Switzerland has this startup, CREAL, messing around with light field displays—might’ve heard the name tossed around. Anyway, they just snagged nearly $9 million in some equity shindig, right? Apparently, that’s gonna speed up making these fancy light modules for AR glasses. ZEISS, this big deal in optics from Germany, they’re leading the charge, along with some old and new faces in the investment scene—UBS folks thrown into the mix too.
So, CREAL’s got $32 million total now, if I haven’t lost count. Bigwigs like Swisscom Ventures and others are backing them. Their whole pitch is about delivering digital visuals that aren’t just a strain on the peepers. They say they’re on a mission—and who isn’t?—to make those digital peeks seem as easy on the eyes as the real deal.
Now, consider—AR glasses. These light fields do some magic trick where they recreate how light hits our eyes. Like, more authentic depth and less eye fatigue, if that’s what you care about. Makes me wonder why my sunglasses don’t do something cool like that.
Side note: light fields are the bee’s knees in AR and VR. They mimic how light behaves IRL, but good luck capturing or showing them properly. Most headsets play tricks—like stereoscopy—to make our brains buy into their act. Your eyes do some dance called ‘vergence,’ but they skip ‘accommodation,’ which is a fancy way of saying you’re not quite tricked.
Some headsets fool around with focal lengths to match your gaze, like Magic Leap. But even with these ‘varifocal’ headsets, there are issues lurking because, surprise, they’re not actual light fields.
Then there’s this Tomas Sluka, CREAL’s CEO guy—predicting AR’s gonna change everything as AI tinkers with our workspaces. But AR glasses need to be all-day wearables without giving us headaches, you know? So, CREAL’s working on making these things feel real, in a way. Partnership with Zeiss is on the menu too—light field vision care or some-such for their gadgets.
Anyway, that’s the gist. Who knows what’s next? Maybe we’ll all be rocking light field shades soon enough.
