A research team led by Professors Jiafu Wang and Jue Qu has jointly developed an eye-tracking-driven, polarization-agile, and beam-programmable metasurface. This system integrates high-precision eye-tracking technology with advanced programmable metasurface design, enabling real-time 3D beam focusing and adaptive reconfiguration of polarization modes for wireless communication signals. This achievement was published in Research under the title "Eye-Tracking-Driven Programming Metasurface System for Adaptive Beam Focusing and Polarization-agile Communication" (Research, 2026; 9: 1225. DOI: 10.34133/research.1225).

I. Research Background
With the development of immersive technologies such as AR/XR, the demand for real-time, high-bandwidth communication has surged. As a non-intrusive technology capable of measuring a user's gaze point in real-time and with high precision, eye-tracking has been widely applied in psychology, medicine, and human-computer interaction (HCI). It effectively reflects a user's behavioral intent and psychological state. Combining eye-tracking with metasurface communication systems enables user-intent-driven intelligent communication. Particularly in AR/XR environments, this allows for the seamless alignment of the user's visual focus with the electromagnetic signal transmission focus, significantly enhancing the user experience. Furthermore, the capability to control orthogonal polarization agility allows for better performance in interference-prone environments by matching the optimal polarization state.
II. Research Progress
The core of this work lies in the construction of a closed-loop control system, as illustrated in Figure 1. First, the user wears AR glasses integrated with eye-tracking sensors, which capture eye movements in real-time to precisely identify the 3D coordinates of the gaze point. These coordinate data are transmitted to a central processor in real-time. Based on the gaze position, the metasurface location, and communication requirements, the processor utilizes near-field focusing theory to calculate the ideal phase distribution required to achieve target focusing. Subsequently, this phase information is converted into binary control codes and sent to each programmable unit of the metasurface via an Arduino microcontroller. The PIN diodes within each unit switch their conduction states based on the received codes, thereby adjusting the electromagnetic response (reflection phase and polarization characteristics) of the unit in real-time. This ultimately achieves target beam focusing and polarization configuration across the entire metasurface array.

The polarization-agile array supports the conversion of incident waves into co-polarized or cross-polarized electromagnetic waves. Additionally, by adjusting the structure to introduce a 90-degree phase difference between states, a window is provided for the synthesis of circular polarization, as shown in Figure 2.

In near-field focusing tests, the metasurface demonstrated results consistent with simulations, successfully focusing energy at designated positions for both horizontal and vertical polarizations, as illustrated in Figure 3.

When the target signal enhancement location is relatively distant, a single-beam plane-wave adaptive control method can be employed. Theoretically, this method achieves beam coverage at any angle within the hemispherical space. Figure 4 shows simulations and tests for beams at specific angles ranging from 0° to 60°.

The eye-tracking technology typically employs the Pupil Center Corneal Reflection (PCCR) method, which locates the gaze point by emitting infrared light and processing images of the eye illuminated by the infrared source. In this study, Tobii Pro Glasses 3 were used to collect user eye-movement data, as shown in Figure 5.

We constructed a Software-Defined Radio (SDR)-based communication system capable of real-time QPSK modulation and transmission of video signals, as demonstrated in Figure 6.

III. Future Prospects
The eye-tracking metasurface system is a key enabling technology for next-generation intelligent wireless communication (6G and beyond). Through precise 3D near-field focusing and dynamic polarization control, it achieves full-dimensional coverage, high reliability, and low latency, addressing coverage challenges in high-density indoor environments and providing smarter, more flexible connectivity for massive IoT devices.
The system seamlessly aligns the user's visual focus with communication signals, precisely guiding them to the target, which greatly enhances the fluidity of the immersive experience (AR/XR) and makes it an indispensable technology for next-generation human-computer interaction. As the process of intelligent unmanned systems advances, metasurfaces should also serve humanity directly. In fields that are difficult to automate or require human interaction, similar intelligent algorithms will emerge to link metasurface systems with interactive devices, playing a significant role in future applications.

The complete study is accessible via DOI:10.34133/research.1225