Light Field Lab’s display technologies will allow for rays of light to be projected in front of or behind a screen as holographic objects.
San Jose, CA (April 18, 2017)— Light Field Lab, Inc. officially debuts today, co-founded by CEO Jon Karafin, CTO Brendan Bevensee, and VP of Engineering Ed Ibe. The co-founders previously worked together to design the world’s first professional light field capture system at award-winning company Lytro. Light Field Lab builds on the founders’ collective expertise with a new independent venture to advance the display, delivery, and interactivity of light field content.
Light Field Lab aspires to bring real-world holographic experiences to professional and consumer markets by focusing on the end-to-end ecosystem. Already in development, their displays will enable photo-real objects to appear as if they are floating in space – all without the aid of eyewear. Their powerful integrated processing and imaging solutions will allow these immersive visuals to be delivered over commercial network speeds. Also underway is a universal API to streamline the process of bringing existing content to a light field display with holographic media. Future releases of the technology will allow users to touch and interact with holographic objects.
Jon Karafin will present a first look introduction to Light Field Lab at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the two light field technology sessions:
-- Saturday April 22nd; 12:40PM; RM S222-S223; “Will Light Field Change the Way of Content Production?”
-- Tuesday, April 25th; 10:00AM; RM S222-S223; “Next Generation Image Making”
“We have arrived at a time where technology breakthroughs bring us closer than ever to what we imagined to be science fiction just years before. One of the main reasons I started OTOY was to help make the Star Trek Holodeck a practical reality in my lifetime. This has been a dream shared by many of us in the industry and around the world. Jon and the team have the expertise, ability and vision to bring this experience to consumers through miniaturization of inexpensive light field display hardware," said Jules Urbach, CEO of OTOY Inc. “Time and again this team has brought advanced novel technical concepts from the academic world into commercially viable products. If anyone can pull this off, they can.”
About the Founders
Jon Karafin is the CEO of Light Field Lab. In his former role as Head of Light Field Video at Lytro, he guided the launch of Lytro Cinema, the world’s first professional light field camera system, which was unveiled at the 2016 NAB Show to a near record-setting audience. He has an extensive background in digital imaging technology development, having previously served as VP of Production Technology at RealD and as Director of Production, Technology, and Operations at Digital Domain Media Group. There he was responsible for successfully delivering technology and content for several of the all-time highest grossing feature films, including Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, Michael Bay’s Transformers 3, and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
Brendan Bevensee is the CTO of Light Field Lab. In his former role as Lead Engineer at Lytro, he guided the design and build of Lytro Cinema. Bevensee has a background in system design and product development for consumer light field cameras as well as optical networking. He holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed custom instrumentation that has been used for one of the detector systems at the Large Hadron Collider experiment at CERN.
Ed Ibe is the VP of Engineering of Light Field Lab. He previously worked at Lytro as Lead Hardware Engineer on the Lytro Cinema camera, overseeing mechanical, industrial, and electrical design. He is a builder with a wealth of experience in application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), electrical, mechanical, and mass production. He has previously worked in an engineering capacity at 3Com; ROLM/IBM; various SSD, networking, and new technology companies; and has held ASIC managerial roles in startups.
About Light Field Lab, Inc.
Light Field Lab, Inc. is a breakthrough technology startup comprised of scientists, master engineers, content creation specialists and light field technology visionaries coming together to design the world’s most innovative holographic ecosystem. The company is currently developing next generation light field display technologies. For more information or questions about investment opportunities, please visit lightfieldlab.com.
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