Mirror Arrays Make Augmented Reality More Realistic
...it has remained challenging to make virtual images appear more “solid” in front of real-world objects, an effect that’s essential for us in achieving depth perception.
Now, a team of researchers has developed a compact AR system that, using an array of miniature mirrors that switch positions tens of thousands of times per second, can create this elusive effect. They describe their new system in a study published February 13 in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
Their design relies on a dense array of miniature mirrors that can be individually flipped between two states—one that allows light through and one that reflects light—at a rate of up to tens of thousands of times per second.
Krajancich notes some trade-offs with this approach, including some challenges in rendering colors properly. It also requires a lot of computing power, and therefore may require higher power consumption than other AR systems. While commercialization of this system is a possibility in the future, she says, the approach is still in the early research stages.
See the full story here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/sensors/imagers/mirrors-augmented-reality-more-realistic
IEEE link is https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8998139