Zebra Imaging was founded in 1996 by graduates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory. The company's mission, established from the beginning, is to develop and provide the best technologies and products for 3D visual communications. The three co-founders built the first display directly from 3D electronic data provided by Ford's Advanced Design Studio.

The company has today evolved from the automotive industry to a more diverse group of markets, including the US military, geospatial and the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries. The privately held, venture-capital backed company has succeeded in working with the US federal government as an early adopter of 3D visualisation, and has shipped more than 6,000 images created primarily from overhead Lidar data to create a visual sense of presence for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Collaboration and communication have been limited to two-dimensions by legacy technologies like computer monitors, paper and TV screens, according to Zebra Imaging, whereas its own goal is to create a natural extension of reality so that people can communicate in a manner that is inherently native to the human mind.

The company employs more than 55 experts in 3D imaging and systems design, development and engineering, and has sought to augment its capabilities by forming key business partnerships with companies that have supporting technologies and those companies and organisations that operate in Zebra Imaging's target markets including, but not limited to, geospatial, federal and architectural. Zebra has developed significant intellectual property in its core field, having issued 33 US patents, with many others pending in the US and internationally.

In 2006 Zebra Imaging appointed Al Wargo to lead the organisation as chief executive officer, when the company began its focus on federal government (Figure 1). The company has grown significantly over the past three years, last year ranking seventh on the US Austin Business Journal Fast 50 list of local companies with net revenue of more than $10 million. It was also listed on the 2008 Deloitte & Touche Fast 50, reporting an 8,515% revenue growth rate over the previous five years.

Zebra is the only company to date offering auto-stereoscopic (method of displaying 3D images without the use of special headgear or glasses), full-parallax (viewing of the image horizontally and vertically) and full-colour displays for 3D digital imagery. Patented technical advances in lasers, optics and computing are used to produce digital holographic images from customer-supplied datasets. Hologram content sources include computer and 3D digital data, such as CAD, CAE, CAM, aerial photos, radar and laser scans such as SAR and Lidar data, satellite images, video and digital camera image sequences.

Each digital hologram dataset is rendered using high-quality techniques and is composed of thousands of ‘hogels', a term for holographic elements or 3D-pixels. It is then permanently recorded on a thin sheet of photopolymer film with a unique, patented optical imager system. The resulting hologram is portable and can be made transparent or opaque and rigid or flexible through addition of various laminates and substrates. The hologram simply needs to be illuminated with a halogen, LED or direct, natural light source to be viewed.

The US Army has called on Zebra Imaging for thousands of holographic images to supplement maps for better, more strategic operational planning. The company's products provide troops with a better idea of heights and distances than do conventional maps, and can be intuitively understood regardless of a person's background, language or education. Geospatial holograms used in commercial and government applications typically complement and supersede conventional 2D maps, aerial photos and 3D physical scale models. Complex environments can be understood more rapidly using geospatial holograms than with conventional 2D media. The introduction of a third dimension is proving a valuable asset for business-to-business and peer-to-peer collaboration, according to the company, and one that previous 2D software and technology can't provide.

Zebra Imaging holographic images are currently produced in either monochrome or full-colour displays, for viewing from over a million distinct angles. Zebra Imaging is working to reduce the production cycle by developing new technologies, such as more efficient lasers, that will be introduced commercially later this year.

In addition to static holographic imagery, the company recently developed a scalable, dynamic, near-real-time display system which presents lifelike images with the addition of movement. With support from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), potential applications include training, simulation, situational awareness, medical imaging, computer-aided design, oil & gas exploration and 3D data visualisation.

Within the next five years Zebra Imaging plans to expand not only its technological capabilities, but also its business operations. Current adoption of CAD software within the AEC market is allowing Zebra Imaging to tap into architecture for potential new customers, and enables it to directly produce holograms from 3D drawings instead of having to convert hand-drawn designs into 3D images before printing them. This expanded adoption is also filtering into diverse industries, including medical imaging, oil & gas exploration, and the entertainment industry, which Zebra Imaging plans to focus on in the coming years.

The company is actively seeking business partnerships with companies that have technologies that can accelerate efforts to make 3D displays ubiquitous, or with those serving markets that would benefit from the technology to allow key decision makers to ‘see' and collaborate in three dimensions.

Email: dpe...@zebraimaging.com