Actuality Systems Completes Latest Round of Funding.

Business Editors

READING, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 2001

Actuality Systems, Inc., a developer of advanced 3-D display technology, has secured nearly $1 million in its latest bridge round of private-placement financing.

Funds will be used to support beta phase development of the company's spherical display monitor. The unique monitor, code-named Helios, is shaped like a 20-inch-diameter globe and can show high-resolution color images that appear to hover in space, allowing users to move completely around the display and view images from any angle.

The breakthrough technology is believed to provide the highest resolution volumetric imagery ever developed. It was demonstrated recently at SID 2001, the 32nd Annual Symposium of the Society for Information Display held in San Jose. The prototype has a resolution of more than 100 million volume pixels or "voxels." Instead of flat square pixels, voxels also have depth. Resolution is defined in terms of a stack of flat slices arranged around a centerline like thin wedges of an apple around its core.

"Actuality Systems is moving 3-D technology to a whole new level," said Brad Florin of Eclipse Investment Partners, one of the company's early-stage investors. "At first glance, the image seems to float in the display like a special effect, but then you realize that you can control virtually every pixel with your mouse. That's the breakthrough technology that makes this product so promising.

It can cut development costs and improve time-to-market in a number of important industries."

Actuality expects to ship beta production units later this year and is planning to have the first commercial units ready for shipment by the end of 2002.

"We're very pleased with this round of funding," said Actuality's founder and CTO, Gregg Favalora. "The response from our new investors as well as our current investors was extremely encouraging. This is an important step in commercializing our technology because it allows us to go after our target markets, especially new drug development and mechanical design. We're right on schedule for a full introduction late next year."

About Actuality Systems

A spin-off of the prestigious MIT $50k Entrepreneurship Competition, Actuality Systems has incorporated innovations in optical, electrical, and software engineering into its technology. The firm is developing next-generation volumetric display technology with a goal of manufacturing the world's most advanced line of 3-D volumetric displays. Founded in 1997 in a Cambridge basement halfway between Harvard and MIT, the firm has received venture funding and now operates from offices in Reading, Mass., north of Boston. The company's chief technology officer, Gregg Favalora, has been named one of the top young technologists by MIT Technology Review. Company chairman, Rob Ryan, was a founder and former CEO of Ascend Communications, Inc.