Lightning Awards 'Luminate' Rochester

AUTUM C. PYLANT, NEWS EDITOR, autum.pylant@photonics.com

Luminate — the world’s largest optics, photonics and imaging (OPI) accelerator focused on advancing next-generation OPI-enabled companies — announced at their Luminate Lightning Awards ceremony the 10 finalists accepted into their six-month accelerator program.

New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul opened up the event affirming that Rochester is the epicenter for the optics and photonics industry.

“This is a fun place to be. It is a whole ecosystem of creative individuals,” said Hochul. “I’m not just talking about 2017; I’m talking about brilliant geniuses who walked these streets generations ago and built an industry that did not exist before. I’m talking about George Eastman, Bausch & Lomb, and Xerox.”

The 10 finalists for Luminate — the world's largest optics, photonics and imaging (OPI) accelerator focused on advancing next-generation OPI-enabled companies. Courtesy of Autum Pylant.

To add to that impressive list are the 10 winning companies that will receive an initial $100,000 investment and a six-month residency in Rochester with the accelerator. In June, the companies will have a chance to compete for up to $2 million additional dollars to help their businesses grow.

The Luminate finalists are: Arovia Inc. from Houston; Bounce Imaging from Boston; Double Helix LLC from Boulder, Colo.; Intelon Optics Inc. from Boston; LighTopTech Corp. from Rochester, N.Y.; Lumotune from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Molecular Glasses Inc. from Rochester, N.Y.; Positive Science from Rochester, N.Y.; Tarsier Optics Inc. from Baltimore; and Think Biosolution from Dublin, Ireland.

Arovia has created the Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (SPUD) — the first collapsible display — which allows users to quickly pop up a 24-inch screen that connects to any mobile device. It folds to the size of a book for immediate portability.

Bounce Imaging introduced their 360/VR throwable tactical cameras for first responders. The cameras are highly efficient, noise resistant and provide stabilized panoramic video processing.

As 3D information is increasingly incorporated into real-world applications, a major challenge has been integrating depth information with increased resolution. Double Helix has a solution with their light engineering technology that overcomes these limitations, providing in-depth resolution in near-field imaging.

Intelon Optics is commercializing their Brillouin optical scanner system (BOSS). It is a confocal Brillouin spectrometer, VIPA-based for fast recording of Brillouin spectra in vivo in human ocular tissues.

LighTopTech Corp.’s technology is called Gabor-domain optical coherence microscopy (GD-OCM), which allows the user to see inside human tissue, below the surface. GD-OCM uses near infrared light and interferometry to build a high-definition image of tissue (at the micrometer scale) below the surface.

Lumotune makes Digital Glass — see-through digital displays with glass-like transparency. Digital Glass can show digital content on windows without obstructing views or daylight.

Molecular Glasses has developed a new class of organic semiconductors for OLED applications. Their materials reduce power consumption in mobile applications, provide higher display resolution, and reduce cost by material simplification and by enabling lower-cost manufacturing processes.

Positive Science specializes in developing head-mounted eye-tracking software and hardware for human adults, infants and children, animal research, and the uniformed services. The eye-tracking headgear uses a combination of cameras, a controlled emitting diode illuminator and image processing techniques to track eye movements relative to a secondary scene camera.

Tarsier Optics will manufacture and market their Quantum Camera, a camera that captures air-turbulence-free images. Their method uses quantum noise as a signal and produces a real-time image that eliminates heat haze.

Think Biosolution’s product, QuasaR, is a wearable personal fitness trainer that helps semi-professional athletes build cardiac endurance and reduce obesity by suggesting the optimal running intensity and duration using voice-based feedback.

Luminate managing director Sujatha Ramanujan told Photonics Media she is looking forward to working with these businesses over the next year.

“Rochester is getting 10 outstanding optics companies to come and build their businesses, work with the infrastructure, and do their manufacturing,” she said. “There is so much hope and potential for these 10 companies that we should all be helping them and be excited about what this has to offer.”

Luminate is administered by High Tech Rochester and funded by New York State.