Light Blue Optics' touchscreen projector promises to position the UK firm on the global consumer electronics stage
One of the most talked about products at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the Light Touch, a laser projector that turns any flat surface into a high-resolution touchscreen. What's surprising is that the Light Touch is made by a UK company, Cambridge-based Light Blue Optics. Chief executive Chris Harris says the product has significant advantages over existing touchscreen technologies. "The display is projected, making it spill-proof, fingerprint resistant and as easy to clean as a regular table top."
Harris foresees uses for the product that stretch beyond the consumer electronics market. The company aims to license its technology to a range of partners across multiple industries, including the automotive and industrial sectors, digital signage, hospitality and healthcare. "We're working with a range of global companies to bring our products to market: Microsoft, Toshiba, Samsung and Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer. What we've learnt from our customers is that [if you] name any market, there's an application for Light Touch."
The words "iPad killer" will no doubt occur at some point, especially considering the fact that analysts have already projected a $5bn consumer electronics market for so-called pico projectors over the next five years. Product upgrades will only heighten expectation. The company's second-generation projector, due for release in 2012, will be small enough to allow phone manufacturers to include the device inside the handset. Although roughly the same size as a USB stick, Light Blue Optic's next device will include "unique optical architecture that delivers resolution and contrast comparable to high-definition TV, says Harris."
Light Blue Optics was founded in 2004 by Edward Buckley, Peter Mash, Nic Lawrence and Adrian Cable, four post-graduate engineering students from the nearby university. Their breakthrough was in finding a way to produce a real-time projection of full-colour video images using holographic laser projection, a trick that had always been theoretically possible, but never achieved due to the large amounts of computational power required.
The company, which is headquartered in Cambridge, with a development facility in Colorado Springs in the US, is funded to the tune of $35m by a syndicate of investors including Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Earlybird Venture Capital, Capital-E, NESTA and Encore Ventures, and is due to receive another significant cash injection next month.
Harris says the founders' "world-beating" technology has the power to become "ubiquitous", embedded not only in hand-held devices but also in consumers' "homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals, retail environments and even in our cars."
The company has signed a deal with BMW to develop in-car applications of the technology, such as head-up displays and instrument clusters, designed to "enhance road safety and change the rules of automotive design". But these won't enter the production cycle for a while yet. "Automotive design cycles are typically longer than those in consumer electronics but you can expect to see HLP in cars in the next five years," says Harris.
