Meta and Stanford Unveil Ultra-Thin Holographic XR Glasses Display

Alright, let’s see if I can piece together all these bits and bobs into something that feels, well, human-ish. Here we go:

So, there’s a thing going on with glasses—yep, like the stuff you stick on your face to see better or look smarter. A bunch from Meta Reality Labs and some folks at Stanford (think they might be professors or something) are playing around with holograms. Not the sci-fi ones you’re thinking—more like, "Hey, this might actually fit on your nose" holograms. Found this in Nature Photonics. Never read it, probably never will, but maybe you’re more cultured than I am.

So, we got Gordon Wetzstein, who sounds like someone who knows a lot more about tech than I do, pulling together a team from Meta and Stanford. They cooked up something wild—a prototype, they call it. It’s like the size of normal glasses but can show you crazy good 3D stuff. Apparently, they mix up super-thin holography tech with some AI tricks. Fancy, huh? Yeah, don’t ask me to explain that any deeper. I zoned out a bit halfway through trying to get it.

Now, and this bit’s kind of nuts, it’s using waveguides. Ah, wave-guides? But unlike the see-through stuff like HoloLens 2 or Magic Leap One. It’s more of a mixed thing, like when you’re not quite sure what you’re looking at but you nod anyway ’cause everyone else is nodding. It’s just 3mm thick, which I measured on my fingers and yeah, super thin! They’ve crammed a custom waveguide thingy and a Spatial Light Modulator (seriously, who names these?) in there to mess with pixels one by one to whip up these holograms.

Pause for a quirky side note: Oh, did I mention? This isn’t like your VR goggles from a few years back where you end up cross-eyed after an hour. Nope, this one’s supposed to make you forget you’re even looking at a screen, which sounds kinda like a prank but way cooler. Wetzstein is all about this tech, saying holography is the big cheese of display tech. Maybe he knows something we don’t; maybe he’s just excited like someone who gets off on really good coffee.

Anyway, the challenge was getting it all to jive in the right… étendue? Yeah, that word’s way above my pay grade. But it’s something about making sure your eyes can roam around without losing focus or all the magic dripping out. They say it makes it more real-life looking. Like, if regular glasses could toss in 3D that actually feels 3D, and you’re not fumbling around blind in a high-tech fog.

Last thought in this whirly mess: Apparently, this is the second act in some tech trilogy. First, they did the groundwork with this waveguide jazz. Now, a functioning prototype is here, like the middle movie that sets up an epic follow-up, the thing we all wanna see. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it’s on the horizon.

Oh, and there was a big party at Meta’s Reality Labs, messing with VR & MR, trying to keep the look more shades than spacesuit. No waveguides there, just big dreams for now.

And that’s it, unless I got lost somewhere… which I probably did. Catch you later, if not in some futuristic hologram display.

Hope this odd little ride does the trick!