Pleinlaan 11 is home to Sony Depthsensing Solutions. Few people know that the origin of this high-tech division of Sony was a VUB spin-off. Its history can be read in the business case From SoftKinetic to Sony.
The case was written by students Antoine Charles Henrion and Alexandru Frăsie, commissioned by professor of business technology and operations Kevin De Moortel. It reads like an exciting book: a brilliant idea finds no resonance, a few bright minds stubbornly persevere despite setbacks, and in the end they succeed. The story of this VUB spin-off working with 3D cameras started in the early 2000s, when new graduate Daniël Van Nieuwenhove chose to do a PhD under Professor Maarten Kuijk.
Research at VUB
In 2002, Prof Kuijk described to his PhD students the concept of what became known as time-of- flight (ToF) sensors used in 3D measurement cameras. Van Nieuwenhove was immediately interested in this futuristic idea from a research group consisting of people from the Department of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO) and the Laboratory for Micro- & Photonics (LAMI) at VUB. It took them seven years to design and develop the 3D ToF sensors and cameras. The sensors use an infrared signal emitted at the speed of light. The time of the reflected light is measured and, based on this, the depth of various points on the subject’s surface can also be measured.
2009: establishment of Optrima
The VUB spin-off Optrima was founded in May 2009, with the aim of monetising the new technology and integrating it into other applications. The company took off under the leadership of CEO Andre Miodezky, who had raised the necessary funding for it. When it was established, however, Optrima did not yet have any applications. The only plan in place came in 2009 from two engineering students - Stijn Roelandt and Johannes Peeters - as part of the VUB's Technological Business Development Projects course. They wanted to use a camera on a milking robot to detect a cow's udders in order to connect the milking device to the udders. Partly because the market for this proved to be too small, the application didn’t reach the market.
2010: merger into SoftKinetic
Barely a year later, Optrima’s eye fell on SoftKinetic, a spin-off from ULB specialising in software for 3D vision and gesture recognition. As Optrima had not found any applications and SoftKinetic lacked the hardware, a merger was the logical solution and the spin-offs continued under the name SoftKinetic. The company struck million-dollar deals with several companies. But SoftKinetic needed 100 engineers, funds of about €1 million a month and thus constant customers.
Acquisition by Sony
By around 2015, the technology was gaining popularity and SoftKinetic opened a headquarters in Silicon Valley to partner with big names like Intel, Texas Instruments and Sony. But the combination of a required technology upgrade, non-recurring revenues and a market that was not mature enough forced the company to choose between permanently moving to Silicon Valley or finding an exit option. And that option came in 2015 with the acquisition by Sony. In 2017, Sony Depthsensing Solutions was born, with Daniël Van Nieuwenhove as its president.
A great idea, the right people, a supportive environment in the face of adversity and a bit of luck were the perfect ingredients for this story. Optrima started as an idea by Professor Kuijk one sleepless night and became a great success. The VUB spin-off emerged from a group of passionate PhD students including Ward van der Tempel (who made the first fully functional 3D sensor), Riemer Grootjans (inventor of the camera), Tomas Van den Hauwe (who wrote the driver for the camera) and Van Nieuwenhove. Sony Depthsensing Solutions now works in vital industries, such as automotive and the mobile sector. The potential of this technology is being applied in numerous fields and in products that people use every day, such as facial recognition by smartphones.