Distance Technologies is developing a product that it says can turn any transparent surface into an augmented reality display.
Remote Technology
Distance Technologies, a Finnish startup that wants to bring mixed reality technology to every car windshield and airplane cockpit, has raised 10 million euros ($11.1 million) from Alphabet’s venture capital arm GV and other investors.
Distance raised the funding in a seed round led by GV, with existing investors FOV Ventures and Maki.vc also providing further funding to the startup, the company told CNBC on Thursday.
Helsinki-based Distance is developing technology that can turn any transparent surface into an augmented reality display, allowing users to overlay 3D digital objects on top of the panel they are viewing.
This eliminates the need for clunky hardware like mixed reality headsets or augmented reality glasses, both of which require users to wear a physical device over their eyes to be immersed in the experience.
“One of the big obstacles for mixed reality is that it’s never going to be an easy or elegant solution as long as you have to wear something on your head,” Distance CEO and co-founder Urho Kontoli said in an interview with CNBC earlier this week. Kontoli was previously chief technology officer at Varjo, another Helsinki-based mixed reality company.
Distance primarily focuses on selling to the automotive, aerospace and defense markets.
Konttori said the way Distance works is that it uses tracking technology to identify where the user is looking and then calculates the correct light field to match the exact position of the user’s eyes.
Distance’s solution adds a series of optical layers on top of most liquid crystal displays (LCDs), allowing the technology to project an image exactly where the eye is focusing.
This technology allows Distance to separate the light field for the left and right eye, creating an additional optical layer underneath that produces high brightness.
Distance says its system is capable of “infinite” pixel depth, creating a life-size field of view in any situation, whether you’re driving a car or piloting an F-18 fighter jet.
GV, formerly known as Google Ventures and whose sole limited partner is the internet search giant’s parent company Alphabet, told CNBC it was attracted to investing in Distance because of its “potential to build the next generation of user interfaces.”
“We’re particularly excited about the near-term path to market for this technology in the automotive and aerospace sectors, which could potentially make this technology accessible to users,” Roni Hiranand, a principal at GV, told CNBC.
Mixed reality is not easy to commercialize. For starters, mixed reality devices remain expensive: Apple’s Vision Pro and Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 devices both start at $3,500, and they’re not cheap to manufacture. Meta’s new AR glasses concept device, unveiled on Wednesday, cost $10,000 to manufacture, according to The Verge.
CNBC reached out to Mehta but he was not immediately available for comment.
Augmented reality head-up displays (HUDs) are not a new phenomenon in the automotive industry: automakers have been working to equip their cars with AR capabilities for several years, including Chinese tech giant Huawei, which was one of the early adopters of the technology in China.
Many other display technology companies are also developing their own car AR HUDs, including First International Computer, Spectralics, Envisics, Futurus, CY Vision, Raythink, Denso, Bosch, Continental and Panasonic.
Distance Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Jussi Mäkinen said his company’s system is capable of covering the entire transparent surface, not just a specific corner or the bottom half of a display — a limitation that most automotive AR HUDs currently face.
“The main difference here is that we’re driven by software,” Makinen told CNBC.
The company previously showed a proof-of-concept version of its technology at the Augmented World Expo USA 2024, a mixed reality industry trade show in June.
For now, Distance is using simple optics and a standard LCD display to show off its technology to potential partners and investors. Going forward, Kontri said the company is getting ready to push the “very expensive” button: evolving Distance’s optics technology into what he calls the “next generation” early next year.
“Right now, I would say we’re in the research cycle,” Distance’s CEO said, “and now we’re moving into the product cycle. And the key thing is to work with somebody who will be our customer. We’ll work closely with one or two people and then we’ll decide on the final product specifications.”
