German optics giant Zeiss will demonstrate its versatile smart glass technology at CES next week, which can suspend "holographic" and augmented reality content on transparent surfaces for use in car heads-up displays, 3D control elements in smart homes, and even transparent cameras in the middle of glass panels.
Zeiss first announced the development in early 2019, and by last year the technology was mature enough for use in augmented reality heads-up displays (HUDs) in aircraft cockpits. The company revealed its plan to enter the automotive application field at the IAA Mobility 2023 conference and is currently promoting mass production. Vice President Roman Kleindienst called this the "Gutenberg moment of holographic technology."
The technology is developed around a thin polymer film that can "turn any glass surface (building windows, transparent screens, car side windows) into an on-demand communication screen." The company says the film is more than 92% transparent, has "ultra-high-precision optics" and combines projection, detection, lighting and filtering functions.
Continuing on the topic of IAAMobility, technology being demonstrated in Nevada next week will include an augmented reality HUD for car drivers. This could mean that, in addition to placing critical dashboard and navigation information within the driver's field of view, smart glass could extend content displays, including video, to the side and rear windows - used to host Car2X communications, or obscure the window glass, or make "projected text and images visible only from the inside or outside." Zeiss also noted that "holographic" brake lighting will create "new degrees of design freedom."
The most interesting application is the so-called holographic camera, which uses "coupling, decoupling and light-guiding elements to redirect incident light toward hidden sensors." This would effectively eliminate the need for holes or slots to accommodate the camera and sensor, and would even mean placing the camera in the middle of the display, with "minimal impact on the brightness of the image reproduction" - although the IAAMobility demo example appears to be limited to monochrome. Zeiss also says this setup can also be expanded to collect environmental data, such as air pollution and UV exposure.
Other possibilities include floating switches that could activate holographic control elements on otherwise flat surfaces in cars or smart homes via gestures or voice commands. Window glass can be used as adjustable ambient lighting, with micro-optical layers on the glass surface collecting sunlight and feeding it into hidden solar cells to generate energy.
However, Zeiss does not intend to sell the finished product itself, but rather act as a systems supplier to OEMs, "offering unique industrial-scale reproductions of holograms in the form of a transparent layer to manufacturers or suppliers who wish to enhance their products and provide them with new functionality." These industrial solutions will be displayed at the company's booth in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center at the 2024 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES2024) in Las Vegas, which is open to the public on January 9.