Feb 03, 2022 06:00:00

What is amazing about the 2nd generation MR device 'Magic Leap 2' that has evolved overwhelmingly from the previous model?

Magic Leap's Optical Engineering Division Vice at the AR (Augmented Reality) / VR (Virtual Reality) / MR (Mixed Reality) related event '

SPIE.AR VR MR 2022 ' held from January 23 to 25, 2022. President Kevin Curtis presented a presentation entitled ' Magic Leap 2 's Advanced AR Platform and Innovative Optics .' KGOnTech, a VR-related news site, explains what was revealed in this presentation.

Magic Leap 2 at SPIE AR / VR / MR 2022 --KGOnTech
https://kguttag.com/2022/01/31/magic-leap-2-at-spie-ar-vr-mr-2022/

Curtis has announced that he has adopted LCOS for the display technology of Magic Leap 2. The LCOS used in Magic Leap 2 is said to be from Omnivision . KGOnTech commented, 'Omnivision's product was also used in Magic Leap 1, so it's not surprising.'

The structure is as follows. LCOS is an abbreviation of 'Liquid Crystal On Silicon', and it is a mechanism to collect green, red, and blue light from the top on a silicon substrate to form a liquid crystal display panel and view it through multiple stacked lenses.

However, if you capture the above structure as it is, the device will become very large. Therefore, Magic Leap 2 arranges LED panels in each color-coded waveguide so that the LED light is radiated to the LCOS device through the waveguide and the projection lens, eliminating the need for a

beam splitter . .. By adopting this structure, the entire optical system can be made smaller, and the weight of the device has been reduced by eliminating the beam splitter. Of course, if you make the structure compact, you are concerned about heat management due to power consumption, but Curtis said, 'Given the FOV and the surroundings of the optical system, Magic Leap 2 is more than 12 times more efficient than before.' increase.

Below is an image of the digital content you can see in Magic Leap 2. The hearts and robots are drawn very colorfully. On the other hand, the text is all green instead of white.

Also, according to Curtis, the display display resolution (one side) used for Magic Leap 2 is 1440 pixels wide x 1760 pixels high, and in order to be able to move the display position according to the interpupillary distance, it is up, down, left and right. It is said that there are also 'spare pixels' of 96 pixels each. In other words, the size of the effective display is 1536 pixels wide x 1856 pixels high.

The Magic Leap 1 display didn't have this extra pixel, so two models were available, depending on the size of the head, to cover the different interpupillary distances. However, Magic Leap 2 has only one size model, and it seems that the interpupillary distance can be adjusted by software control.

The following is a diagram comparing the actual field of view (FOV) and the number of pixels of Magic Leap 2, Magic Leap 1, Microsoft's HoloLens 1 and HoloLens 2 by KGOnTech. With a maximum FOV of 45 degrees horizontally and 55 degrees vertically, the resolution per viewing angle of Magic Leap 2 is 32 pixels, which is almost the same as Magic Leap 1. HoloLens nominally says '47 pixels per degree of viewing angle', but KGOnTech points out that 'actually, the resolution per degree of viewing angle of HoloLens is about 15 pixels, which is about half that of Magic Leap', Magic Leap pointed out. We expect that the 2 will overwhelm the competing models HoloLens and HoloLens 2 in terms of image quality.

Regarding the brightness of Magic Leap 2, Curtis announced the assumption that it will be 'about 2000 nits'. Since Magic Leap was around 150 nits, KGOnTech notes that 'achieving 2000 nits with a diffractive waveguide of up to 70 degrees is an important achievement.'

Glass transparency is important for Magic Leap 2, an MR device rather than a VR device. By displaying the content on a physically transparent lens, it is possible to mix real landscape and digital information. The light transmittance of the glass lens used in Magic Leap 2 is 22%, but KGOnTech said, 'I think that the number of 22% is probably an unattainable theoretical value,' in fact. I'm guessing that the transmittance will be lower.

KGOnTech says 'Magic Leap 2 overwhelms Microsoft HoloLens 2 with image quality and brightness', but 'front projection' where the image shining on the front of the lens is reflected due to the low transmittance. I'm concerned that Curtis didn't mention the phenomenon at all. We are also paying attention to the fact that a notch is inevitably created on the glass in order to put the camera for eye tracking inside.

In addition, he mentioned that it may be difficult to wear glasses if he wears glasses because the eye relief is small due to the structure, and he says that it is more of a device for corporations than for consumers. Still, KGOnTech says, 'The area around the Magic Leap 2's optical system is groundbreaking, and you can feel the motivation of Magic Leap.'