Researchers at Stanford University have developed a virtual reality display that is not much larger than a pair normal eyeglasses. The research team, led by professor Gordon Wetzstein, aimed to create a slim display where the user cannot differentiate between a hologram and reality. The technology could be used in various applications, including education, entertainment, virtual travel, communication, and other fields, the researchers said. The lightweight, immersive, and perceptually realistic mixed reality glasses developed by the team are 3 mm thick, measured from lens to screen. The device integrates a custom waveguide that steers the image to the viewer’s eye. The holographic image is enhanced by a new AI-calibration method that optimizes image quality and three-dimensionality. The result is a display with both a large field of view and a large “eyebox” defined as the area in which the pupil can move and still see the entire image. This combination of large field of view and large eyebox is highly coveted. The effect is a crisp 3D image that fills the user’s field of view for a more satisfying and immersive 3D experience. Researchers at Stanford University have developed a prototype holographic virtual reality display that enables lifelike 3D experiences in a compact form-factor. Courtesy of Stanford University. For the researchers, the goal of the work was to develop a system capable of passing the “visual Turing Test,” analogous to the Turing Test for AI, which holds that machines can only be truly declared intelligent when it cannot be distinguished whether one is chatting with a machine or a human being. “A visual Turing Test then means, ideally, one cannot distinguish between a physical, real thing as seen through the glasses and a digitally created image being projected on the display surface,” said Suyeon Choi, a postdoctoral scholar in Wetzstein’s lab and first author of the paper. The combination of AI and the large eyebox and field of view contribute to the device’s realism and immersiveness, qualities that stand as a challenge for such devices. Beyond that, is the issue of weight. The eyewear developed by the team is able to be worn for hours at a time without the neck or eye fatigue that are commonly found in current devices on the market. “We want this to be compact and lightweight for all-day use, basically. That’s problem number one – the biggest problem,” Wetzstein said. The research builds on previous work which established the holographic waveguide that enables the high image quality seen in the researchers’ prototype. The next installment in this work could be years away, Wetzstein said. That piece is expected to come in the form of a commercial product. The research was published in Nature Photonics (www.doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01718-w).
