AR and VR platform launches are providing further impetus and investment towards true “All Day Wearable” devices. New holographic and diffractive “waveguide optic” displays are emerging as the enabling component, where additional features like eye-tracking, provides unique user interaction modalities, for training and simulation, enterprise and consumer applications.
Dr. Jonathan Waldern, Founder, Chairman and CTO, DigiLens Inc.
A pioneer in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), Jonathan led the development of the first public VR games system and multiplayer game “Dactyl Nightmare”, which led to him founding the first public VR company, Virtuality. There his team developed the first consumer VR game headset for Atari, launched at E3 in 1995. In 1998 Jonathan emigrated to Silicon Valley to research and redress the deficiencies of classical optics for wearable displays. Today, DigiLens Inc. supplies optical nanomaterials and holographic printing tools, which enable the manufacture of diffractive waveguide optics for commercial HUD’s and “eyeglass” thin wearable AR displays.
An innovator at heart, Dr. Waldern graduated in Design Engineering. Sponsored by the UK’s strategic computing initiative, he won a scholarship and partnered with IBM Scientific Center to develop VR systems at Loughborough University of Technology. His alma mater has since become a center of excellence in both holography and VR/AR industrial research. Jon is a named inventor on over 100 patents and 35 technical papers. He’s developed five generations of VR and AR headsets, many of which are now considered “collectibles”. Waldern is the recipient of three National Business Awards and amongst several product accolades, recently won “Best New Display” during The Society for Information Display’s “Display Week”.
