Holographic 3D visualisation company Holoxia has entered liquidation.
Global supply chain issues, changes in trading conditions due to Brexit and the pandemic have created cashflow challenges for the company.
Holoxica was founded in 2008 and pioneered patented dynamically changeable holographic displays where multiple people can experience full colour motion video 3D images simultaneously without wearing headsets.
It also created several world-firsts holograms, including the first holographic 3D anatomy atlas.
Holoxica pivoted from hardware to software in 2019 and pioneered Telepresence (2020) and Telexistence (2021) technologies which allows full two-way 3D video conferencing and remote 3D visualisation with robotics or haptics.
Holoxica CEO Wendy Lamin said:
“I am very proud of our technology and the many successes we have achieved but it’s been a tough environment for small businesses and, despite grant funding and great support from Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and small investors, Holoxica can’t continue in its present form.
“[Our technology] has potential to change the face of medical consultations and teaching at scale, reduce waiting lists and costs for the NHS and has proven applications in commerce, telecom and defence.”
In recent months, Holoxica had attracted international interest in its technology as a solution for providing emergency medical care in space enabling astronauts to engage with medical experts on the ground with a 3D videoconferencing tool, 3D medical animations and medical scans in natural 3D.
The 3D videoconferencing tech was demonstrated at COP26 in a 5G-to-5G 3D videochat with Nokia, the University of Glasgow as well as the Scotland 5G Centre.
The Holoxica telexistence defence technology enabled a human operator to be fully immersed and remotely ‘telepresent’ by using robots in hazardous situations such as bomb disposal, de-mining or nuclear decommissioning.
And in 2022 Holoxica developed a Human Digital Twin concept demonstrator for the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Qinetiq.
Shona Campbell, head of insolvency at liquidator Henderson Loggie, said:
“Holoxica has developed innovative and respected technology and market ready products that have attracted significant grant funding and interest from global brands and defence organisations but it cannot continue trading without further investment.
“It offers organisations with existing market reach in 3D visualisation and medical imaging the opportunity to acquire valuable intellectual property, both in hardware and software.”
Lamin added:
“We have shown that there is a more natural and collaborative way to do 3D, holograms and the metaverse besides using virtual reality and augmented reality headsets, but we have been just ahead of the times.
“We don’t have the huge marketing budgets of Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others and scale up investment is required.”
BOE, LG, Samsung and Sony all have light field displays but they have not heavily invested in manufacturing so far, unlike companies such as Leia and Looking Glass Factory who have just received an Accenture strategic investment.
Google released a light field display with Project Starline for immersive 3D videochatting a year after Holoxica released its own 3D videoconferencing tech on light field displays.
