Lytro
Lytro ILLUM light field camera from 2014
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| Private | |
| Industry | Digital cameras |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Ren Ng |
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Key people
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Ren Ng, Executive Chairman; Kurt Akeley, CTO; Jason Rosenthal, CEO |
| Products | Light-field camera |
| Website | lytro |
Lytro, Inc. is an American company founded in 2006 by Ren Ng which develops light-field cameras. Lytro began shipping its first generation pocket-sized camera, capable of refocusing images after being taken, in 8 GB and 16 GB versions on February 29, 2012. In April 2014, the company announced Lytro ILLUM, its second generation camera for commercial and experimental photographers. The Lytro ILLUM was released at $1,600. The ILLUM has a permanently attached 30–250mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.0 lens and an articulated rear screen. In the fall of 2015, Lytro changed direction, announcing Immerge, a very-high-end VR video capture camera with companion custom compute server. Immerge is expected to ship in 2016, and be useful to studios trying to combine CGI-based VR with video VR.
While he was a researcher at Stanford, Ren Ng was photographing a friend's daughter and noticed, "it was incredibly difficult to focus the image properly and capture her fleeting smile in just the right way". After completing his Ph.D, Ng decided to use his experience in light field research to "start a company that would produce light-field cameras that everyone could enjoy." The company was originally named Refocus Imaging, before launching as Lytro.
Lytro board members include Ben Horowitz, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; Patrick Chung, partner at NEA; and TiVo cofounder Mike Ramsay, with Charles Chi of Greylock Partners serving as Executive Chairman. Advisors include Intuit cofounder Scott Cook, VMware cofounder Diane Greene, Dolby Labs chairman Peter Gotcher and Sling Media cofounder Blake Krikorian.
Lytro founder Ng was Lytro's first CEO. Lytro’s Chief Technology Officer Kurt Akeley was a founding member of Silicon Graphics. In June 2012 Ng announced that he would be changing roles and be Lytro's Executive Chairman focused on innovation. Charles Chi would change from Executive Chairman to interim CEO while Lytro's board begins looking for a new CEO.
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Wikipedia