Avalon Holographics sees visualization big picture

Avalon Holographics is one of those exciting startups that requires a leap of imagination to fully grasp what its technology could do in the short term, let alone years from now.

The St. John's company wants to use hologaphics – three-dimensional images produced by disruptions in light beams – to revolutionize the way people use visual displays like computer screens, TV monitors or even cellphones. It's a market currently worth about $150 billion.

When founder and CEO

Wally Haas lists the possibilities, he ends by adding, “and others not yet imagined.”

Haas and his team envisage a world in which we view things not on a twodimensional screen but with three-dimensional images beamed from holographic display surfaces. People could use the technology without wearing a headset, like with virtual reality.

“It's a way to control light,” said Haas in a phone interview.

“It's a holographic display that allows us to perceive the data as if it were real ... as if you were experiencing it in real life. It's configurable to different situations.”

Haas is a seasoned tech entrepreneur who sold his first business, Avalon Microelectronics, to San Jose, Calif.based Altera Corp. (now part of Intel) in 2010.

The price was never disclosed, but it was enough that Haas has funded the growth of Avalon Holographics to more than 50 employees, including 16 with Phds.

The inspiration for Haas's second venture came one night when he was watching Ironman II. Hero Tony Stark was in his lab using holographic projections to visualize new chemicals. Haas seized on the idea that this would be the next wave of visualization technology, and he wanted to be part of it.

Five years along, Avalon Holographics has a product in the market that allows professionals to see and manipulate images in three dimensions, and to work with a virtual object as if it existed in the physical world.

Since last year, the company has been selling its product to clients on a contract basis, though it has yet to sell a full hardware system. Haas won't reveal names or numbers of customers but said Avalon is targeting the defence and medical imaging industries as early adopters.

He said the product can help engineers and designers work on complicated machinery in a virtual way before trying to build it. It can also help surgeons and other medical professionals understand what's inside a human body more fully than can be deduced from X-rays or CT scans.

Avalon's Youtube channel displays a few applications, including a simulation resembling a game of Battleship. The action is not restricted to surface ships. Users can work with jet fighters in the air and submarines beneath the water's surface, maneuvering amid rocky outcrops on the ocean floor.

Eventually, Haas would like the product to be able to beam images that can fill an entire room.

“If you were in a room and every surface was covered with a holographic screen, then images could appear anywhere,” he said.

“You would have to have an incredible amount of light sources. That's probably about 10 years away.”

Avalon Holographics is one of two Atlantic Canadian companies (along with Halifax-based Proof, which produces software to help government decision makers) that have just been accepted into 48 Hours in the Valley, the weekend bootcamp for Canadian startups organized by C100, the group that helps Canadian entrepreneurs navigate Silicon Valley.

Because of the COVID-19 crisis, the sessions have been delayed until October. Haas hopes to use the event to meet investors who may be interested in the company's first funding round.

He declined to say how much the company hopes to raise. Entrevestor.com produces daily news reports on the Atlantic Canadian startup community. It is financed through the sale of advertising and analytic reports to clients in the private and public sectors. This support is specified whenever the name of a client appears.