{"id":685733,"date":"2026-01-10T01:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685733\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T01:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T01:51:11","slug":"meta-waveguide-provider-claims-worlds-first-70-fov-waveguide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685733\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Waveguide Provider Claims “world’s first” 70\u00b0 FoV Waveguide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lumus, the company that developed the waveguide optic used in Meta\u2019s Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, says it has achieved a 70\u00b0 field-of-view in a new design revealed this week at CES 2026. This conveniently matches the 70\u00b0 field-of-view that Meta achieved in its \u2018Orion\u2019 prototype, but only with the use of novel materials.<\/p>\n

The News<\/p>\n

Back in 2024, Meta revealed its first AR glasses prototype, codenamed Orion<\/a>. One of the prototype\u2019s big innovations was its ability to squeeze a 70\u00b0 field-of-view into such a small form-factor. This was made possible with the use of unique waveguide optics made with silicon carbide, a novel material that enabled the wider field-of-view thanks to its greater refractive index.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Orion porotype AR glasses | Image courtesy Meta<\/p>\n

In 2025, Meta talked about the challenges of manufacturing silicon carbide waveguides<\/a>, affordably, at scale. While the company said progress was being made, it still conceded that the work is ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve successfully shown that silicon carbide can flex across electronics and photonics. It\u2019s a material that could have future applications in quantum computing. And we\u2019re seeing signs that it\u2019s possible to significantly reduce the cost. There\u2019s a lot of work left to be done, but the potential upside here is huge,\u201d the company said at the time.<\/p>\n

But now Lumus, the company that developed the waveguides in Meta\u2019s Ray-Ban Display glasses says it has achieved a\u00a070\u00b0 field-of-view in its glass waveguides. The company claims it\u2019s the \u201cworld\u2019s first geometric waveguide to surpass a 70\u00b0 FOV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Image courtesy Lumus<\/p>\n

The company announced that it is showing the new ZOE waveguide this week at CES 2026. Renders provided by the company show the company\u2019s latest prototype to include the ZOE optics (though it\u2019s worth noting that Lumus\u2019 prototypes typically do not include on-board battery, compute, or tracking hardware, which would add bulk to any real product based on ZOE).<\/p>\n

My Take<\/p>\n

My gut tells me it probably isn\u2019t a coincidence that Lumus has been aiming for a 70\u00b0 field-of-view, which just happens to match what Meta achieved with its Orion prototype. Most likely, the company was tasked (implicitly or maybe even directly) with doing exactly that\u2014proving that its waveguides could reach the 70\u00b0 benchmark without using silicon carbide.<\/p>\n

Beyond simply achieving a\u00a070\u00b0 field-of-view as a proof-of-concept, Lumus says the ZOE optic is made with the same process as its other glass waveguides. That\u2019s a big deal, because the company has already proven that such waveguides can be manufactured at scale, thanks to the use of its waveguides in Ray-Ban Display, Meta\u2019s first smart glasses with a display.<\/p>\n

That means Lumus\u2019 ZOE waveguide is most definitely on the shortlist for what Meta could use in its first pair of wide field-of-view AR glasses, which the company said it hopes to bring to market before 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Granted, field-of-view isn\u2019t everything. When it comes to optics, everything is a tradeoff. Increased field-of-view can impact brightness, PPD, and various visual artifacts.\u00a0Without being able to see the new ZOE optic for myself, it\u2019s hard to say whether or not Lumus has something truly\u00a0new here, or if they\u2019ve simply boosted field-of-view by trading other downsides.<\/p>\n

I expect I\u2019ll have a chance to see the ZOE optic later this year at AWE 2026 where I usually meet with Lumus to see their latest developments. In the meantime, I\u2019ve also reached out to the company to learn more about how it reached the 70\u00b0 field-of-view and what tradeoffs it did or didn\u2019t have to make to get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lumus, the company that developed the waveguide optic used in Meta\u2019s Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, says it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3162],"tags":[53,16,15,3243,3244],"class_list":{"0":"post-685733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-virtual-reality","12":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115868302292873610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}