Apple’s Acquires AR Display Startup Akonia Holographics

The rumors of Apple’s confidential AR headset development got a solid backing, following a press note from Apple, on Wednesday. Apple has confirmed the acquisition of Colorado-based Akonia Holographics. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, in Apple’s typical fashion.

Akonia Holographics LLC was founded by holographic and data storage researchers from InPhase(after it went bankrupt in 2010) in 2012. Initially, Akonia Holographics focused on holographic data storage and made remarkable advancement in the field. Later on, they put their research to non-storage and display use.

Augmented Reality is the talk of the town for a long time and everyone agrees that it is the next big thing in the industry. But despite diligent efforts by tech companies from around the globe, a convenient, commercially-viable and immersive AR headset hasn’t yet materialized. The biggest challenge is the development of an immersive but unobstructed field of view (FOV).

Tech Innovators are employing tilted surfaces, mirrors, surface gratings, and many other techniques to achieve a lightweight and efficient AR headset but Ken Anderson of Akonia believes that their HoloMirror technology is the ultimate solution.

Akonia is making volume holographic reflective and waveguide optics to produce a transparent, full-color, high field-of-view smart glasses. The company boasts two decades of research and over 200 patents in the field of holography and AR.

While giants like Google & Microsoft and new innovators like Magic Leap are ready with their AR headsets, all eyes are set on Apple to see what it has to offer. As of now, Apple has neither accepted nor denied the speculations about its work on AR development.

However, the release of ARKit by Apple, acquisition of Vrvana, and now, Akonia, have made it evident that Apple is trying hard to hit the market with a quality AR headset as soon as possible.

AR-powered head-worn devices are a challenge in many ways. We are currently stuck with $3000 cumbersome, not-so-efficient headgears with ridiculously low FOV and only indoor-use compatibility.

Yes, we are talking about the likes of Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google Glass. There is high hope, among tech enthusiasts, of a technological revolution by Apple with its smart glasses; a generation of technological advancement is at stakes.