Prototype to product: What will it take to bring AR glasses to everyone?

After years of anticipation, AR glasses are finally reaching a pivotal point. As hardware design evolves to deliver lighter, slimmer, and more comfortable devices, we are on the cusp of making AR truly wearable for everyday life. This breakthrough is driven by the convergence of miniaturized components and scalable manufacturing that enable brands to develop a wide range of AR form factors—without compromising performance.

The AR industry has long grappled with critical tradeoffs. Expansive fields of view (FOV) have historically required bulky optics. High-brightness displays have been difficult to shrink without losing visual clarity. And fitting these technologies into a sleek, all-day-wearable form factor has been a complex engineering challenge.

An essential part of solving this challenge lies in using plastic-based waveguides over glass. They’re lightweight, durable, cost-effective, and capable of delivering the necessary performance for compact AR devices.

As a manufacturer of both glass and plastic waveguides, Cellid has evaluated the two materials from multiple perspectives, as detailed below.

Assessing user experience in a real-world AR glasses trial

Cellid conducted a real-world pilot study at 7-Eleven to validate AR glass–based purchasing experiences, such as item recognition, personalized product recommendations, and payment. Our study was conducted using our reference design—an AR glasses prototype equipped with our plastic waveguide (the previous model with FOV 30°, 960 nit/lm released a year ago).

The results were compelling:

• More than 80% of users reported being satisfied with the AR shopping experience.
• The most common improvement request (33%) was related to app, rather than display-related, because fewer than 5% of users raised concerns about the display.

These findings indicate that even with a 30° FOV, plastic waveguides can deliver high user satisfaction in real-world scenarios, although glass waveguides in general tend to offer better optical performance—especially when paired with well-designed software (see figure).

Use cases vs. battery life

For products intended for everyday use, battery life is a critical factor for users. At the same time, battery performance poses a significant constraint for the AR glasses experience. In our study, which estimated battery duration across various use cases, we found that high-brightness and wide-field-of-view scenarios for the spatial computing use case—such as video playback or immersive extended reality (XR) experiences—can drain a 154-mAh battery (comparable to Ray-Ban Meta) within a few minutes. In contrast, for information display use cases such as simple notifications or translation—where only basic icons or lightweight visual cues are shown—several hours of operation is achievable.

For informational display-type use cases, a FOV around 30° provides an appropriate amount of visual information for effective recognition (at present, there are no mass-producible microprojectors with a FOV of 50° or more to begin with).

When it comes to optical performance at FOV 30°, there is virtually no difference between glass and plastic waveguides. On the other hand, plastic waveguides have a significant advantage in weight—approximately half the weight of glass—and it can make a major contribution to reducing the overall weight of AR glasses. The weight savings can also be reallocated to increase battery capacity to enable longer usage without compromising comfort.

Durability and safety: Meeting real-world standards

Cellid’s plastic waveguides passed certified impact tests without cracking, which meets both the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s impact resistance standard for eyeglass lenses (CFR 801.410) and the Japanese impact test (JIS T8147)—even with only a basic AR coating. In contrast, glass waveguides showed significant shattering, even covered with Gorilla Glass, unless reinforced with thick anti-shatter films that complicate frame design and add additional weight.

As a product worn directly in front of the eyes, safety should be a major concern for many companies, and we believe the above results cannot be overlooked.

Glass, however, still has its place in specialized professional environments where its superior optical performance is required. In such cases, our proprietary full lamination structure can ensure safety by preventing fragment scattering, even if the glass cracks. While plastic remains the preferred material for daily-use AR glasses due to its lighter weight, durability, and safety, Cellid’s technology allows glass to be a viable option when needed.

Future scalability for AR applications

In the future, we expect improvements in battery performance and power efficiency across components will enable support for high-brightness, wide-FOV use cases such as video playback and immersive XR experiences—which we refer to as spatial computing applications.

What does the roadmap for glass vs. plastic waveguides look like? For glass, the development of reinforced glass with low specific gravity equivalent to plastic could potentially address current challenges related to weight and durability. But, as of now, no clear path has been established within the industry to achieve glass with the same low weight and durability as plastic.

For plastic, Cellid has a visible path toward developing plastic wafers that maintain their inherent advantages of light weight and durability while also achieving optical performance on par with glass. We believe this will enable plastic-based waveguides to support future spatial computing-type AR applications as well.

Plastic leads today, and tomorrow

As AR glasses move toward commercialization, waveguides play a vital role—but their performance must go beyond optics. Power efficiency, durability, and the ability to scale cost-effectively are equally important. Plastic holds the edge—especially within mainstream consumer segments.

As a manufacturer of both glass and plastic waveguides, we continue to develop and refine products using both materials. We’re also advancing technologies beyond waveguides to further enhance the overall user experience, such as optimizing power consumption through both software and hardware innovations, and researching effective information formats and display methods tailored to specific use cases, collaborating with partners across various industries to codevelop and validate real-world applications.

Cellid is proud to contribute to this exciting journey, and we look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of what AR glasses can achieve.