Facebook flatters Microsoft’s HoloLens team by immitation

It’s long been known that Facebook, home of the Oculus Rift, was working on developing augmented reality headsets, with the company famously saying the technology will not be ready until 2022.

Now a new patent by Oculus has provided some validation for Microsoft’s own much-maligned approach to the technology, which has been criticized for its expense, bulk and low field of view.

Facebook’s patent for a “waveguide display with two-dimensional scanner” would use a similar wave guide technology as Microsoft, suggesting, as the CEO of Himax recently claimed, that it is still the best implementation for real mixed reality headsets.

Of course part of the reason Facebook is following Microsoft’s lead may be that lead Oculus optical scientist Pasi Saarikko, who joined Facebook in 2015, previously led the optical design of the HoloLens at Microsoft.

On the other hand, unlike others Microsoft actually has a Mixed Reality headset in the market, suggesting the company is doing something right, which is much more than Magic Leap, Apple or Google can say.