TWO Galloway artists, who have managed to turn an idea from George Lucas’s Star Wars film into reality, now plan to use a £100,000 grant to develop their technology into a commercial product.
Taxpayer-funded Business Gateway, which has supported Chris Helson and Sarah Jackets of Helson and Jackets Technology through its Dumfries & Galloway operation, noted the artists had secured the “SMART: Scotland” grant this month.
It added that the pair would spend the next 12 months developing a commercial prototype of their “Help Me Obi” 3D video technology.
Business Gateway said the artists’ invention, which was created initially for an art project in 2008, could project 360-degree, moving 3D images that appeared to float, “essentially recreating the scene where Princess Leia appears before Luke Skywalker as a talking hologram”.
The artists hope the product could revolutionise how businesses promote their products, and fundamentally change how medical students learn and museums exhibit artefacts.
Business Gateway noted the technology also had the potential to transform video-conferencing, “creating virtual boardrooms or gatherings”.
Business Gateway said inspiration for the “Help Me Obi” project had come from world-renowned Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell and a Zoetrope into which the physicist had inserted lenses to make an image float.
Mr Helson, who is based near Newton Stewart, said: “If we hadn’t gone to Business Gateway 18 months ago, I don’t think we’d have fully realised the scale of the opportunity, one where we could be operating a global business. Our adviser helped us develop our business model, highlighted potential funding streams and routes to market, and provided advice regarding intellectual property.”
“Now with the Smart: Scotland grant in place alongside our ScotEDGE award, we have the funding we need to bring in subcontractors to help us turn ‘Help Me Obi’ into a demonstrable prototype which we hope will either attract further investment so we can scale manufacturing in Scotland, or attract a partner to commercialise it.”
Angus Robertson, adviser at Business Gateway, said: “Chris and Sarah are video and image specialists, producing large-scale installations in public spaces. They came to us for advice, and by working closely with us their enterprise is now one of the few technology start-up companies to be accepted on to Scottish Enterprise’s high growth portfolio each year. The intensive support they will now receive will move Helson and Jackets Technology closer to becoming a global name.”
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