.” The comment appears to show his skepticism of the potential success of a product like Apple’s Vision Pro.

Professor Jeongho Kwak’s from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at DGIST has developed a learning model and resource optimization technology that combines accuracy and efficiency for 6G vision services. This technology is expected to be utilized to address the high levels of computing power and complex learning models required by 6G vision services.

6G mobile vision services are associated with innovative technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and autonomous driving, which are receiving significant attention in modern society. These services enable quick capturing of videos and images, and efficient understanding of their content through deep learning-based models.

However, this requires high-performance processors (GPUs) and accurate learning models. Previous technologies treated learning models and computing/networking resources as separate entities, failing to optimize performance and mobile device resource utilization.

AR-Smart glasses: 2029. Will look like just a normal pair of sunglasses. All normal smartphone type features. Built in AI systems. Set up for some VR stuff. An built in earbud / mic, for calls, music, talking to Ai, etc… May need a battery pack, we ll see in 2029.


The smart glasses will soon come with a built-in assistant.

A surgery team in the UK successfully utilized the recently-released Apple Vision Pro to assist spinal surgery — a fascinating use case for the augmented reality (AR) headsets that goes far beyond movie-watching, productivity-hacking, or distracted driving.

As Business Insider reports, the expensive “spatial computing” device was used to execute two microspinal procedures at London’s Cromwell Hospital. To be clear, it wasn’t the surgeons themselves who were wearing bunky AR headsets. The device was instead donned by an assisting surgical scrub nurse, who according to a press release used headset-integrated software called eXeX to access things like “surgical setup and the procedural guides from within the sterile field of the operating theatre,” in addition to any needed data or surgical visualizations.

So, in short: coupled with the eXeX software, the headset offered the folks in the operating room hands-free access to documents and other information related to the procedure and its workflow. Pretty cool!