Going lighter on pockets, eyewear device can get hard on your eyes. Using headsets, any headset really, you must have noticed a tinge of visual discomfort after a while. This may be because, due to nature of displays, your eyes are the ones doing all the hard, depth-work. Innovega, one of leaders in developing visual technology, came out with a high-tech solution to relieve eyes of having to focus too hardly. It is called eMacula Eyewear System and is meant to deal with vergence-accommodation conflict for good.
VR/AR is very much a work in progress. As far as the headsets have come in selling us the illusion of other realities, there are physical limitations as to sustaining it. Today’s headsets are bulky, choose between tether or power, and cursed to fight latency every waking moment. There is another issue rarely called into question. Partly due to its unwieldy name, vergence-accommodation conflict is not discussed much, but is a challenge that has to be overcome one day.
That day is nigh, if Innovega has any say. VAC occurs when your eyes strain to focus on the illusory depth despite the physical presence of 3D displays. Different headpiece developers took largely different paths in resolving the issue, most of their solutions resulting in already bulky headsets becoming even bulkier. Innovega devised its eMacula Eyewear System lens technology that works by essentially extending the range of the Field of View, thereby relieving eyes of having to do extra work. ‘We are pleased’, Innovega Co-founder Jerome Legerton is quoted saying, ‘to reach the stage where we can describe and demonstrate the continuous depth of field of our iOptik@ contact lens-enabled wearable display optics’.
Rather than building ‘a headset the size of a shoe box’ as the company site reads, Innovega sneaked its game-changing technology inside a pair of contact lenses that pair beautifully with the company iOptics. The focus on lenses themselves rather than in-built systems is really the point here. Although slightly salesy towards the end, the Innovega co-founder and CEO Steve Willey could not be clearer as to the benefits of this new tech. The disadvantages of ‘complexity, bulk, and weight’ can be ‘completely avoided by using Innovega’s long depth of focus contact lens optics’. ‘Combined with vision correction that’s required by more than 60% of the population, and panoramic high-resolution experiences from stylish and lightweight eyewear, the eMacula system delivers a platform that wearers need or want’.
The main issue that eMacula Eyewear System is set to dispense with eye strain. Besides the noble cause, ‘resolving the vergence-accommodation conflict is known to reduce the time required to identify 3D stimuli, improve stereoacuity with fast frame rates, (and) reduce distortions in perceived depth’, back to Legerton. Seeing the bigger picture, the Innovega system is another piece of the puzzle that future is. Convenient one at that.
