Technology: Optics

High-fidelity visuals. FOV breakthroughs. Clarity, stability, and real world visibility.

Magic Leap optics technology can be manufactured to fit multiple ultra-light form factors. We continue to innovate, striving to produce AR devices for everyone—from standard-sized glasses designed for everyday use, to wearable workstations for industry professionals.

In depth: Optics technology

High-fidelity visuals	FOV breakthroughs	Clarity and stability	Real world visibility
We pioneered and are continuing to innovate an unmatched optics stack to deliver crisp text, sharp graphics, and rich visuals. People can clearly see and use their everyday applications overlaid on real-world environments, or become immersed in rich AR and 4D experiences. This scalable tech allows us to push color uniformity, resolution, and brightness further, delivering high-quality, legible, and accurate digital content to the user in any environment.	Magic Leap’s advanced, ultra-light projector and eyepiece designs enable the largest possible diagonal field–of-view (FOV) in any given form factor. Scalable technology balances FOV, weight, size, and cost to meet the needs of different AR devices, users, and experiences—all the way from everyday smart glasses up to wearable workstations like our Magic Leap 2 AR for enterprise headset.	Precise, real-time calibration delivers stable digital content that remains anchored in space. This makes viewing 2D, 3D, and 4D digital content more comfortable for longer periods of time, while minimizing visual strain and addressing the vergence accommodation conflict.	Our transparent optics technology provides the user with direct visibility into the surrounding world. No distortion, no lag—just a crystal-clear view of the real world as it really is, with digital content seamlessly integrated into your view of it. This visibility allows users to maintain mobility and situational awareness, interacting with the world around them as they normally would while also viewing and interacting with virtual content within it.
Our solutions mitigate the most common optics challenges by minimizing blur, front rainbows, back reflection, and color separation, to minimize virtual object distortion. Magic Leap optics mitigate the most common optics challenges, minimizing blur, front rainbows, back reflection, and color separation to minimize virtual object distortion. We hold thousands of patents worldwide. We were the first to productize a double-sided imprint, which enabled us to make industry-leading breakthroughs in FOV and size. We're currently pioneering both single-layer and dual-layer glass waveguides. Our upcoming designs minimize waveguide layers and put power directly into the waveguide in our eyepiece to remove the need for EDOF lenses. We're continuing to innovate dual-layer waveguides to provide the largest diagonal FOVs possible in the lightest weight form factors.	We were the first to market a 50° diagonal FOV and the first to deliver 70° diagonal FOV, and we continue to innovate with a 30° diagonal FOV waveguide in our eyepieces. We were the first and only to integrate optical power depth of focus directly into the waveguide, eliminating the need for external refractive lenses. We were the first to market a double-sided SRG design, and we engineered a breakthrough LCOS projector design. Our latest designs continue to explore the best available options for the largest FOV in the smallest device. We pioneered a high index glass substrate that enables larger FOV without distorting digital objects. We're creating one of the industry's first polymer substrates, offering exceptional image quality at half the weight and cost of a glass waveguide. Our in-house modeling software enables accurate, flexible, and efficient eyepiece design.	Magic Leap optics solutions mitigate the vergence accommodation problem, so people can more comfortably view virtual content at both near and far distances for longer periods. Onboard cameras can precisely track the very center of the eye and gaze angle as people look around their environment to improve rendering in real time. Our display technology can automatically calibrate to correct for any binocle misalignment or color separation. We continue to build new technologies and manufacturing practices to address discomfort, including robust eye-tracking, a smart clip plane choice, and automatic display calibration.	Magic Leap produces true augmented reality optics technology that provides crystal-clear, see-through visibility into the physical world, with virtual content integrated into it. True AR offers visibility and situational awareness that can’t be achieved with passthrough VR, which renders a video stream of the physical world with virtual content integrated into it. Passthrough VR has been shown to cause lag, distortion, and discomfort, all of which are detrimental to the user’s awareness and mobility. Magic Leap optics technology can power immersive AR experiences with high fidelity visuals in a wide range of diagonal FOV options.

Magic Leap is advancing what’s possible for AR with industry-leading optics and highly scalable manufacturing

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