Makers of The Metaverse: Theodor Nielsen Of NIL Technology On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
You must, in my opinion, devise simple and elegant solutions to complex problems. If you have a good technical solution and the right mindset, which includes being passionate, hardworking, stubborn, and open-minded all at the same time, I believe you have some of the key ingredients for success.
The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Theodor Nielsen, founder and CEO of NIL Technology.
Theodor Nielsen holds a master’s degree in nanotechnology engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). In 2006, Theodor founded NIL Technology together with his university classmate and friend, Brian Bilenberg. He has held the position as CEO ever since. Theodor has transformed NIL Technology from being a technology company to becoming a leading advanced nano-optics company in just three years. Today, the company focuses on the development and mass production of diffractive and meta optics for smartphones, consumer electronics, and AR/VR/MR.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in the countryside, surrounded by horses. My family lived 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) north of Copenhagen, and despite the fact that both of my parents worked, my family bred racehorses. For the most part of my childhood, I believe we had around 15 horses. On the farm, my brother, sister, and I had a lot of responsibilities. In this sense, my childhood instilled in me many of the values and ambitions that remain central to my life today. Dedication, passion, taking responsibility, and, of course, a burning desire to win.
Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I’m afraid I must disappoint you. I know I’m supposed to say something sophisticated here, but the answer is ‘no.’ I enjoy using my brain to solve problems because the satisfaction is greater and the learning sticks more effectively when you have to exert some effort. I’d never had learning or wise words spoon-fed to me in such a way that they struck a deep chord with me. However, I enjoy the film “Pulp Fiction.”
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.
My sources of inspiration are twofold. Before Brian and I founded the company in 2005, we sought advice from seasoned business professionals. I don’t think they fully grasped the concept of nanotechnology, and their advice to us was to avoid pursuing our dreams with NIL Technology at all costs. We had to prove them wrong, of course. My passion stems from the ability to create extremely small objects with extraordinary precision. We have been delivering technology to many of the early pioneers in the X Reality industry for many years, and seeing our technology come to life is extremely inspiring. You can’t see the nanostructures, but you can see the end result. We did nanotechnology for many years before anyone “invented” X Reality, but we saw early on that our expertise was a perfect match for creating awesome XR solutions.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
NIL Technology was founded many years before there was a clear use case for the company. We were confident in our technological abilities. It was exciting to realize that we should focus on optics and, as a result, decide to go all-in on optics. The greatest sensation, however, was the fall of 2021. We achieved several ground-breaking results, which we shared with the rest of the world. We had been developing extremely precise technology with complex nanostructures for more than a decade. When we combined this with optical design, we were able to demonstrate highly efficient diffractive and meta optics, which had never been demonstrated before. On a personal level, this was extremely rewarding.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
This is a difficult question. I love to entertain with “war stories” on a stage, non-recorded but seems wrong in printed media. I can definitely say that you need to make, and learn quickly from, mistakes for the betterment of yourself and your company.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Brian Bilenberg, without a doubt. In 2006, we co-founded NIL Technology. Since then, our academic and professional lives have been inextricably linked. Brian and I have been friends for over 25 years. We have a common vision and have been on the same mission for the past 16 years. Our partnership instills confidence. I remember looking at each other on the first day after starting NIL Technology and wondering why no one had called us, after all, we had told the entire world we were going to start the company. We realized we didn’t have a phone, so our first action as NIL Technology founders was to go to the mall and buy two cool smartphones, this was still back when you didn’t bother reading your emails on your phone.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We’re indeed working on something very exciting; metalenses, or meta optical elements (MOEs) as we refer them to. In 2019, World Economic Forum named metalenses as one of the top 10 emerging technologies. And not without reason, metalenses have powerful capabilities beyond traditional optical lenses as they have completely flat surfaces, with reduced thickness, and improved quality across all optical component use cases. They will be a game-changer for optical applications, for example, consumer products, smartphones, and AR/VR/MR devices. We experience great interest in our metalenses, our MOEs. At the end of last year, we demonstrated an efficiency of our MOEs at 94%. This is a result that has never been demonstrated before, so it was a very big thing. We have progressed a lot with this new, disruptive technology, and as a result, we’re now working with major OEMs to develop different meta optical solutions.
Meta optical elements have great potential of helping people as they can make sensors in optical applications smaller and more efficient. Just think about it, we have sensors everywhere. To give you some examples, they can improve medical imaging, driver monitoring, LiDAR, cameras used for eye-tracking and sensing and machine vision applications, presence detection in smart homes, object detection/avoidance in robotics, and health/biometric sensing, SWIR imaging to detect food freshness and food contamination. The list is never-ending.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
The AR/VR/MR industry is absolutely very exciting because there is so much innovation going on. Today, most hardware for this industry is heavy, bulky, and uncomfortable, but we will see a lot of improvements in this industry over the next 12 to 24 months. To give you an example, glasses will be smaller and lighter, so they are more comfortable to wear, and they will have more features, so you can do more with the glasses you wear. Yet, this is kind of a paradox, because users expect glasses and other hardware to become better and better over time, but one of the biggest challenges facing hardware manufacturers is component miniaturization. Things simply need to become smaller and lighter for them to be able to create the products that users want. If you look at the optics that are used in this hardware, it hasn’t seen much innovation in the last decade because it’s very challenging to change the form of the lenses that are used in sensors. The lenses are still bulky and curved and they are needed in the many sensors that AR/VR/MR devices have. So, to create smaller and lighter devices, you need smaller and lighter sensors. And this means that the optics need to be more compact as well. Working on flat optics for these devices is truly exciting.
Our technology is also perfect to create diffractive waveguides with very advanced nanostructures that eventually make great displays. The quality of what you see is directly linked to the quality and accuracy of the nanostructures in your display and this is exactly where NIL Technology excels. We are both providing technology to map the analog world into the digital using our sensors, and we provide technology to make the digital world visual in the analog world.
Another thing that is exciting about this industry is that it is a gateway to the metaverse that everyone is talking about. This pushes for even more innovation because we need the devices to be able to create the metaverse experience that is envisioned by some of the biggest names in consumer technology.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR, and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
- VR/AR/MR is extremely exciting, and the companies that go “all in” have visions that challenge the wildest of dreams. This is very inspiring, and I see NIL Technology as a leader in this field. The timing of our solutions in terms of commercial implementation and take-off is obviously the most important concern for a cutting-edge startup. But I believe we are in a good position because our technology can be used in a variety of markets.
- I am very concerned about the comparison between classical, old school, refractive optics like micro lens arrays (MLA) to nano-optics. No doubt that MLA has been a great technology with numerous use cases, but considering the formfactor, efficiency and functionality required by future applications I don’t see a future. Refractive optics have a curved lens. Future applications need a flat, compact lens. We see there are a lot of misinterpretations when it comes to nano-optics. It is a disruptive technology, and this requires a redefinition of how you think and design optics, because replacing one technology with another may change other aspects of the application in question. Therefore, we have put lots of effort into fast prototyping because you need to be able to test the new technology with other functions and see how the results excel.
- When it comes to the heart of nano-optics, how we produce this technology, we use electron-beam lithography (EBL). EBL is a high-resolution, high-fidelity technology that is widely used in academic research. It takes a long time, but the results are unrivaled. I frequently hear that EBL cannot be used to manufacture commercial products. But I’ll tell you something: this is so old school. EBL is used for prototyping at NIL Technology. This gives us an unrivaled advantage in terms of turnaround time in nano-optics. Furthermore, we use the EBL’s precision to create masters for nanoimprint lithography (NIL), which is certainly scalable to mass production in the billions.
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
XR devices have great potential for usage at work and there are already many industries that take advantage of this. For example, through visualization, navigation, interactive instructions, and remote guidance, as well as knowledge sharing and training. AR glasses present the possibility to blend digital content with real-world surroundings, by using a smart device camera, AR software to capture the surrounding environment, as well as GPS, lasers, or sensors to identify when and how to overlay information onto the display of the device. This gives the possibility of a mix of information that can be used in your work environment.
A great benefit of AR is the possibility of visualization of information. A person using AR glasses can basically be located anywhere, enabling them to fix a problem, interact with others, or get real-time information. Also, AR glasses can for example be great for navigation to a new location, but navigation can also be related to medical and surgical navigation to increase accuracy and efficiency. Precision imaging prevents errors and reduces the workload. It can also facilitate training, allowing surgeons and others to practice without causing errors and without involving patients. This example you can basically translate to any work situation where training, knowledge sharing, and navigation are used.
But let’s not try to make this too fancy at this point in time. Today, I prefer to fight zombies using VR/AR. 😉
Are there other ways that VR, AR, and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
It’s the “next big thing.” I believe you can speculate a lot and pretend to be a visionary, but it is extremely unlikely that you will get it right. I recall when I was a kid and some of my parents’ friends were among the first to obtain a portable phone. My mother, I recall, didn’t see the point of having a phone in the car. “Why can’t they wait until they get home?” she wondered. Nowadays, I believe I have the majority of my conversations with my mother while driving. I believe that, in time, AR, VR, and MR will have the same impact as the development of smartphones. Furthermore, the concept of remote guidance and assisting on repair, medical, and guidance topics is already very powerful today.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?
Tricky question. But I believe it must be the understanding of refractive optics being the answer to everything. In the industry of optics, it seems like everyone thinks refractive. But the development of nano-optics has developed tremendously over the last decade. I want to kill the myth about the limitations of nano-optics. We have demonstrated that it works and that it works better than the mainstream technology, but you know, it’s not enough to have the best solution. You need to be able to sell the idea. To do this, we have put lots of effort into prototyping. Fast prototyping is a great solution to quickly respond to what the market wants and what the new technology can deliver.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”
You must, in my opinion, devise simple and elegant solutions to complex problems. If you have a good technical solution and the right mindset, which includes being passionate, hardworking, stubborn, and open-minded all at the same time, I believe you have some of the key ingredients for success.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I hope that the accuracy of our optics and the very small form factor will inspire more people to use optical sensing, and that it will be used for glorious and exciting decision making. I hope that our optical solutions will be used in self-driving cars and Lidar applications to improve traffic safety. I can easily envision health sensors, environmental sensors, and other similar devices. Very compact, high-quality data to help you make better decisions and live a better life, as well as save energy through optimization. In short, it would be incredible if I could be a part of inspiring other companies to use our flat optics to solve global challenges.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I would like to meet with any leader who is a visionary and a first mover, and who is passionate about integrating very advanced optics into products.
Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!
Makers of The Metaverse: Theodor Nielsen Of NIL Technology On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
