Thursday, October 18, 2012

Most Promising Image Sensor Startups, EETimes' Version

Version 14.0 of EETimes' list Silicon 60: Hot startups to watch" has few image sensor companies:
  • InVisage Technologies Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.) is a fabless semiconductor company developing QuantumFilm, an imaging-sensing technology that it claims will replace silicon. Its first product enables the high-resolution images from handheld devices such as camera phones and PDAs. Founded in 2006, InVisage Technologies is venture funded by RockPort Capital, Charles River Ventures, InterWest Partners, and OnPoint Technologies. www.invisageinc.com
  • Isorg SA (Grenoble, France), founded in 2010 as a spin-off from CEA-LITEN, converts plastic and glass surfaces into smart surfaces through the application of printed, organic optoelectronic sensors. The possibility of 3-D product integration allows the recognition of many shapes and form factors.The company name is a contraction of Image Sensor ORGanic. www.isorg.fr
  • Pelican Imaging Corp. (Mountain View, Calif.), founded in 2008, is commercializing computational array cameras for the mobile market. Pelican’s array camera, essentially replacing a single image sensor with an array of devices, addresses challenges posed by conventional camera design and small pixels. www.pelicanimaging.com

Other than image sensors, there are two other related companies:
  • poLight AS (Horten, Norway) has developed optical MEMS-actuated autofocus lenses for use in camera phones and other consumer applications. The company, founded in 2006 and formerly known as Ignis Display AS, claims its TLens products are faster and use less energy to achieve focus than traditional voice-coil motor autofocus systems. www.polight.no
  • Cognivue Corp. (Gatineau, Quebec) was spun off in 2009 from Korea's MtekVision to focus on so-called cognitive processing, that is, parallel processing engines optimized for tasks like image recognition and identification. CogniVue provides SoCs, software and IP to capture, analyze, and render video and images for smart cameras. www.cognivue.com

14 comments:

  1. Promising, but no product!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This list is out of date.
    Some of those companies don't exist or about to become extinct.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The list is dated by Oct 4th. Do you say the situation has changed in two weeks since then?

      Delete
  3. "... such as camera phones and PDAs."
    What is PDA please??? :(

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    Replies
    1. Personal digital assistant - used to be things like digital calendars and Blackberries - any small, flat electronic thing you carry around to do something that does not have a phone in it.

      Delete
    2. I think the point was that PDAs are obsolete. Instead of saying "camera phones and PDAs", they should just say "smartphones". For supposedly being a high-tech start-up, their company description language is very out-of-date.

      -DP

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    3. Oh, I see. This blog is really titled "Smartass World". I guess I should ignore all comments containing emoticons.

      Delete
    4. Sure, ignore the truth [smile]

      jz

      Delete
  4. What does it matter what's it called. These guys are developing genuine new tech and just adding pixels which is already irrelevant. No one cares if his camera is 10 or 20 Mpix.

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    Replies
    1. Actually there are people that care about the number of Mpix

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  5. Yes. There are but in 99.9% it comes from ignorance. At the end most people upload their pics to FB and view at 1 Mpix max.

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  6. FaceBook. Set as an example to what 99% of the people do with their 8 or 12 Mpix camera phones.

    ReplyDelete
  7. that's a wild exaggeration, Facebook penetration is far below 99%
    http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/

    ReplyDelete

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