Episode #4 - Lasers, MEMS and mirrors. AR special episode for Photonics West 2022

In a world where technology is evolving faster than ever before, Augmented Reality Glasses are emerging as a game-changing innovation that promises to redefine the way we experience and interact with our daily lives. From enhancing productivity in the workplace to revolutionizing entertainment, education, and even healthcare, these futuristic spectacles are set to usher in a new era of immersive experiences and unparalleled convenience. In order for us to see the information on the glasses, small projectors must be hidden inside the glasses and project the lines of text or even images onto the surface of the lenses. What appears very simple in itself is a highly complex technological process that requires a great deal of precision. The type of modules selected as light sources can also vary. What is best suited? Laser? LED? MicroLED? LCD? To answer these and many other questions, I invited two AR/VR experts to Photonstudio today.

Every day, you make your way to the office using your trusty bike. But before hopping on, you don your gloves, secure your helmet, and slip on a pair of sleek glasses that resemble regular eyewear but offer so much more. These sporty and cool glasses not only shield you from wind and sunlight but also project an array of information onto the lenses' inner surface. Picture this: your commute route displayed right before your eyes, snippets from your inbox, or even a sneak peek at the upcoming weather forecast. Upon arriving at the office, you glance at your glasses and notice a timely reminder that your meeting is just 15 minutes away. You effortlessly view the meeting agenda right there, seamlessly integrated into your field of vision. Some might perceive this as something straight out of a science fiction film, with all the awe-inspiring gadgets we've witnessed on the big screen. However, for my esteemed guests joining me today in the Photonstudio, this innovation is set to hit the mainstream market in the next 2-3 years and may soon surpass smartphones as our ultimate gadget of choice.

Who doesn't know them nowadays? Modern smartwatches, fitness trackers and, gadgets that track your pulse, the calories burned, the oxygen saturation in your blood and, many other biological measurements during the day or after a workout. What was still reserved for professional sports in recent decades has arrived in our everyday lives - individual biomonitoring. The quest for performance and self-optimization is as old as man himself. There are very different manifestations of this: Be it the Olympic motto of "Higher, Faster, Further" or the desire for beauty. And again, as in all our podcast stories, light and sensors play a decisive role when it comes to recording vital signs.  To learn more about Vital Sign Monitoring, the challenges in the technical development and to highlight the offer of ams OSRAM for the customers I invited my colleague Florian Lex, Product Marketing Manager to the Photonstudio today.

Healthcare and technology go hand-in-hand. But you may ask yourself where are they going? The Trends in the Digital health area like telemedicine, IoT devices, and virtual reality surgical training are not a science-fiction anymore and continue to attract big investment rounds, helping the industry improve health equity worldwide. It’s not a surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered massive disruption in the healthcare industry and pushed the sector to invest more in innovative new technology. What we can say for sure: digital health trends gained momentum during the pandemic and are predicted to change the future of medicine. As the pandemic reduced in-person visits, healthcare providers had to pivot quickly. What is obvious: many people would like to be able to carry out a diagnosis, a blood test or a doctor's consultation at home, without having to go out of their way and lose time. So-called TELEHEALTH expanded healthcare access: More people can access health-related services, including medically vulnerable people and people without transportation or a provider in their local area. But what does it need apart from tablets, mobile phones and computers, to be able to conduct a test at home and get and the fast and reliable result? ams OSRAM is a global leader in optical technology and sensors. Many biometric sensing applications depend on optical technologies, which offer high sensitivity and the ability to measure multiple parameters. The optical sensor technologies support the development of next-generation point-of-care diagnostics systems, including light detectors, light sources, on-wafer filter technologies and micro-optics lens systems. To find our how these technologies work I invited my colleague Fernando Ammann, Marketing Manager for Digital Health Topics at ams OSRAM being my guest today in the Photon Studio.

You certainly know this from your everyday life: to unlock your cell phone, you now use your face, you look briefly at your gadget and the system recognizes you. The same authentication procedure is used on some laptops - you look briefly at the camera and you're in and ready to work.  The authentication procedures require a great deal of precision, but at the same time they must not devour a lot of energy, because you also know from your experience how quickly a battery can run down. This makes the so-called time-of-flight sensing technology, which makes such applications possible, all the more important.  Low-power time-of-flight sensing technology from ams OSRAM enables host systems to measure distances accurately and at exceedingly high speed. Accurate distance measurements are used in various applications including presence detection, human facial recognition and advanced cameras. To find out exactly how this all works and what other use cases are possible with time-of-flight, I invited my colleague David Smith, Senior Marketing Manager for direct Time of Flight Sensors to join us in the Photonstudio today. Dave, welcome!

Virtual and augmented reality – who never heard about that? Nowadays, news about the latest developments in this industry comes almost every day. If you look at the developments in the gaming industry, you will see that VR and Mixed Reality are now an integral part of the game offer, and also for some of them a technological basis, there are games that can only be played as VR. Because of the upcoming Photonics West exhibition, The world's premier lasers, biomedical optics, and optoelectronics event, I have invited again this time my colleague Karl Leahy, Director Product Marketing for Augmented and Virtual Reality Application at ams OSRAM in Sunnyvale USA, as well as Thomas von Watoch co-founder and co-CEO of OQmented, a startup and spin-off of Fraunhofer Institute developing MEMS and laser scanning technologies, to talk about the developments, technological challenges and status quo in the AR industry.

You ride your bike to work. Before you get on your bike, you put on your gloves, your helmet, and a pair of glasses that look like regular glasses - sporty and cool - but can do much more than protect you from the wind and sun. The glasses project a variety of information onto the inside surface of the lenses, such as the route for your commute, the subject and first lines of your mailbox, or the weather forecast for the next few days. When you arrive at the office, you see the reminder that your meeting is about to start in 15 minutes and you see the agenda for your meeting. To some, it may sound like science fiction movies, with all the cool gadgets we've seen in the movies. For my guest today in the Photonstudio, it's something that will hit the mass market in 2-3 years and may soon replace the smartphone as our number one gadget. My guest today is Karl Leahy, Director Product Marketing for Augmented and Virtual Reality Application at ams OSRAM in Sunnyvale in the US and we talk about AR glasses, ams OSRAMs role in the LASAR Alliance, development challenges, and mass-market viability as well as the upcoming AWE Expo in Santa Clara in California. Karl, I'm so glad you took the time to join us virtually over several thousand miles! Welcome!

Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality - these all sounded like science fiction and dreams of the future just a few years ago. Now, in 2021, we are already seeing a great many examples of how these important technologies are shaping our lives and, above all, our everyday working lives: be it now as a surgeon during an operation or remote support staff assembling a complex device. Augmented reality is becoming more and more present. At the latest, when really stylish smart glasses come onto the market, which inspires users with their design, functionality, and long-lasting battery performance, then this will be the next big thing. But what does it take to be able to use AR technology? Where does the info come from, what the user sees on the inside of their glasses, how does it work exactly? To discuss exactly these questions, I invited two guests to Photonstudio today: one is my ams OSRAM colleague Jörg Strauss, who is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Business Line Visualization & Laser at our company. And secondly, Bharath Rajagopalan, Director of Strategic Marketing at STMicroelectronics, is responsible for developing the company's strategy for Augmented Reality. My two guests are founding members of the LaSAR Alliance - An Association Laser Scanning for Augmented Reality.

Sensing, illumination, and visualization – how will sensing and lighting technology change the way you experience automotive mobility? Tomorrow’s automotive interior and exterior will be fundamentally different in shape and functionality, as end customers demand greater convenience, safety, and individualization. Just think of new control systems, like gesture control for seamless human-machine interaction. Innovative smart interior lighting will support onboard wellbeing with a customizable ambient experience. Bigger and better displays enabling new forms of in-car entertainment. Innovative sensors for the driver- and in-cabin monitoring will improve safety by providing data on the vehicle’s occupants to its safety systems. Sounds like science fiction? To talk about exactly that, I invited two guests to the Photon Studio today - Dr. Gerald Broneske, Senior Director Global Automotive Marketing at ams OSRAM, and Frank Rinderknecht Founder and CEO of Rinspeed AG.

Imagine this: You ride your bike to work. Before you get on your bike, you put on your gloves, your helmet, and a pair of glasses that look like regular glasses - sporty and cool - but can do much more than protect you from the wind and sun. The glasses project a variety of information onto the inside surface of the lenses, such as the route for your commute, the subject and first lines of your mailbox, or the weather forecast for the next few days.  When you arrive at the office, you see the reminder that your meeting is about to start in 15 minutes and you see the agenda for your meeting. To some, it may sound like science fiction movies, with all the cool gadgets we've seen in the movies. For my guest today in the Photonstudio, it's something that will hit the mass market in 2-3 years and may soon replace the smartphone as our number one gadget. My guest today is Karl Leahy, Director Product Marketing for Augmented and Virtual Reality Application at our business unit  Opto Semiconductors in Sunnyvale in the USA and we talk about AR glasses, OSRAM's role here, development challenges and mass market viability.