The future of AR is often framed around a single finish line: fully immersive, binocular glasses that seamlessly merge the digital and physical worlds. That vision has its place, but we should not ignore a category already delivering value in its own right.
Monocular AR glasses (think Assisted Reality) – which project 2D information into a single eye – are not a compromise or a stepping stone. They represent a distinct approach to augmented reality, with advantages.
Everyday Utility, Not Immersion
Think about the way most of us use technology. We don’t live inside it – we glance at it. A phone screen lighting up with a map direction. A smartwatch buzz nudging us to pick up the pace. A text notification we check mid-conversation, half-apologetically. These interactions are brief, contextual, and often less about immersion than about immediacy and clarity.
Monocular AR delivers both of the needs in a way that feels lightweight, comfortable, and unobtrusive. Without the engineering complexity of a binocular display, these glasses extend battery life, lower costs (and weight), and preserve the awareness we rely on in daily life. Rather than overwhelming the user, they offer exactly what’s needed, an overlay that informs without intruding.
In that sense, monocular AR doesn’t compete with binocular AR. It complements it, the way tablets complement laptops – different strengths for different contexts.
Optics That Finally Make It Possible
For monocular AR to succeed, the display has to meet three demands at once: bright enough for daylight, sharp enough to register instantly, and subtle enough to disappear when it’s not in use. Until recently, that combination wasn’t possible.
Advances in geometric waveguides allow information to appear with the brightness and sharpness users expect from any modern screen, without adding bulk or blocking the real world. This balance is essential: the display should enhance awareness, not compete with it.
At Lumus, this is our focus – developing waveguides that deliver clarity and comfort in the same breath. Because in the end, the measure of success isn’t whether the technology works in a controlled demo, but whether it works in all environments users live their lives.
A Category in Its Own Right
Like many technology categories, the AR conversation often chases what’s next: wider fields of view, thinner frames, full immersion. Lumus also believes this will be an exciting category and have designs and products to compete, but monocular shows that value exists in the here and now. One-eye displays address real behaviors – brief glances, quick updates, subtle cues – and in doing so, they open a path to broader adoption.
The success of AR won’t be defined by a single device or a single form factor. It will be defined by choice – different tools that fit different contexts. Binocular AR will continue to push the boundaries of immersion. Monocular AR will anchor the technology in everyday life, where usefulness depends less on depth and more on discretion, clarity, and comfort. And non-display smartglasses are also popular as they keep the costs and system weight down. As the technology matures, monocular, binocular glasses and display free glasses will grow alongside each other.
We believe these paths will evolve in parallel. Monocular AR is not a lesser step on the way to immersion, but a complementary path that makes near to eye display practical now – anchoring adoption while the broader ecosystem matures. Again, binocular immersive AR glasses will have their moment, eventually. But don’t be so sure that monocular isn’t around to see it.