XPANCEO, a deep tech company that is developing the first smart contact lenses with XR vision, health monitoring, and content surfing features, has announced a successful proof of concept for the world’s first augmented reality holographic lens testing system, marking an essential step towards progressing from Apple Vision Pro to the next generation of computing – XR smart contact lenses. The system allows for the reproduction of AR experiences in various situations such as sports, gaming, navigation, enabling safe immediate tests without the necessity of trials on humans. Moreover, the company assessed the production cost for this setup, which will be approximately just $100,000.
According to Dr. Valentyn S. Volkov, XPANCEO’s co-founder and scientist with an h-Index of 38 and over 8000 citations in leading international publications, “The primary focus for us during this year will be the production of new prototypes and enhancing the current ones, so such optic testing system is a pivotal step towards the first all-in-one XR smart contact lenses. This system will allow XR industry players to evaluate such parameters as the field of view, the brightness of the virtual image, the gradient of intensity across the field, changes in image contrast due to the different weather conditions, and more, which will speed up the development process and may lead to growth in the smart lenses market. ”
The startup has the proof of concept ready for implementation, with an estimated 8 months development period for the device. Currently, there is only one device on the market with relatively similar functionality to test AR and VR glasses. This device can only test 30% of the necessary parameters and costs approximately $300,000. Testing all these parameters is essential before declaring that the product meets all the requirements and is ready for clinical trials and market launch. XPANCEO’s testing device fully meets the requirements to test all essential parameters. This installation is crucial for objectively evaluating lens prototypes and understanding the quality of the reproduced image, marking a significant advancement in research for the whole industry.
This setup will be able to evaluate the following key parameters for testing smart contact lenses:
Field of View (FOV)
The brightness of the virtual image. The calculation can be based on the projector's brightness or hologram DLE. Optical system transmittance can be measured by gauging power. Calibration to the brightness of a pixel in the virtual image (e.g., screen-diffuser) with a measured brightness allows for the measurement of absolute brightness. This requires a stable source and an opaque black hood (housing) over the entire measuring system.
Contrast, a metric reflecting the ratio of the brightness of the green color of the image to the background. This requires a camera, a lux meter, a white screen with a diffuser, and a dimmer with altered power.
The gradient of intensity across the field (digital image processing). This parameter helps determine the permissible percentage of the gradient.
Line sharpness (cross-section). This assesses the image’s sharpness.
The micro projector’s permissible angle of inclination.
Changes in image contrast during various weather conditions.
