Distance Technologies, a Finnish startup that deals with integrating mixed reality technology in car windshields and the cockpits of aircraft, has sealed off a €10 million ($11.1 million) seed round of funding. GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, led this round of financing with FOV Ventures and Maki.vc, existing investors.
Distance Technologies hails from Helsinki and is innovating a solution that transmutes any transparent surface into an augmented-reality display through seamless viewing of 3D digital objects overlaid onto their environment. This approach makes the cumbersome devices, such as mixed-reality headsets or augmented-reality glasses, largely irrelevant in user experience.
Urho Konttori, CEO and co-founder of Distance, and former CTO at mixed-reality company Varjo, explaining the focus on accessibility in mixed reality quoted “One of the great obstacles for mixed reality is that, it will never be effortless or elegant as a solution.”
Distance technology is aiming for markets in the automotive, aerospace, and defense industry. It uses advanced tracking technology that determines where a user is looking, then adjusts the light field based on eye positions. This method involves overlaying a set of optics with existing liquid crystals displays, thereby enabling the system to project images at focal points that correspond with the gaze of the user.
The tech boasts the ability for infinite pixel depth, meaning life-sized fields of view-whether in a vehicle or piloting an F-18 fighter jet. GV’s investment in Distance reflects the venture firm’s interest in the potential for next-generation user interfaces. GV principal Roni Hiranand mentions, “We are particularly excited about how some of the nearer-term pathways to bring this to market in automotive and aerospace and allow the users to get their hands on this technology.”.
Commercializing mixed reality poses yet another challenge, first of all, in the problem of highly costly devices. Mixed-reality devices of today, like Apple’s Vision Pro and Microsoft’s HoloLens 2, cost $3,500 and above. Distance Technologies already differs in how much transparent surface is to be used avoiding the known limitation of existing automotive augmented reality heads-up displays.
In that regard, however, Konttori said they needed collaboration with key customers to finalize their product specifications ahead of shifting to the development stage. “We have been in the research cycle now; now, we are switching into the product cycle,” he said, signaling an exciting new phase for the company.
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