Published 18 hours ago
Proposed by 3M
Originally posted on 3M News Center
“It looks like a shoebox on your face.”
That’s how a 3M employee described the first VR headsets on the market more than a decade ago.
These early units had a reputation for being bulky.
“It was the industry’s biggest problem,” said Susan Kent, R&D lab manager at 3M.
That is, until helmet manufacturers asked 3M for help.
The result was a breakthrough moment for VR hardware that would drive the entire industry forward.
“It’s like going from a CRT to an LCD TV,” Susan said. “There’s no going back once people use it.”
Through the use of something called pancake lenses, 3M was able to reduce the overall size of the headset by 50% and dramatically improve image quality and resolution.
3M began working on VR hardware after conversations with headset manufacturers at the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES) 2013, the world’s largest tech show.
“They just asked us if we could make their helmets smaller,” Susan said. “We quickly realized we could improve orders of magnitude in image quality and look less cartoonish.”
The innovation process would not be easy. The technology took 3M scientists five years to perfect.
“It’s not like we can just take a class or read a textbook,” Susan said. “Everything was self-taught.”
Before pancake lenses, VR headset manufacturers were stuck using Fresnel lens technology, which was popularized in the 1800s and helped headlights shine brighter for ships at sea. This use in headsets required a significant distance between users’ eyes and lens, which added weight and size to these early units.
3M did not invent the optical architecture of pancake lenses. However, 3M was the first company to successfully demonstrate the viability of pancake lenses in VR headsets by combining them with its patented reflective polarizer technology.
“The reflective polarizer is the key ingredient,” Susan said. “It’s really a sea change for the industry.” In May 2022, the Society for Information Display awarded 3M the Display Component of the Year award for its implementation of pancake lenses, the HARP lens.
“This major breakthrough represents a fundamental milestone for emerging virtual reality markets. Bulky and heavy headsets have been a major barrier to faster consumer adoption for many years. No more,” said Dr. John CC Fan, CEO and Founder of Kopin Corporation about the use of pancake lenses in an article published by UploadVR. 2023 will be a pivotal year for consumer adoption as more manufacturers are expected to launch their own VR headsets.
“We’re at a point where the material is pretty good,” Susan said. “What is needed now is great content to grow the business.”
3M holds over 180 patents related to optical technology in virtual reality and believes it is well positioned for the growing market.
“We got here by listening to our customers,” Susan said. “We want to be the kind of place where they can come and solve their big problems.”
Learn more about 3M here
