Metamaterial acquires Interglass assets and IP
by CM Staff
Acquisition combines film elements with precision cast corrective lenses.
HALIFAX — Metamaterial Inc., a developer of high-performance materials and nanocomposites, announced on Feb. 2 that it has acquired specialized lens casting production equipment and intellectual property, including more than 70 patents, from Interglass Technology AG (Switzerland) for USD 800,000. META will invest and expand its capabilities in design, development, and manufacturing of metaFUSION™ products for smart eyewear. This solution combines embedded metamaterial and functional film elements with precision cast corrective lenses, which are required by over 50% of potential users in the market.
“One of the challenges in augmented reality (AR) eyeglasses, which Mark Zuckerberg so eloquently pointed out as a category killer, is to ensure that light from the AR display does not make the wearer look like an automaton, due to user-display-lit eye glow – especially at night. META successfully pioneered laser and security eyeglass filtering, to combat powerful pen pointers, for our customers like Airbus. Under a new brand name, metaFUSION™, we are now applying that proven technology and other functionality directly encapsulated into eyeglasses, to compliment waveguide-based displays similar to HoloLens®,” noted Jonathan Waldern, Chief Technology Officer. “The AR eyeglass display is one of the most complex engineering challenges of our time, and only advanced metamaterials, incorporated into the eyeglass lenses, will likely provide an acceptable solution.”
“Any augmented and virtual reality eyewear solution, whether from a major OEM or a startup, will need to address the need for prescription lenses. metaFUSION™ will combine the Interglass platform with META’s technology to offer embedded metamaterial solutions for on demand precision casting of prescription lenses. In addition, the associated patents would be valuable to any company participating in this eyewear market. On the same production system, we will be able to offer embedded functionality such as combiners, waveguides, and eye tracking sensors. These same integrated lenses can also enable much more compact HMDs for virtual reality,” said Gardner Wade, Chief Product Officer.
