Google patents holograms for head mounted display

Washington: Imagine a pair of glasses that project a virtual map as you walk down a new road, or turn your office into a gaming arena where you fight out zombies! A new patent application by Google could make it possible.

Google has published a patent application for using holograms in a head mounted display like Google Glass, which could create augmented reality experiences that superimpose computer-generated imagery (CGI) over the real world.

Filed in March last year, the patent shows Google's research into how it could merge its head mounted display technology with augmented reality, 'Tech Crunch' reported. To make smart eyewear more useful, projected content must interact and react to the real-world behind it, rather than just being pasted on top.

The new patent describes how Google could potentially do this with augmented reality via holograms. "With augmented reality the viewer's image of the world is augmented with an overlaying CGI, also referred to as a heads-up display," the patent said. Head mounted displays (HMD) have numerous practical and leisure applications.

Aerospace applications could permit a pilot to see vital flight control information without taking their eyes off the flight path. Public safety applications include tactical displays of maps and thermal imaging. Other application fields include video games, transportation, and telecommunications.

"There is certain to be new found practical and leisure applications as the technology evolves; however, many of these applications are limited due to the cost, size, weight, field of view, and efficiency of conventional optical systems used to implemented existing HMDs," the patent said.