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Do these passthrough displays give you a variable focal distance like the world does? As in, without the goggles, to focus on my dog, I have to focus about 10 f

Do these passthrough displays give you a variable focal distance like the world does? As in, without the goggles, to focus on my dog, I have to focus about 10 feet away, but to focus on my hands I have to focus about 2 feet away. With passthrough, is it all effectively the same distance from me as far as focus is concerned?

0xr0kk3r 3y ago
That's what I was wondering, what happens to your eyes natural lenses? do they need to contract to read the content or does it account for divergence so the muscles in your eyes can relax as if the screen is 20 feet away? Seems like that would be the case otherwise it would cause insane stress guess apple isn't dumb.
Retric 3y ago
That’s possible though even better would be to have independent control of focal lengths for different parts of each screen. https://www.optica.org/en-us/about/newsroom/news_releases/2022/september/variable_focus_thin_lens_designed_for_augmented_an/ https://www.optica.org/en-us/about/newsroom/news_releases/20... What’s hard to fathom is just good eye tracking can be on these systems and how many hacks such tracking enables. They can for example spend extra rendering time on the pixels in the center of your vision and update this fast enough that you don’t notice the difference. Similarly using adaptive focal control the screen can always be in focus no matter what depth you focus on.
- thfuran 3y ago
  Is there much point in having different parts of the screen at different focal distances? Couldn't that be simulated by just changing the focal depth at the fixation point and applying blur for other z distances? I guess that's easier for vr than ar and may tend to exaggerate any issues in the depth mapping.
  - Retric 3y ago
    For AR it depends on if you can see through the screen like Google glass or if it’s a VR headset with external cameras. With pass through you can’t change the facial length of the outside world, but you want to change it on your overlays. In terms of VR it depends on how well you can pull off the blur based on eye tracking vs how much control you have over focal lengths. A perfect version of either is probably equivalent, but doing both reasonably well is probably easier than taking just one close to perfection.
two_handfuls 3y ago
The Apple ones do not have a variable focal distance, though the technology exists in the lab.

0xr0kk3r 3y ago

That's what I was wondering, what happens to your eyes natural lenses? do they need to contract to read the content or does it account for divergence so the muscles in your eyes can relax as if the screen is 20 feet away? Seems like that would be the case otherwise it would cause insane stress guess apple isn't dumb.

Retric 3y ago

That’s possible though even better would be to have independent control of focal lengths for different parts of each screen. https://www.optica.org/en-us/about/newsroom/news_releases/2022/september/variable_focus_thin_lens_designed_for_augmented_an/ https://www.optica.org/en-us/about/newsroom/news_releases/20... What’s hard to fathom is just good eye tracking can be on these systems and how many hacks such tracking enables. They can for example spend extra rendering time on the pixels in the center of your vision and update this fast enough that you don’t notice the difference. Similarly using adaptive focal control the screen can always be in focus no matter what depth you focus on.

thfuran 3y ago
Is there much point in having different parts of the screen at different focal distances? Couldn't that be simulated by just changing the focal depth at the fixation point and applying blur for other z distances? I guess that's easier for vr than ar and may tend to exaggerate any issues in the depth mapping.
- Retric 3y ago
  For AR it depends on if you can see through the screen like Google glass or if it’s a VR headset with external cameras. With pass through you can’t change the facial length of the outside world, but you want to change it on your overlays. In terms of VR it depends on how well you can pull off the blur based on eye tracking vs how much control you have over focal lengths. A perfect version of either is probably equivalent, but doing both reasonably well is probably easier than taking just one close to perfection.

two_handfuls 3y ago

The Apple ones do not have a variable focal distance, though the technology exists in the lab.