3D Display Firms Sign LOI For Acquisition

July 26, 2012 by Dave Haynes

The consolidation and shakeout on the software side of this sector is also happening on the niche display side.

A glasses-free 3D display firm is in the process of acquiring another firm doing the same thing, albeit in different ways.

Tulsa-based 3DIcon Corporation, which does volumetric, three-dimensional display technologies, has reached a letter of intent to acquire Dimension Technologies Inc., a Rochester, NY company that develops the lenticular lens-style of glasses free  3D.

“The Dimension Technologies team and technologies will become the cornerstone of our glasses-free flat screen 3D strategy and fully complements our patented CSpace glasses-free volumetric technology,” says 3DIcon CEO Mark Willner. “We selected Dimension Technologies after an extensive review of both current and next generation glasses-free flat screen 3D display technologies. Their technologies, patent portfolio, and innovation capabilities will provide us with another set of significant and sustainable competitive advantages in the 3D display industry.”

“Being part of 3DIcon will enable us to get products that incorporate our technology to market much faster by leveraging the existing display industry relationships and commercialization expertise of the 3DIcon management team,” says Dimension Technologies CEO Arnie Lagergren. “In addition, being part of a public company gives us much more efficient access to capital. Both of these will allow us to focus on developing higher performance and lower cost flat screen 3D display technologies that are already on our technology roadmap.”

The press release quotes Chris Chinnock, President of the Insight Media research firm and a 3D expert:

“The Dimension Technologies 3D displays that I have seen look much better than the other glasses-free 3D flat screen displays available today. In addition, since they generate the multiple views required for 3D using time multiplexing, it is not necessary to use an expensive 4K native resolution panel (4x HDTV) to achieve high-quality glasses-free 3D images.”

I’ve chatted at length with Willner, who I met at InfoComm. He’d indicated he’d looked at a LOT of glasses-free stuff and said he’d found one he thought had genuine possibilities. Presumably this is it.

Volumetric 3D, the stuff Willner’s company does, is really, really hard to explain and the best I can do is point you to the Wikipedia entry on it.  Very briefly, think lasers moving really fast and plasma and true 3D you can walk around. It works, but right now only on a small scale – like the Stonehenge in Spinal Tap vs the real thing near Salisbury.