HALIFAX, N.S.—Metamaterial (CSE: MMAT), a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites, announced Tuesday that it has acquired specialized lens casting production equipment and intellectual property, including more than 70 patents, from Interglass Technology AG, a Switzerland-based lens manufacturer, for $800,000. Meta will invest and expand its capabilities in design, development, and manufacturing of metaFUSION products for smart eyewear. This highly integrated solution combines embedded metamaterial and functional film elements with precision cast corrective lenses, which are required by over 50 percent of potential users in the market, according to the announcement.

Jonathan Waldern, chief technology officer, said, "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.

"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."

Gardner Wade, chief product officer, added, "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.”

Combining the technology, equipment, and IP from Interglass with Meta's metamaterial design and nanofabrication platform is expected to provide “more elegant, powerful, and fully integrated solutions” across a range of HMD applications, according to Meta. Through the liquidation of Interglass, Meta is acquiring lens casting equipment and related workstations and software, tools, and test equipment, along with intellectual property including patents, trademarks, know-how, technical data, proprietary software, designs, and trade secrets.

Interglass has more than 70 international patents in the field of casting processes for high-quality plastic lenses or other optical components based on UV curing acrylics. Moreover, the Interglass process is highly sustainable, which will help to support Meta's sustainability initiatives. Combining its existing portfolio with the Interglass acquisition, Meta now owns more than 160 patents.

Meta is headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia and has R&D and sales offices in London, the U.K. and Silicon Valley.