Harvard’s New ‘Flat Lens’ Could Give VR Headsets Better Image Quality, Making Them Lighter and More Compact
The news came out of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) on Thursday, detailing a technical improvement on a prototype ‘flat lens’, which now uses what they call a “glass substrate and tiny, light-concentrating silicon antennas” to redirect light.
Now, instead of treating all wavelengths equally, the researchers have devised a flat lens with antennas that compensate for the wavelength differences and produce a consistent effect—for example, deflecting three beams of different colors by the same angle, or focusing those colors on a single spot.
What this now means is that complicated effects like color correction, which in a conventional optical system would require light to pass through several thick lenses in sequence, can be achieved in one extremely thin, miniaturized device,” said principal investigator Professor Federico Capasso of SEAS.
Harvard's Office of Technology Development has filed for a provisional patent on the new optical technology and is actively pursuing commercial opportunities.
See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/new-flat-lens-give-vr-headsets-better-image-quality-making-lighter-compact/
and here: http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2015/02/perfect-colors-captured-with-one-ultra-thin-lens