Lark Optics targets your retinas for AR without nausea and other illnesses
This story is syndicated from the premium edition of Preseed nowa newsletter that takes a closer look at the product, market and story of the founders of UK-based startups, helping you understand how they fit into what’s happening in the wider world and the startup ecosystem.
Whether you believe it’s the future of everything, or just a handy tool that will be part of the mix of technology we use regularly in a few years, augmented reality is a rapidly developing field with one major drawback: just like VR can make you feel sick.
For example, US soldiers who tried Microsoft’s HoloLens glasses last year suffered “‘mission-affecting physical limitations’, including headaches, eye strain, and nausea,” Bloomberg reported.
While the technology “could generate net economic benefits of $1.5 trillion by 2030” according to PwCis this disease a huge inhibitor to the growth of AR and VR.
A startup that wants to tackle the problem is based in Cambridge Lark opticswho has developed a way to work around the problems that cause these problems.
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“In the real world, we perceive depth because our eyes rotate and focus. Two different signals must work in harmony. However, in all existing AR glasses, these signals are fundamentally mismatched,” explains Pawan Shrestha, CEO of Lark Optics.
If users need to focus on a “virtual screen” on augmented reality goggles, users must switch focus between the real world and the augmented world. This mismatch in depth 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 the AR is always in focus no matter what your eyes do 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 demonstrator model. Shrestha says they have conducted two successful user studies with their proof of concept; one in his own lab and one with an external partner he prefers not to name.
When the technology is ready, they want one fables model for producing the components they design, which they will then sell to original equipment manufacturers who make AR headsets.
Given that they’re tackling such a fundamental challenge to mass AR adoption, it’s not surprising that other companies are tackling it in different 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 impact the user’s field of view.
Shrestha grew up in rural Nepal (“really rural…I was almost nine years old before I saw electric light”). He says his parents’ enthusiasm for his education eventually led him to New Zealand, where he earned a master’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Waikato.
He wanted to develop technology that he could commercialize, he says interferometer. While that venture didn’t work, his work led him to a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he saw 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 a lot of people,” he says.
Shrestha co-founded Lark Optics (formerly known as AR-X Photonics) with his friend Xin Chang and Daping Chu, who previously oversaw Shrestha and Chang’s promotional work. The trio has been working together for about ten years, but only got serious about Lark Optics last year.
Shrestha says they’ve been joined this week by a new recruit, Andreas Georgiou, who previously worked at Microsoft as a principal investigator in optical engineering.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Shrestha says it’s a great advantage for them to be based in Cambridge, with a community of experienced advisors around them and access to relevant investors. He is particularly inspired by the progress made by the Micro LED technology start-up Porotechwhich yielded in total $26.1 million to date.
And Shrestha has warm words for the Enterprise Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of which he is a part. This provides up to £75,000 in equity to cover salary and business costs, along with mentoring, training and coaching. This enabled him to get started developing Lark Optics as a company.
Lark Optics itself raised a £210,000 pre-seed round in October last year, says Shrestha, and will raise a seed round in Q2 this year.
As mentioned above, others are addressing the problem of AR disease in different ways. LetinAR uses a ‘pin mirror’ method, Kura Technologies has developed a ‘structured geometric waveguide eyepiece’, while VividQ “calculate[s] real-time holograms on energy-efficient devices and integrate[s] them with ready-to-use display hardware.”
another company, See Real develops holography-based solutions to address depth issues in 3D renderings.
But Shrestha says these rival technologies either require very high levels of data throughput, with a related processing power and battery power, or require very high-resolution screens. And while some techniques decouple the AR screen from the real world, like Lark Optics does, Shrestha says it’s “like looking through a chicken fence.
“We fixed the issue without incurring a significant penalty on processing power or battery power, or artifacts. That is why I think our approach is the best.”
Lark Optics’ ambition is to become established as the best optic for AR, VR and mixed reality glasses.
“We want to realize the full 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 feel as natural to look at real objects, VR or AR, and enable people to use it throughout the day.”
Shrestha sees the biggest challenge in achieving this as being able to recruit the right people in this rather specialized field. But he’s optimistic that bringing in just one or two high-level people will ultimately attract more, and the adoption of a good starting round raise in the coming months won’t hurt either.
AR, VR and MR have been hugely hyped in recent years, but questions have been raised about the future. Investor anxiety over Meta’s massive spending in the “metaverse” space and that of Microsoft job losses in its HoloLens division as it struggles to turn it into a viable business shows that there is no straight line from here to a future where this technology is widely used.
But that said, the public markets’ current jitters over stock prices and tech company spending are far from over for AR, VR, and MR. Apple’s first headset is on its way, which is bound to spark a new wave of space interest (although the latest report says it’s been delayed by two months, 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 rewards.
The article you just read is from the premium edition of Preseed now. This is a newsletter that delves into the product, market and story of startups founded in the UK. The goal is to help you understand how these companies operate fit into what is happening in the wider world and the startup ecosystem.
