SBIR Phase I: Metasurface optical elements for augmented/mixed-reality smart glasses

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to demonstrate a transformative augmented/mixed-reality smart glass to enable new immersive digital spaces. The high-performance implementation of the technology developed here will be used to augment users' perception and understanding of information and images. The remote and virtual human-to-human interactions can be enhanced through these user-natural augment/mixed-reality smart glasses beyond the smartphone. This next-generation mobile display more seamlessly interfaces with online content available today and in already established networks, ranging from online retail, gaming, sports immersion, entertainment, and social networks. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops smart glasses for augmented/mixed-reality digital spaces beyond the smartphone. Current smart glasses are typically based on conventional holographic or diffractive optical elements which have significant physical and performance limitations, preventing their wide-spread adoption. This project develops metasurface waveguides to achieve the key performance metrics of resolution, field-of-view, efficiency and optical element integration in augmented/mixed-reality waveguides. The metasurface waveguide is finely tuned for high performance specifications collectively, across the full color gamut, and with ease of fabrication and manufacturing scaling. The system is light weight, compact, and integrates with current light sources. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.