TechTol puts its focus on 360-degree images

Jeff Nissen places tortoises in a TechTol Imaging studio that produced three-dimensional images of the reptiles within seconds. The company plans educational and security uses for its technology. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Zack Ward photographs the tortoises in the TechTol studio. The firm received a $50,000 development grant two years ago. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Jeff Nissen arranges the rare tortoises for their three-dimensional close-up. He raised the white-shelled reptiles. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

A Sylvania Township start-up company with imaging technology has dreams of one day adding depth to an economic picture in metro Toledo now drawn largely in two dimensions - automotive and solar.

TechTol Imaging LLC - which received a $50,000 grant from local development officials two years ago - will publicly introduce a nearly instantaneous, 360-degree photography system next month at Owens Community College.

The company, which has just a handful of employees, has developed a scalable photo studio that simultaneously photographs a subject with 16 specialty cameras.

Within seconds, the images are electronically sewn together, and the product, when displayed on a computer or on the Internet, is a seamless 360-degree image that can be manipulated in a circle with the click of a mouse.

"We started out trying to do three-dimensional [computer-aided design], and we just took the geometry out of it," said Phil Cox, a former chemical engineer and real estate developer who is TechTol's managing partner.

The images have a broad range of potential uses - for instance, online retailers displaying clothing from all sides, artists showing off sculpture, auction houses allowing online shoppers to closely examine goods. Mr. Cox said the company has been in contact with the U.S. Army and the Smithsonian Institution about licensing or using its technology.

Yesterday, Jeff Nissen used TechTol's studios to photograph three rare African tortoises he raised. Within seconds of placing the animals in the studio and closing the door, Mr. Nissen had crystal clear, 360-degree images of his three white-shelled reptiles.

Three-dimensional imagery isn't new - the first stereoscopic images date back almost a century - and developers have been experimenting nearly nonstop with technologies to produce lifelike images.

But unlike digital mapping technologies, which use computer-generated triangles to accurately determine the angles and depth of a three-dimensional image, TechTol's technology bypasses much of the math to stitch together a solid image from 16 two-dimensional photos.

"It's what we love to see, because it's so unusual," said Greg Knudson, director of the Regional Growth Partnership's Rocket Ventures Fund, which awarded TechTol a $50,000 grant in April, 2008.

"All people have to do is look at it and they can think of uses for this technology. It's new. It's novel. It's great stuff."

There are so many different uses for TechTol's imagery system that the company's three-person team has found it difficult not to get pulled apart chasing one project after another, Mr. Cox said.

"There are a number of businesses that could start off of this. Frankly, we don't have the time to develop six or seven different businesses, so we're focusing on just two uses: education and security," Mr. Cox said.

Mr. Cox cited, as an example of what the company's technology could do in an educational setting, a box of bones in the library at Owens Community College. As part of their studies, nursing students at the school are required to examine the skeletal remains, but can do so only one at a time. By photographing the bones and making the images available online, the school's "box of bones" becomes accessible to all, including those who aren't on campus.

"A femur is a femur," Mr. Cox said. "This allows the user to move the image around, to zoom in and examine it in detail, without having it physically in their hands."

Michael Bankey, vice president for work force and community services at Owens, said that in exchange for using its technology, the college is providing TechTol with a classroom near the campus bookstore where its portable studio will be built.

"It's really going to greatly enhance what we can do in online learning and helping students study," Mr. Bankey said.

Zack Ward, a web developer and designer who is also a partner in the company and has helped develop TechTol's technology, said the images when compiled can be displayed using common flash or Java applications online.

The finished files vary in size but are no larger than most high-definition photographs and can load in a few seconds over any broadband Internet connection.

Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:

lvellequette@theblade.com

or 419-724-6091.

This is an example of a TechTol Imaging product. Place your mouse over the 3D image, hold down the left mouse button, and drag across the image to spin the object.