NIL Technology launches flat optics platform for ARVR glasses, headsets

28 Mar 2022

Danish optics firm releases “highly precise nanostructured flat optics that are ideal for 3D sensing and machine vision applications”.

NIL Technology (NILT), a developer of flat optics, is releasing precise nanostructured flat optics suited to 3D sensing and machine vision applications in “metaverse products”.

NILT says its compact, flat optics platform will enable AR glasses and VR headsets to be smaller, lighter, and more efficient, explaining that “fewer components will now be needed to build the sensing system, and the system itself will be more compact with an increase in imaging quality.”

One of the biggest challenges currently limiting widespread metaverse technology adoption is component miniaturization in the products needed to create the experience that is envisioned by some of the biggest names in consumer technology.

Smaller and lighter

The paradox, contends NILT, is that glasses and headsets need to be smaller and lighter for the “XR” industry – even as they make significant improvements to features and quality over time. XR comprises virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies and applications, such as so-called “smart glasses”.

Theodor Nielsen, CEO and founder of NILT, commented, “Our new flat optics technology platform offers a 94 percent efficiency, ideal for 3D sensing, and with the precision and energy-efficiency needed for sensing and machine vision applications to deliver engaging metaverse experiences. Our flat optics provide XR manufacturers with the ability to produce lighter and better performing devices at the scale needed for both commercial and consumer markets.”

These optics are flatter, thinner, and lighter than the “classical” refractive lenses used today, having demonstrated a lens simplicity never before achieved and made available to metaverse glasses and headset OEMs. NILT’s flat optics technology platform can deliver significantly better imaging quality in metaverse devices and is ready for mass production applications.

NILT already works with the XR industry at many levels, developing display technology for AR headset providers. This is used in demonstrators from several established brand names. With NILT’s breakthrough, metaverse customer engagements will benefit from the in-house mastering processes to provide extreme control and accuracy of features and gratings used to define projection and receiver optics in 3D sensing functionality.