KEY POINTS:
On the local blogosphere:
Aardvark (aardvark.co.nz) reaches his limit with Telecom.
Rod Drury's (drury.net.nz) Welsh tech odyssey continues.
On the web:
Engadget has an interesting story about an LCD screen tie-up between Korean electronics maker Samsung and PureDepth, a pioneer in "multi-layer
display" technology.
PureDepth is the company formerly known as Deep Video Imaging, a great little Kiwi start-up that came up with a unique method of giving a 3D appearance to flat screens.
It was chipping away in the gaming, financial and military industries, attempting to secure the big win that would bring the technology to the mainstream. It wasn't a smooth ride for the company.
I haven't been closely following the progress of local 3D screen maker Deep Video Imaging for a few years, not since the acrimonious shareholder dispute between Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall and Peter Witehira, the inventor of the PowerBeat battery.
But 3D screen technology is expensive, has been slow to take off, and Deep Video Imaging suffered from the dispute with Witehira, who parted ways with the company in 2004. Deep Video Imaging was subsequently relaunched in California as PureDepth with new investment and a new management team, though Tindall has remained a significant shareholder in the venture.
Now PureDepth and Samsung have debuted a multi-layer LCD screen that at 46 inches, is the largest in the world. PureDepth describe it as: "a layered, multi-dimensional (using real depth between two or more LCD panels) viewing innovation that enables users to simultaneously view two separate fields of data on one monitor." I've seen early models of the technology showing 3D mapping and it is impressive stuff. I hope the technology finds a commercial release, not least because PureDepth still does R&D back here in New Zealand.
As a recent PureDepth SEC filing states: "We have two wholly-owned subsidiaries incorporated in New Zealand. Our direct subsidiary, PureDepth Ltd., is the holding entity for the our intellectual property portfolio, which is subject to an exclusive license with us for its use, exploitation and future development. Our indirect subsidiary (subsidiary of PureDepth, Ltd.) is PureDepth Incorporated Ltd., which undertakes the operations in respect of any future research and development of the intellectual property portfolio on our behalf."
I hope it stays that way.