WIRELINE ISSUE 30 WINTER 2014

UNIVERSITY SPIN-OUTS

SUPPLY CHAIN

Javid Khan, of university spin-out company Holoxica, conceived the idea of creating three-dimensional holographic solutions to help companies present and verify complex, intricate or large-scale engineering designs ‘in thin air’. Pictured is Baker Hughes’ Blue Orca vessel

Lighting the way UK universities have long been a rich spawning ground for technologically innovative companies. Wireline spoke to two university spin-outs – Holoxica and PhotoSynergy Ltd – about their journeys in turning an idea into a commercial product and becoming part of the broad and burgeoning domestic upstream

oil and gas supply chain. I t was in a basement in Brussels around 2007 that Javid Khan first got the idea of creating three-dimensional (3D) holographic solutions to help companies present and verify complex, intricate or large-scale engineering designs ‘in thin air’. With a background in microelectronic design and development engineering, he was

he explains, and so he wanted to create actual moving 3D holographic images. Unlike physical models, his vision was to create holographic images that are full-colour, created more rapidly from computer-aided design (CAD) models and encompassing animation to allow

working at the European Commission at the time, responsible for identifying high-tech projects for funding. He saw that 3D was re-emerging as an applicable technology and realised he could take it further. “I wasn’t keen on conventional stereo 3D viewed through cinema-style glasses,”

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