Phys.com November 11, 2019
As proof of concept, an international team of researchers (USA – Duke University, UK, China) proposed and developed a smart digital-coding metasurface with self-adaptive capacity for reprogrammable functionality. A sensor on the metasurface detected specific features surrounding the construct in the environment and delivered them to a microcontroller unit (MCU) which independently determined reactions to these variations and then instructed the FPGA via coding patterns, to change the metasurface configuration in real time. The smart metasurfaces achieved self-adaptive reprogrammable functionality automatically based on the surface-installed sensing-feedback system and calculation software. The team envisions the preliminary work will pave the way towards developing intelligent and cognitive metasurfaces in the future. The strategy will open a new avenue to develop programmable devices without human participation to sense and detect motion in an ambient environment…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE 1 , 2 , Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
The schematic of a smart metasurface. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: 10.1038/s41377-019-0205-3