UK’s Lightvert Launches Crowdfunding Effort; Touts ECHO Tech As New Kind Of AR

February 14, 2017 by Dave Haynes

The UK start-up Lightvert has started calling its unique tech a new type of augmented reality – probably to help people wrap their heads around it – as part of a just-launched equity crowdfunding campaign.

The technology, dubbed ECHO, is now out of the proof of concept and ready for commercial application – with development bankrolled (the company hopes) via a crowdfunding campaign through Crowdcube.

The technology creates huge digital billboards that only exist in the vision of onlookers. The company has come up with a way to use something called persistence of vision to safely print an image directly on the retina of viewers. But only momentarily.

You can hear CEO Daniel Siden talk about the tech and his company in this 16:9 podcast from late last year.

Think of it this way: When you see something bright at night, and then look away, that bright image is still there in your eyes, for a heartbeat or two. So what if that was a logo?

Lightvert describes its tech this way:

A narrow strip of reflective material is fixed to the side of the building and a high-speed light scanner projects light off of a reflector and towards the viewer. This creates large-scale images that are ‘captured’ for a brief moment in the viewer’s eye through a ‘persistence of vision’ effect. The images are fleeting, but striking, prompting viewers to stop, engage with the image and share the experience.

 

 

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