Glass Free Augmented Reality

This month, Distance Technologies began showcasing what it describes as “glass-free AR.” The working prototype and proof of concept does involve a piece of glass, installed at an angle to allow the projection of hologram-like visuals. But it’s glass-free in the sense that it uses no AR (augmented reality) head mounted displays, mobile devices, or tablets.

Urho Konttori, CEO of Distance Technologies, said, “The product is so new we haven’t even decided what to call it. We can call it glass-free extended reality or holographic display.”

Konttori is well-known to the AR/VR community as the former cofounder of Varjo, which develops and markets AR/VR headsets for enterprise use. Among Varjo’s customers are name-brand automakers, such as GM, Volvo, and KIA. Konttori is now targeting the same market with Distance Technologies’s product.

“With a little bit of coating to the windshield, our technology can easily be implemented into cars,” he said. “The [eye-tracking] camera is Intel RealSense. The hand-tracking is done with Ultraleap [from Leap Motion]. And we also have our own head- and eye-tracking systems in the setup.”

Some of the components, such as driver-facing cameras, may already exist in certain car models. Other pieces may need to be incorporated into the dashboard to enable the system. Konttori and his team are now focusing on refining the system so it can work in outdoor environments, accounting for brighter lights and reflections.

“The digital data can be coming from the car’s entertainment system,” said Konttori. “Our requirements are not staggeringly high, so you don’t need a supercomputer for that. But if you have more compute power, like a GPU, the images will look better.”

The company’s strategy is “B2B2C,” Konttori said, first to enterprises and business, followed by consumers. “It might first be adopted by luxury car makers, but we do think eventually it could become a system for special CAD visualization.”

The technology shows promise, but in its initial release, it may not be suitable for average CAD and FEA users. Eventually, when it’s been road-tested and time-tested, it could evolve into a system for visualizing digital twins and design concepts.

Watch the video to learn more