FACT: Stanley G. Weinbaum’s 1935 book Pygmalion’s Spectacles is often cited as the first depiction of virtual reality in literature.
This story presents a headset capable of immersing all five senses in a virtual world – a mere science fantasy. But, just three decades later, Harvard University computer scientist Ivan Sutherland created the first head-mounted display that offered users an augmented reality (AR) experience in the form of 3D wireframe computer-generated shapes laid over their real-world view. Sutherland’s device included a head position measuring system that had to be suspended from the ceiling, leading people to later refer to it as the “Sword of Damocles.” (He prefers to call it the “Stereoscopic-Television Apparatus for Individual Use.”)
Now, Gordon Wetzstein, associate professor of electrical engineering, and his team in the Stanford Computational Imaging Lab are working on bringing this science fiction even closer to reality by creating state-of-the-art virtual technologies for lightweight spectacles.
“We’re working on not just bringing an image to your eye but bringing an experience to your eye that is indistinguishable from the real world,” Wetzstein said.
More research from the Stanford Computational Imaging Lab
To render a three-dimensional image that looks like the real world, the team has been developing holographic displays. These miniature display systems are embedded into a pair of glasses and work by manipulating light waves rather than pixels. Intelligent software adjusts those waves so the eyes can perceive real depth and virtual objects blend seamlessly with the real world.
Among other projects that converge physical sciences with artificial intelligence, the team has also been making an eye tracker that’s small and compact. These low-power sensors track exactly where the eye is looking in real time to render a detailed image in that spot – this allows technologies to have lower details where the eye isn’t looking, thus saving energy while keeping the view sharp.
“We are closer to a tiny and lightweight display system that can be embedded in the frames of eyeglasses to give users a very natural, perceptually realistic experience,” Wetzstein said.
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Wetzstein is also an associate professor of electrical engineering and, by courtesy, of computer science in the School of Engineering. He is also a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.
Writer
Mahima Samraik
