The future of virtual reality is shrinking, literally.

Once confined to bulky headsets and limited fields of view, VR is now being designed for seamless integration into everyday wearables.

Researchers and companies across the world are racing to move immersive 3D visuals out of the headset and into slim, lightweight devices.

And holography, a long-standing but complex imaging technique, is fast becoming the frontrunner to make that leap possible.

Now, researchers at Stanford University and Meta Reality Labs have built a working prototype that could help deliver on that promise.

Roughly the size of ordinary eyeglasses, their new mixed reality display delivers true holographic visuals in a form factor that is just 3 millimeters thick.

“Holography offers capabilities that we can’t get with any other type of display in a package that is much smaller than anything on the market today,” said Gordon Wetzstein, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford.

The work marks a significant step toward immersive, realistic virtual experiences that blend seamlessly into daily life.

Unlike today’s VR systems that simulate depth using flat, stereoscopic images, the team’s display reconstructs the entire light field.

It uses a custom-built waveguide and spatial light modulator (SLM) to project full-resolution holograms directly into the user’s eyes, creating visuals that look and feel real.

AI-enhanced immersion

To solve the limitations of current display hardware, Wetzstein’s team added an AI-driven calibration system that boosts visual clarity and enhances 3D realism.

The system also addresses étendue, a core challenge in holographic optics that involves maintaining a wide field of view and a large eyebox simultaneously.

“The eye can move all about the image without losing focus or image quality,” Wetzstein said. “That’s key to the realism and immersion of the system.”

This ensures users can look around naturally without distortion or blur, a feat that current consumer-grade VR headsets struggle to achieve.

The ultra-thin optical stack can also be worn for long periods without eye or neck strain. “We want this to be compact and lightweight for all-day use, basically,” Wetzstein said. “That’s problem number one – the biggest problem.”

Chasing photorealistic projection

Wetzstein describes the project as a move toward “mixed reality,” where real-world views and digital holograms blend so seamlessly that the line between them disappears.

It’s an attempt to pass what experts in the field call the “Visual Turing Test.”

“Researchers in the field sometimes describe our goal as to pass the ‘Visual Turing Test,’” said Suyeon Choi, a postdoctoral scholar and first author of the paper.

She added that success means being unable to distinguish between real objects and digital projections through the glasses.

This marks the second stage in the group’s ongoing research.

The first phase, introduced last year, focused on the holographic waveguide technology.

This new prototype builds on that, pushing the system closer to commercialization.

“The world has never seen a display like this with a large field of view, a large eyebox, and such image quality in a holographic display,” Wetzstein said. “It’s the best 3D display created so far and a great step forward – but there are lots of open challenges yet to solve.”