Choose your level of reality
Control ambient lighting and environmental contrast to customize user experience
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality systems use visual dynamics to impart experience. By instantaneously adjusting ambient lighting and environmental contrast, you can customize the “reality” that users experience – or let them choose it themselves!
Augmented and Mixed Reality (Absorptive system)
Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) provides engaging experiences that seamlessly blend virtual objects with the real world. However, these systems struggle to work as well when outside in sunlight as they do indoors because typically, the image contrast from the AR display washes out or is drastically reduced in sunlight. AlphaMicron’s new light-adjusting display technology solves this problem, allowing users to enjoy AR in all environments, by providing an instantaneous adjustment to ambient lighting to enhance contrast and improve visibility of the AR image.
Virtual Reality (Refractive system)
The popularity of Virtual Reality is rooted in its ability to immerse users in a separate experience, transporting them from their current surroundings to a focused, singular experience. Whether they are watching a movie, “visiting” a location, or playing an interactive game, the success of Virtual Reality relies on successfully and convincingly placing them in that setting. To accomplish this, one must manipulate visuals, focusing the mind by blocking irrelevant imagery from reaching the eye. While this is wonderful for the VR experience, users can struggle with snapping back to “real” reality, needing to remove equipment such as goggles or a headset to reorient to their actual setting.
AlphaMicron is now working with various companies to adapt and integrate its intense light protection solutions to develop higher performance VR displays. We can provide new capabilities for VR headsets, allowing the user to choose exactly how “immersed” to be, customizing the level of awareness of outer surroundings to suit them. Viewers can choose to switch between different modes: from total immersion, where no ambient environment can be seen, to a mixed or augmented reality experience. By allowing variable degrees of perception of the outside world, we can provide a seamless, safer, and more enjoyable VR experience.
See-Through Displays (Absorptive, Reflective systems)
See-through displays provide the ability to see an additional image on top of the external (“real”) view. Organic Light-Emitting Diode or OLED-based systems are a prime candidate for this application.
In one of the most compelling applications of see-through display technology, new cars increasingly offer head-up displays (HUD) whereby cockpit information can be viewed by the driver without needing to look down to the dashboard. However, automotive companies are restrained by HUD systems’ susceptibility to sunlight. AlphaMicron enables development of HUD systems that instantly adjust the background opacity. By protecting against loss of visual contrast, users can avoid visual loss of data, thereby minimizing potential danger when lighting conditions change.