LYTRO LAUNCHES THE LYTRO PLATFORM TO EMPOWER EXPLORATION OF LIGHT FIELD TECHNOLOGY
· With significant interest from imaging innovators to integrate light field technology into new applications, Lytro unveils the Lytro Platform
· Next stage in company strategy expands reach of light field technology beyond photography to power any imaging device with a lens and sensor
· Lytro Development Kit puts organizations on a path to build and customize their own devices and applications based on Lytro’s proprietary hardware and software
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – (Nov. 6, 2014) – Lytro, Inc. today announced the Lytro Platform to empower innovative organizations to harness the full potential of the light field in their industries. Signaling the expansion of Lytro’s proprietary light field technology beyond the domain of photography, the Lytro Platform will bring the transformational power of the light field to an entirely new set of imaging applications for the first time.
The Lytro Platform advances the company beyond the realm of camera manufacturing and into a broader role of enabling innovation in imaging, positioning Lytro as the hub of a new technology ecosystem.
The first product to be released as part of the Lytro Platform is the Lytro Development Kit (LDK). The LDK provides imaging researchers with the highest degree of control of Lytro’s advanced light field capture devices and software processing engine. It paves the path for deeper partnerships with technical R&D teams and enterprises in new undiscovered applications and scientific fields. Lytro will be a strategic partner, helping customers discover new use cases, automate processes and even design custom hardware. In the future, Lytro will release other new products as part of the Lytro Platform.
“We always believed that light field technology could benefit areas outside of photography,” said Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Lytro. “Since Lytro’s inception, we’ve continually been approached by a number of organizations wanting to collaborate with us on a wide variety of new applications. While we continue to redefine the photography market, today we are excited to extend the capabilities of the light field to new applications through the launch of the Lytro Platform.”
With access to Lytro’s advanced light field capture devices and processing engine, a new wave of pioneers in holography, microscopy, architecture, security and many more imaging fields can reimagine and customize their products. For instance, customers could optimize a special lens for analyzing soil samples, or customize a thermal sensor to analyze individuals’ heat signatures.
A number of companies and government agencies have embraced the Lytro Platform, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is leveraging Lytro’s LDK technology to develop new light field cameras for use on future space missions to other planets. Other partners include General Sensing, a startup working on innovative, experience changing products, the Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, as well as a major industrial partner that develops a range of products for government applications.
“We have been closely following Lytro’s developments over the past few years, which is why we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to take advantage of its innovative technology,” said Philip Liang, CEO General Sensing. “We look forward to collaborating with Lytro to realize the transformational potential of light field in our organization.”
Pricing and Availability
The LDK is available from Lytro, starting at $20,000. To explore how the Lytro Platform could benefit your organization, visit http://Lytro.com/platform.
About Lytro
Lytro is reinventing photography by combining a novel hardware array with cutting-edge computational graphics to capture a more complete and immersive picture of the world in three dimensions. Lytro is the first company to bring an entirely new category, Light Field Photography, to the consumer and professional markets by transforming the camera into a powerful computational photography platform that fundamentally captures a richer set of image data compared to conventional digital or film cameras. Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. Ren Ng, whose Ph.D. research on Light Field Photography won Stanford University's prize for best thesis in computer science in 2006, as well as the internationally recognized ACM Dissertation award, founded the company in 2006. For additional information, visit Lytro.com.
The use of the words “partner” and “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between Lytro and any other company
