Meta and Stanford Unveil Ultra-Slim Holographic XR Display the Size of Eyeglasses

Sure thing, here’s how I’d put it:

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So, picture this: folks over at Meta Reality Labs teamed up with Stanford brainiacs to whip up this flashy new holographic display gizmo. Basically, they’re saying virtual and mixed reality might fit into glasses. Yeah, regular ol’ specs!

They wrote all about it in Nature Photonics—fancy, right?—with Stanford’s Gordon Wetzstein and his crew detailing some prototype thingamajig. It’s all about super-thin waveguide tech and some AI wizardry throwing down slick 3D visuals.

But wait, twist! Unlike the see-through stuff—think HoloLens or Magic Leap—this isn’t exactly transparent. Nope, it’s what they call mixed reality. Why? Beats me. Science talk, probably.

Get this, it’s only 3 millimeters thick. A custom optical stack cozying up with a Spatial Light Modulator—don’t worry, I couldn’t tell you exactly what that is either—to create what they call “full-resolution holographic light field rendering.” Yeah, that!

The funky part? Regular headsets fake depth with flat images, but this bad boy spits out real-deal holograms. Wetzstein’s buzzing about its size—it’s tiny compared to anything else out there. Compact magic, let’s call it.

And the field-of-view? Wide as the wild blue yonder. Throw in a big ol’ eyebox too—you can move your eyes around without losing the picture. Handy, right?

“Why no digital holography before?” they say it’s about space-bandwidth something-or-other, and I kinda zoned out there. But apparently, it was a big hurdle.

Oh, and fun trivia: this is round two in what they’re calling a trilogy. Last year, it was just tech-speak. This year, they built the darn thing. Commercial version? Eh, might take a bit—Wetzstein’s still hopeful.

Choi, the lead author, tossed around the term “Visual Turing Test.” Basically, it’s fooling your eyes completely—no more spotting the difference between real and virtual. Trippy, right?

Meanwhile, Meta’s pulling other VR hat tricks with their wide-view gadgets—different tech, though; not waveguides.

Crazy stuff in tech land, huh?