Dispelix to Commercialize Virtual Display for Smart Glasses

Dispelix Oy plans to commercialize a display that brings visual information directly into the user's field of vision as an HD image on an eyeglass lens.

The technology is based on light-guide optics, which enables the manufacture of displays on either glass or plastic in the form of lightweight, 1-mm-thick elements. In addition to thinness, the technology's benefits include a large, high-quality virtual image and excellent transparency; the display element can also be freely shaped.

The virtual display can be almost invisibly integrated into lenses. Courtesy of Dispelix.

"The size of the virtual image is equivalent to a 60-in. TV viewed from a distance of three meters," said Antti Sunnari, managing director of Dispelix.

Dispelix is fundraising and building a partner network in order to accelerate commercialization. The displays are ready for volume production, and the company aims to make the first customer deliveries in 2016. The technology's first applications will be in the fields of exercise, work and motor sports, allowing users to view pulse rate, navigation and activity data directly on sport glasses.

Future applications areas may include health care, the manufacturing and process industry, and logistics, where smart glasses could allow workers to use both hands in difficult conditions or to learn more about the task as the work progresses, the company predicted.

Dispelix is a spinoff of VTT Technical Research Center of Finland.