Facebook and Microsoft patent filings offer dueling visions of small AR headsets

Augmented reality headsets are too large for mainstream users, commonly sporting design elements that look inspired by Star Trek and Star Wars props. That’s about to change: After more natural-looking AR headsets were shown at the 2019 CES, patent documents submitted by Facebook and Microsoft show that both companies are trying to make AR glasses smaller and better.Facebook’s just-patented invention uses a new technique to fit a large-looking display inside a small headset. The invention creates a waveguide display using two parallel surfaces, potentially combining the output from multiple small projectors to create an image that both fills the eye and has a large eyebox. While similar results can be accomplished in a larger form factor, Facebook hopes to release a headset reminiscent of a standard pair of sunglasses.On the specifications front, Facebook offers two possible applications of its invention, one with a 60-degree diagonal field of view, the other considerably wider with a 72-degree diagonal field of view. As the below graphic from UploadVR points out, each would deliver a noticeably larger augmented viewing area than Microsoft’s HoloLens and the Magic Leap One headset, which use comparatively narrower and in some cases shorter screens.