by This story comes from the premium edition of PreSeed Now, a newsletter that looks at the product, market and history of UK-founded startup founders so you can understand how they fit into what’s happening in the wider world and in the startup ecosystem.
Whether you think it’s the future of everything or just a useful tool that will be part of the tech mix we use regularly a few years from now, augmented reality is a fast-growing field with one major downside – like VR, it can leave you feeling ill.
For example, US soldiers who tested Microsoft’s HoloLens glasses last year suffered “mission-impacting physical impairments,” including headaches, eye strain and nausea, reports Bloomberg mentionted.
While the technology could “bring net economic benefits of $1.5 trillion by 2030” according to PwCthis disease is a huge inhibitor to the development of AR and VR.
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One startup that wants to tackle the problem is Cambridge Lark Opticswhich has developed a way around the issues that cause these problems.
“In the real world, we perceive depth with our eyes rotating and focusing. Two different indications must work in harmony. However, in all existing AR glasses, these cues do not match substantially,” explains Lark Optics CEO Pawan Shrestha.
Having to focus on a “virtual screen” in augmented reality glasses means users have to switch focus between real and augmented reality. This depth mismatch causes physical discomfort and conditions such as nausea, dizziness, eye strain and headaches.
What Lark Optics does differently, says Shrestha, is that it projects the augmented reality image onto the user’s retina. This means AR is always in focus no matter what your eyes are doing to adjust to the real world around you.
So far the startup has developed a proof of concept and is now iterating to refine its demo model. Shrestha says they conducted two successful proof-of-concept user studies. one in their own lab and another with an external partner they prefer not to name.
When the technology is ready, they want to use a myth model to produce the parts they design, which they will then sell to original equipment manufacturers who make AR headsets.
Given that they’re facing such a fundamental challenge to the mass adoption of AR, it’s not surprising that other companies are tackling it in other ways (more on that below). But Shrestha says his startup’s approach is the most efficient in terms of processing power and battery power, and doesn’t affect the user’s field of vision.
Shrestha grew up in rural Nepal (“really rural… I was almost nine years old before I saw electric lights”). He says his parents’ enthusiasm for his education eventually led him to New Zealand where he earned a Masters in Electronic Engineering from the University of Waikato.
Wanting to develop technology he could commercialize, he says he developed one interferometer. Although this venture did not succeed, his work led him to a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he identified the commercial potential of a new approach to AR displays.
“It was scientifically challenging, but it was also something that could touch the lives of many, many people,” he says.
Shrestha co-founded Lark Optics (which was previously known as AR-X Photonics) with his friend Xin Chang and Daping Chu, who previously supervised Shrestha and Chang’s PhD work. The trio have been working together for about a decade, but only last year started with Lark Optics.
Shrestha says they were joined this week by a new recruit, Andreas Georgiou, who previously worked at Microsoft as a principal researcher in optical engineering.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Shrestha says being based in Cambridge is a big boon for them, with a community of experienced advisors around them and access to relevant investors. He is particularly inspired by the progress made by technology startup Micro LED Porotechwhich has accumulated in total $26.1 million until today.
And Shrestha has warm words for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Fellowship, of which it is a place. This provides up to £75,000 in equity-free funding to cover salaries and business costs, along with coaching, training and mentoring. This is what allowed him to start growing Lark Optics as a business.
Lark Optics itself raised a £210,000 pre-seed round in October last year, says Shrestha, and will raise a seed round in the second quarter of this year.
As mentioned above, others approach the problem of AR disease in different ways. LetinAR uses a “mirror pin” method, Kura Technologies has developed a “structured geometric eyepiece waveguide”, whereas VividQ “calculate[s] real-time holograms on low-power devices and embed[s] with off-the-shelf display equipment.”
Another company, SeeReal develops holography-based solutions to address depth issues in 3D displays.
But Shrestha says these competing technologies either require a very high level of data throughput, with associated computational and battery power costs, or require very high-resolution displays. And while some techniques disconnect the AR display from the real world, as Lark Optics does, Shrestha says “it’s like looking through a chicken coop.
“We solved the problem without taking a significant penalty on processing power or battery power or artifacts. That’s why I think our approach is the best.”
Lark Optics’ ambition is to establish itself as the best optics for AR, VR and Mixed Reality glasses.
“We want to fully exploit the potential of AR and VR. Now we have AR and VR that you can wear for 20 minutes or 30 minutes. We want to make it as natural to see real objects, VR or AR, and allow people to use it for all-day, everyday use.”
Shrestha feels that the biggest challenge in achieving this goal is being able to recruit the right people in a fairly specialized field. But he’s optimistic that attracting just one or two high-level people will end up attracting more, and getting a good seed boost over the next few months won’t hurt either.
AR, VR and MR have been massively hyped in recent years, but there have been questions about how much of a future it has. Investors worry about Meta and Microsoft’s massive spending in the meta-varnish space job cuts in the HoloLens division as it struggles to turn it into a viable business, show that there is no straight line from here to a future where this technology is widely used.
That said, though, the current turmoil in public markets regarding stock prices and tech company spending is far from the end for AR, VR, and MR. Apple’s first handset is on the horizon, which will no doubt spark another wave of interest in the space (although the latest report says it’s two months late, until June).
If technology like Lark Optics can help prepare AR, VR and MR for the mainstream, the startup could be well-positioned to reap the benefits.
The article you just read is from the premium version of PreSeed Now. This is a newsletter that looks at the product, market and history of start-ups founded in the UK. The goal is to help you understand how these businesses they fit into what’s happening in the wider world and the startup ecosystem.
