Google has filed a new patent application that can make it possible to have a pair of glosses that will project a virtual map while you walk down a road. It can also turn your workplace into a gaming arena wherein you can fight the zombies. Cool isn’t it?
Google has filed a patent application to use holograms in a head mounted display similar to the Google Glass. This can create augmented reality experiences to the users that will superimpose the CGI or computer generated imaginary to the real world.
This patent application was filed in March 2014 and it shows how Google’s research can merge the head mounted display and augmented reality technologies.
In order make the smart eyewear more beneficial and useful, the projected content should interact as well as reach to the real world. It should not simple be pasted on top of the real world.
This new patent describes how the company can potentially do the same with the help of augmented reality through holograms. The patent states that with augmented reality, the image of the world as seen by the user is augmented via an overlaying CGI or computer generated imagery. This is also known as heads-up display.
The head mounted displays have several leisure and practical applications. The aerospace applications can permit the pilot to witness the important flight control details without getting distracted from the flight path.
The public safety applications comprise of tactical displays of thermal imaging and maps. Other fields of application are transportation, video games and telecommunications.
The patent stated that it can be used in practical and leisure applications. But, most of these applications are restricted due to size, cost, weight, efficiency of conventional optical systems and field of view to implement the existing head mounted displays.
The key to make the smart eyewear is to allow the projected content to react to the real world. This new patent is titled as Lightguide with Multiple In-Coupling Holograms for Head Wearable Display. It is likely that the US startup firm Magic Leap will be partnered to create the holograms that will be projected in Google Glass. Magic Leap has filed many trademarks for the forthcoming augmented reality content.
Right now, the project is called Project Aura and it is headed by Ivy Ross, the one who ran the previous Glass project. For this project, engineers, project managers, and software developers from Amazon.com’s Lab126 were hired.
