Alumni Innovations
Alumni Innovations
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Dr Andrzej Kaczorowski
Current Position:
Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at VividQ Ltd.
Graduation Year and College:
2018, Jesus College PhD)
2013, Hughes Hall (MRes)
Next Generation Displays powered by Computer-Generated Holography
Next Generation Displays powered by Computer-Generated Holography
Computer-Generated Holography is the only technology capable of correctly recreating three-dimensional objects as if they were present in our surroundings. Holographic display is the ultimate display technology, capable of achieving a level of realism never seen before. The basis of the technology has been known for more than half a century. However, heavy computational loads prevented this technology from entering into the mass consumer market. Dr Andrzej Kaczorowski demonstrated the first real-time high quality holographic projections on off-the shelf Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) during his doctorate. VividQ, the company he co-founded, continues the mission to commercialise next-generation holographic displays.
History:
Computer-Generated Holographic Display has been an obsession of many scientists, researchers, engineers and innovators. As early as the 1990s, pioneering work was done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, MIT used linear light modulators, which resulted in complicated optical arrangements.
Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Cambridge have been developing novel devices capable of displaying holograms - Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) light modulators. Those devices operate on the same basic principle as many computer monitors and flat-panel television sets, except they are some 100 times smaller.
Computer-Generated Holography was promising, yet very computationally intensive. In order to handle computational loads, MIT commissioned the build of a supercomputer in the 1990s. With the advancements of personal computers, the perspective of bringing holographic calculations closer to real time was on the horizon.
Andrzej, who studied on a Doctoral Training Centre programme in Photonic Systems Development at the University of Cambridge, first encountered this problem in 2011 while completing his Master’s project under the supervision of Professor Timothy Wilkinson. It became clear that the computational aspect of holography was a significant challenge worth tackling. The work that was started during his Master’s of Research evolved into his PhD project.
Andrzej’s research explored ways that computer-generated holography can be improved and implemented in realistic devices. Those included improvement of image quality and speeding up the computation of holograms, as well as correction of the optical imperfections in software.
The demonstrator holographic projector prototype, showcasing real-time generation of holograms, was finished in early 2015. It projected a wide-angle image at about 12 frames per second with computation on a mid-range GPU. The system incorporated advanced software corrections and was capable of achieving sharp images, despite (intentionally) misaligned optics.
Out of this work, two research papers were published, “Optimization-based Adaptive Optical Correction for Holographic Projectors” in the Journal of Display Technology in 2015 and “Adaptive, Spatially-varying Aberration correction for Real-time Holographic Projectors” in 2016 Optics Express, one of the most prestigious Optics journals.
At approximately the same time, Dr Andrzej Kaczorowski met his co-founders: Dr Darran Milne and Tom Durrant. The team was shortly joined by Dr Roman Pechhacker, Aleksandra Pedraszewska and Dr SJ Senanayake.
The team started a small proof-of-concept project which included scanning a person using an XBox Kinect depth sensor and using this to generate holograms. By combining Andrzej’s PhD developments with a new source of data, and optimising the methods further, the team was capable of projecting moving holograms at 16 frames per second - something that nobody thought possible at the time. The result of this research led to patent filing of the first core algorithm. Based on this innovation, the group raised early funds from the angel investors and began developing the end-to-end software platform for next-generation holographic devices.
Figure 1: Example image displayed through holographic projector: (Left) Camera focus set on the far dinosaur, (Right) camera focus set on the front dinosaur. Credit: VividQ
Current State:
Achieving real-time generation of holograms enables the possibility of implementing a dynamic display. Unlike any technology currently available on the market, holographic images are not bound to the surface of the display. Instead, they can physically form within the display, as well as outside the display, right in front of our eyes. The applications of such displays are endless - ranging from computer monitors, to smart glasses and, ultimately, every display application would benefit from becoming holographic.
The team founded VividQ in 2017 and embarked on the mission to introduce holographic displays to the consumer market. Since then, the company has grown from 6 co-founders to over 40 full-time employees, as of October 2021.
In July 2021, VividQ raised a $15M funding round from a number of international investors. The round was led by UTokyo IPC, the investment arm of the University of Tokyo. Other investors included Foresight Williams Technology (UK), Miyako Capital (Japan), APEX Ventures (Austria), R42 Group (Silicon Valley, USA), University of Tokyo Edge Capital (Japan), Sure Valley Ventures (UK) and Essex Innovation (UK).
VividQ also formed a number of strong partnerships to realise its vision. Those include Himax Technologies - manufacturer of microdisplays, iView - supplier of optical modules, TruLife Optics - optical component developer, and ARM - world-leading semiconductor IP company.
To support ambitious goals of VividQ, Andrzej established a dedicated hardware / research team and led it for 3 years as Chief Technology Officer, resulting in the generation of multiple prototypes and hardware IP. With the further growth of the company, he is now leading the research team as Chief Scientist. He coordinates joint research projects with Universities of Cambridge and University College London via the Centre for Doctoral Training in Connected Photonics and Electronics, University of Bournemouth via the Centre for Digital Entertainment, and University of St Andrews.
Outlook:
VividQ is working towards three main applications: Augmented Reality smart glasses, holographic Head-Up Displays for cars, and gaming monitors.
Andrzej’s work is looking into the future of holographic projection by exploring novel device architectures, more efficient computational methods and ensuring that VividQ stays at the forefront of world’s research. One stream of his work explores increasing realism of holographic images by incorporating advanced effects from computer graphics. Recent publication on this topic, “Enabling Reflective & Refractive Depth Representation in Computer-Generated Holography“, has been presented at ACM SIGGRAPH 2021, the most prestigious event in computer graphics. Aaron Demolder, the first author and the researcher Andrzej supervises, has won the first prize in the Student Research Competition.
Engagement:
VividQ is always looking to attract like-minded people to help us realise our great vision of introducing holography to the mass consumer market. Current job openings can be found on the VividQ careers page. If you believe that you can help us realise our vision, even though we may not have open positions, we’ll make sure to find a way of working together!
Learn more about Andrzej’s work at www.drAndrzejKa.com or about VividQ at www.vivid-q.com
Current Position: Founder of IGAN
Graduation Year and College: 1961, St. John's College
IGAN's Mobility Vehicle (MV)
IGAN's Mobility Vehicle (MV)
IGAN has developed a go-anywhere mobility vehicle (MV) that is sufficiently compact to fit through doorways and corridors in a standard house, can be easily transported in an estate car, and can safely climb and traverse uneven ground and staircases of up to 40 degrees, with the operator always facing forward.
The story so far:
The original brief for a tracked wheelchair was set up between two Johnians, Chris Mack and John Ross, who both read Mechanical Sciences in 1961. The wheelchair was required to go over obstacles and climb stairs in a house, moving the seat to keep the user upright. It would also lift the user up to be able to converse more equally with others, rather than being “talked down to”.
After the brief had been settled, John took over the practicalities of design, manufacture and development of the prototype and, with much needed help from colleagues, has nursed the project through to the present stage.
The initial design work on the stair-climbing wheelchair showed promise and, with support from a colleague, Alan Sykes, a small company was set up in 2016 on a voluntary basis to design and prove the concept. Some assistance was obtained via government grants (SEIS support and R&D tax relief) but the majority of the cost has been met by the four shareholders.
The aim of the project was to enable disabled users to regain some of the freedom which they had lost. The wheelchair was to suit normal domestic situations including doors and doorsteps, as well as climbing and descending stairs. The desired features also included an ability to tackle difficult terrain, raise the user to match the eye-level of a standing person and be able to be carried in a hatch-back car or small van.
As would be expected, the inevitable pitfalls were encountered along the way: not least of these was the sourcing of the two main drive motors. During the trials, considerable benefit was found in being able to control the position of seat - and thus the centre of gravity of the vehicle - to improve its operation. The design of the tracks also needed several iterations to reach the chosen design. Although much of the work has been mechanical and electrical, the control aspects were the most difficult, or interesting, depending on your mind set.
Where the project is at:
At this stage, a working prototype has been completed and can be demonstrated as a value proposition to the existing mobility vehicle market. With around 10 million wheelchair users in Europe, it is clear a large market exists for such vehicles and the MV targets the top end of the market due to its high-tech features, for which a patent has been received.
The prototype has been tested by both young and elderly users, to assess its usability and has been well received by both for its ease of use and ‘cool’ appearance.
Next steps:
The shareholders are now seeking to capitalise on the work by selling the entire concept to an organisation that is able to make it into a commercial success. This is to include the patent which has recently been granted to the company, IGAN, covering many aspects of the design.
More details will be found on the website: www.igan.co.uk
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