Among the rows of high-tech gadgetry that adorned the Consumer Electronics Show in the US earlier this year, analysts were falling over themselves for Toshiba’s new glasses-free 3D laptop screens. While film and computer games makers have been keen to breathe new life into 3D as a means of pulling in consumers, the electronics industry is still some way behind. Figuring out how to create a more natural experience – unencumbered by the need to wear glasses – is apparently easier said than done. Buried deep in Toshiba’s new innovation is technology that already turns a coin by preventing mine site haulage truck drivers from dozing off. The company behind that technology is AIM-quoted Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) , and for chief executive Nick Cerneaz, the chance to support major developments in new markets is more than welcome.
Seeing Machines’ technology is based on some clever face-tracking expertise developed over the last 11 years in tandem with IP licensed from the Australian National University. In that time it has developed a technology called FaceAPI which it uses in its driver safety (DSS) product and sells to some of the largest mining companies in the world, including BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX). FaceAPI is also bundled as a development toolkit and licensed to other companies that want to use face-tracking technology to develop alternative applications. A recent deal with Chinese company Shenzhen Super Perfect Optics (SuperD) saw their development licence upgraded to a production licence. It is SuperD that is behind the glasses-free 3D system and that deal will involve Seeing Machines taking a royalty on every laptop and PC screen manufactured. Meanwhile, Seeing Machines also sells a version of its technology, known as FaceLAB, to the research market and is close to finishing the development of an eye testing device for the medical market known as the TrueField Analyzer, which can detect eye disease, particularly glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy.
For Cerneaz – an amiable Australian who trained as a mechanical engineer specialising in robotics and computer vision at Oxford – Seeing Machines has never been better placed to grow. The company joined the Alternative Investment Market in December 2005 but since the economic downturn has focused its efforts on driving revenues from its DSS business. Success in…
I nearly fell asleep behind the wheel the other day but i had my anti sleep alarm on and it sounded so i pulled over and had a break. They are not that expensive and i got mine from NO NAP
