Back in March, Avegant announced a possible breakthrough in mixed reality (MR) with its Light Field Technology, a system that allows virtual objects to appear far more solid and real than the opaque holograms usually seen. For the back of this announcement the company has raised $13.7 million USD in funding.
The funding round, which closed in March, was led Chinese mobile internet company Hangzhou Lian Luo, and featured new investment from Applied Materials, while existing investor Intel also took part, reports Financial Times. This now makes a total of around $50 million that Avegant has raised since it was founded in 2012.
Avegant is best known for its personal media head-mounted display (HMD) Glyph, which is only available in the US for $499. Designed as a pair of chunky headphones, the Avegant Glyph allows users to watch movies, listen to music or play video games in a compact device. It uses Avegant’s patented Retinal Imaging Technology that features an array of two million mirrors to project images directly onto eyes.
But it’s the company’s development’s in MR and augmented reality (AR) that could hold the most promise. Even though the technology is progressing slower than virtual reality (VR), it is seen as a possible successor, with Microsoft HoloLens and Meta’s Meta 2 already on the market albeit aimed at the enterprise end. There’s also Magic Leap, the super secretive company that’s secured massive amounts of funding but has yet to publicly demo anything – although some celebrities have seen it.
“Mixed reality will become more of a general device and VR will become more of a niche application,” said Ed Tang, Avegant’s founder and chief technology officer. “MR is less of an isolating experience and more inclusionary.”
“We are going to see light-field displays in the market much faster than people have anticipated,” Tang added, estimating in the region of the “next 12 to 18 months”.
As Avegant continues its development, VRFocus will bring you the latest updates.