UK component could enable next-generation wearable displays

The London-based company has announced the availability of TL1, a holographic optical component that will give augmented reality device developers a way of providing genuinely high-definition, full colour and transparent images over a user’s field of vision.

Developed in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory, TL1 consists of a glass waveguide, approximately 10cm long, 3cm wide and 2.8mm in thickness, with holograms attached at either end.

A display screen can act as the input device for the optic, with light from the screen travelling through a small collimating lens before striking the first hologram, which bends the light 90 degrees through the waveguide until it hits the second hologram, which then bends the light a further 90 degrees to be projected before the eye.

The TruLife Optics team anticipate a range of consumer and B2B applications, including fire fighting, surgery and maintenance, where instruction manuals are provided to people when they’re working at height on a pylon or working with complex machinery.