Next gen lenses have been developed...

[Nenu]

... from metal!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...rd-reveals-radical-new-lens-nanomaterial.html

Harvard researchers have created a new lens material that is thinner than glass
It's made up of microscopic nanopillars arranged in a thin array to focus light
It focuses light very precisely to avoid blur, which can happen with glass lenses
The material could lead to less bulky lenses in cameras, phones and glasses

'Traditional lenses for microscopes and camera - including those in cell phones and laptops — require multiple curved lenses to correct chromatic aberrations, which adds weight, thickness and complexity.

'Our new breakthrough flat metalens has built-in chromatic aberrations corrections so that a single lens is required.'

The researchers used titanium dioxide to create the nanopillar array.

I hope this makes it into next gen VR.

 

[TheSmJ]

I hope this makes it into next gen VR.

Not a snowball's chance in hell. Maybe in 10-20 years after the technology has been proofed and has become cheap enough to install on a sub $1000 HMD.

 

[Samson4EiT]

Hmmm 10+ years to never. They could do only 1 color at a time at first, now a slightly bigger range. Who knows how long before they can cover the whole range of light, then finally get to a point where mass production is cheap/sensible.

These nanopillar structures allow the lens to focus wavelengths of light from 490 nanometers to 550 nanometers - the blue to green spectrum - without any chromatic aberration.

If the material was further developed to work for all wavelengths in the visual spectrum of light, from red to violet, it could radically change the design of cameras.