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May 5, 2006
Rhevision and the Future of Camera Phones
One of my group's seed investments in San Diego -- Rhevision, a maker of miniature tunable lenses -- has exited quasi-stealth by announcing investments from EDF Ventures and In-Q-Tel. Congratulations to all involved, especially company CEO Tim Rueth and scientist/founder Yu-Hwa Lo.Here's Tim from the press release:
"Soon, camera phones will have image sensors comparable to the quality of digital still cameras. What's lacking is the optical zoom and auto focus functions due to size, weight and cost limitations," says Rhevision's CEO, Tim Rueth. "Our optical zoom lenses will meet these market demands and offer auto-focus and 3x optical zoom while fitting in the small form factors of new cell phone designs. Our unique and proprietary approach will prove superior to competing approaches."I couldn't be happier for Tim and Yu-Hwa.
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JJ -- The articles doesn't load for me. Is there a problem with the URL?
Sorry
Goto detnews.com, about 1/2 way down the front page, the article is titled:
Tiny Metro tech firm takes on giant Google
NetJumper LLC is accusing the search engine company of patent infringement.
It sounds like the company focuses on specialized components rather than UI and form factor, nevertheless, I'll say that a click wheel would be a pretty sweet zoom UI for a camera operated with one hand. Apparently, some company has had some success with a click wheel thingy. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2987)
Could you tell us a bit more about the technology? Such as how it compares cost-wise to current CMOS technology and how long before it is in production (if it isn't already). The knock on CMOS growth and development is that people only need and will only pay for so much of a camera in their cell phone. Doesn't the same issue apply here? Thanks.
Jerry: "Could you tell us a bit more about the technology?"
http://www.photonics.com/content/spectra/2004/October/tech/79907.aspx
Lots of players are all over the technology. The science is pretty straightforward, and at this point it's basically a race to commercialization.
Jerry: See Michael's article above for a little on some aspects of the science. That said, he exaggerates and simplifies somewhat in saying it's straightforward to do, and lots of players are all over it, but then again, as an investor, I would say that.
Paul: "he exaggerates and simplifies somewhat in saying it's straightforward to do, and lots of players are all over it"
I said the science is straightfoward. I don't think that anyone who has been around high-tech for any length of time would infer that the commercialization is therefore straightforward.
As for the number of players, commercially there's Varioptics, Philips, and now Rhevision (and PGS Precision/IMRE, sort of) that we know about, and active research elsewhere.
Perhaps "lots of players all over the technology" is somewhat an exaggeration, but there's definitely enough players to considerably complicate the business plan.
Paul
Any thoughts on this:
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20060505/BIZ04/605050380