If you take a look at Lumus Z-30 optical engine for augmented reality glasses, it looks roughly like an ordinary pair of glasses.
It is light, but it has an AR screen based on the 2D-Len 2D wave guide architecture with a small field of vision at 30 degrees. This allows it to adapt transparently in standard glasses sizes, offering major functional and aesthetic advantages. They are at a stage compared to the more powerful Z-50, but they serve the purpose of setting up inside an ordinary pair of glasses. This Progression is an example The way technology is about practical for consumer uses.
The Lumus based in Israel showed AR glasses with Schott Glass, during the Spie Photonics West 2025 event in San Francisco last week. I put them. The glasses were super light and the colors of the screen were quite vibrant. David Goldman, vice-president of marketing at Lumus, said in an interview with Gamesbeat that she combines both brightness and energy efficiency.
I wrote on Lumus a few years ago at a time when AR was excited but did not meet his expectations. But technology has made progress since then, said Goldman. Lumus has been on the market for 14 years. THE Maximus came out About five years ago.
“You’ve already seen the Maximus. At the time, it was considered small. But it was still quite heavy. Then we went to the Z-50. It’s 50 degrees. You can see the reduction in geometry and weight, “said Goldman.
On AR lenses, the box with AR imaging can be moved to different places on the glasses. If you want to put a box translating the tongue in real time on the objectives, it probably was going lower on the objectives. A manufacturer making a traditional AI can put the box with AR images in the center, said Goldman.
With Z-30, important performance aspects of AR glasses are optimized to improve the user experience. For example, the glasses that include an integrated Z-30 Optical Engine will require lower treatment requirements and less powerful equipment thanks to the realization of fewer pixels, which makes them more affordable to produce. In addition, devices with a medium -sized vision field work more efficiently, creating a more fluid visual experience and extending battery life – making them more compatible for consumers’ long -term use.
The Z-30 is light, measuring at 14.5 grams, offering a color color, 720 x 720 pixels and a brightness of> 3,000 Nits / Watt. With a 50% reduction in weight and volume compared to the Z-50, it allows the creation of even smaller shape factors for AR glasses, which was a critical barrier at the entrance.
The Z-30 optical engine incorporates the Lumus Z wave guide architecture, which offers good image quality and allows smaller projector designs. It also allows a flexible positioning of the eye box, reduced global ghost effects and the possibility of direct binding of RX lenses or protective plastic elements. The additional advantages of the Z-Len wave guide architecture include compatibility with Microked projectors, allowing even thinner design options and more powerful in power.
Much brilliant than other solutions, the Lumus is the only wave guide perfectly suited to outdoor use. With up to 10 times a better efficiency of luminance on competing waves guides and the partners of the supply chain like Quanta Computer Inc. and Schott, Lumus wants to be the main choice for OEMs making AR glasses, said Goldman.
Lumus Wave Wave Guide Technology provides unrivaled color uniformity and a real white due to the right light path inherent in its architecture.
Other key advantages: a smaller micro-projector, a large field of vision and a vision without distortion of the real world. The battery efficiency is up to 10 times higher than any other wave guide on the market, and the front light leak (projection forward) is intrinsically negligible, said Goldman.
The Lumus manufacturing processes supported by its large partners in the supply chain, in particular Quanta Computer Inc. and Schott, allow the scalability of mass manufacturing. The company is the main designer of geometric wave guide technology at the heart of several existing AR products, in particular the display mounted on the color of thales color, the omvision ichise system to guide surgeons, the Thinkreality A6 by Lenovo Published in 2019 as well as Scopeeye by Medithinq Métascope.
Lumus manufactures the optical engine for glasses, and you can expect consumption devices depending on these technologies that come out in a few years. The company has a technology with fields of view distributed between 30 degrees at 50 degrees to 70 degrees, which allows it to cover everything, from appearance on the appearance of the accent put on performance.
It uses a functional optical engine with the company’s geometric or reflective wave guide, coupled with a micro projector. It has a carbon frame for consumption glasses. Goldman showed me that it is quite easy to read text on a white background when you look at the AR screen on the glasses. The skin color appeared with precision in the images.
“Now we show the 30 -degree field of vision,” said Goldman. “Now we are going to have samples. We show the solution to 30 degrees because customers require a more short -term solution. It is not as hungry for power as 50 degrees, but it is always useful for certain consumption applications. And this gives more options with regard to aesthetics. »»
With this variety of technologies, glasses manufacturers can come to Lumus with different personalized design requests. The company can also add prescriptions to its objectives, directly linking the prescription to the glasses. The wave guide leak is less than 1%.
Regular glasses vary in weight from 10 grams to 40 grams. Goldman said 10 grams for AR glasses were not achievable now. But 40 grams could be achievable with more advances and an accent on the RA in one eye. As for the addition of AI, it will make glasses heavier, but this could work with thinner waves in the future.
Team up with glass manufacturers
Quanta computer and Schott provides glass In mass production of wave guides.
Colin Schmucker, director of commercial development at Schott, said in an interview that his company considered AR / VR products as a new avenue for its high quality glass. The company specializes in the manufacture of glass with a bending radius of a millimeter – allowing a really thin piece of glass. It uses them as semiconductors for foldable screens. He uses them to make holographic lenses applications. And it also makes wave guide lenses for AR glasses.
In a factory newly built in Malaysia, Schott produces its objectives with reflective wave guide technology. It switches to high volume manufacturing and has a partnership with Lumus to make the frame of the Z objective of reflective wave guides.
“We provide the basic substrate that can receive the classification, essentially the high refraction index, allowing a higher field of vision,” said Schmucker. “It allows you to have a much more interactive screen with more information. At the same time, if you look at the value proposition of your diffractive gradations compared to the reflection against holography, we approach other technologies with the Wafers with high refractive index. »»
To go to super thin glasses with high quality AR lenses, Schmucker said it required excellent wave guide technology with a level of optical quality that does not harm reality. You get high transparency and the appropriate field of vision as well as better size and weight. And you need better and better batteries to supply the projection system.
