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Optical see-through head-mounted display

wearable device with a display in the user's field of view

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ17105103 ↗
Source-derived summary

An optical see-through head-mounted display (OST-HMD) is a wearable device that has the capability of reflecting projected images as well as allowing the user to see through it, in contrast to typical head-mounted displays, which still use optical components, but are not see-through, such as virtual reality headsets. In some cases, this may qualify as augmented reality (AR) technology. OHMD technology has existed since 1997 in various forms, but despite a number of attempts from industry, has yet to have had major commercial success.

Commercial optical see-through head-mounted displays include Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens. Other devices include the NVIS nVisor ST, Vuzix M300, and Meta 2 from Meta.

History

See-through head-mounted displays date to 1968, when Ivan E. Sutherland demonstrated a stereoscopic head-mounted display (Ivan Sutherland's head-mounted 3D display) using half-silvered mirrors (a beam combiner) to overlay computer graphics on the real world.

Types

Various techniques have existed for see-through HMDs. Most of these techniques can be summarized into two main families: "Curved Mirror" (or Curved Combiner) based and "Waveguide" or "Light-guide" based. The curved mirror technique has been used by Vuzix in their Star 1200 product, by Olympus, and by Laster Technologies.

Various waveguide techniques have existed for some time.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Optical see-through head-mounted display” as wearable device with a display in the user's field of view. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1997, 1968, 1200—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Optical, see-through and head-mounted can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as wearable device with a display in the user's field of view. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17105103. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997, 1968 and 1200.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Optical see-through head-mounted display” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.