Lemnis

Lemnis Technologies is a Singapore-incorporated company developing Verifocal, described on its site as the first platform to dynamically control focus in a head-mounted display. The company's premise is that conventional VR/AR headsets focus at a fixed distance, creating sensory conflicts when users look at nearby objects, which produces eye strain, visual discomfort and reduced image clarity and limits professional adoption. Verifocal adjusts the headset optics dynamically in concert with the eye's natural focusing mechanisms, with a Verifocal AR variant intended to keep real and virtual content in focus simultaneously.

Alongside varifocal optics, Lemnis has built an eye-tracking subsystem after roughly two years of development by its computer-vision staff. The tracker is calibrated once per user and, per the company, requires no recalibration when the headset is repositioned or removed and put back on, which the company frames as lowering the barrier to eye tracking in professional deployments. Eye tracking is positioned as an enabler for foveated rendering, gaze-driven interfaces and user analytics. Other listed key technologies include vision correction and adaptive calibration.

Rather than building headsets from scratch, Lemnis upgrades commercial headsets with these features. Verifocal is stated to work with professional tools and engines including Autodesk 3ds Max Interactive, Prepar3D and Unity, to run with existing SteamVR content without modification, and to be integrable into other engines via the Lemnis Technologies SDK.

Founding story

Co-founders Pierre-Yves Laffont and Ali Hasnain met through Entrepreneur First's first Singapore cohort. Laffont, a computer vision and computer graphics researcher who had been a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich and Brown University with a PhD from INRIA, first spoke with EF Singapore MD Alex Crompton at a university event in March 2016, before the Singapore programme launched, and joined the inaugural cohort; he attended the EF Kick-Off Weekend in July 2016. An EF team member introduced him to Ali Hasnain, whose PhD from NUS covered optics, imaging, medical devices and robotics; Laffont describes complementary software and hardware skill sets and a shared aim of taking research beyond academia. The pair formed a team a week before the official start of EF Singapore and both cite the desire for impact outside academic publishing as their motivation [3][4][5].

Business model

Lemnis upgrades existing commercial head-mounted displays with its Verifocal optics and eye-tracking technology and offers an SDK for integrating the platform into third-party engines; the site invites prospective users to contact the company to learn about the SDK. No pricing, licensing terms or contract details are disclosed in the sources [0][1].

Traction

Verifocal was introduced at SIGGRAPH 2018 and the Verifocal VR Kit was named a CES 2019 Innovation Award Honoree; the company planned a SIGGRAPH 2019 demonstration of Verifocal mixed-reality headsets with a next-generation eye tracker. Headcount grew from two founders plus one employee after the seed round to eight full-time staff by September 2018 and nine on the company site, four of whom hold PhDs and who collectively have close to 40 international publications. Trade coverage includes RoadToVR, UploadVR, VRFocus, VentureBeat and Business Insider items listed on the company's news page. No customer, revenue or unit figures are disclosed [0][1][5].

Latest developments

The most recent company-stated milestone is the planned SIGGRAPH 2019 demonstration of Verifocal mixed-reality headsets incorporating a new-generation eye tracker; the site also references the CES 2019 Innovation Award for the Verifocal VR Kit. A PrivCo profile listing Lemnis Technologies in Singapore contains no populated financial, funding, deal or employee data [0][1][6].