"East China Science and Technology" home exclusive report

Light field camera as a new 3D imaging technology is not known by many people. With the maturity of technology and the iterative upgrading of products, optical field imaging technology has solved some difficult problems in many industrial scenes.

Yimu (Shanghai) Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Yimu Technology") is the only optical field 3D imaging technology company in China that has mastered all the core technologies of optical field camera optical design, packaging and manufacturing, three-dimensional rendering of optical field image, and three-dimensional precision and rapid detection. It has advantages in optical field algorithm, optical design and hardware packaging.

When seeing Li Haotian, the founder of Yi Mu technology, the reporter found that he was younger than imagined, but at the same time, he could also feel the calm, humble and decisive of the young entrepreneur in front of him.

VOMMA (Shanghai) Founder Li Haotian

Target the market: Find your own path to development

Unlike most young people who do a rule-abiding "worker" after graduation, Li Haotian had a very early plan to start a business. Although Yimu Technology was listed in July 2019, Li Haotian began his early technical research and accumulation while studying for a master's degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In 2015, Li Haotian's team developed the first set of scientific research grade light field three-dimensional imaging system; In 2016, the micrometer-level three-dimensional measurement accuracy of particles was realized; In 2018, we independently developed optical field acquisition chip packaging and testing equipment; In 2019, all core components were localization; In 2020, we successfully developed an industrial-grade microscopic light field camera. In 2021, the world's first large-scale application of light-field cameras in MEMS silicon chip production line detection was realized. The 3D measurement accuracy and efficiency of light field are at the international leading level, and more than 50 PCT patents and invention patents of light field cameras have been authorized and applied for. Looking at the entire international market, in addition to Yimu Technology, the only other manufacturer of light-field cameras is Raytrix, Germany.

"Lytro, an early U.S. consumer light-field camera manufacturer, was acquired by Google in 2018, and our light-field camera is fundamentally different from Raytrix's in terms of process, imaging principle and accuracy." According to Li Haotian, compared with the Raytrix light field camera, the Yimu technology light field camera has higher measurement accuracy in the depth of field direction, and the DOF (depth of field) and FOV (field of view Angle) are larger. In addition, Yimo Technology has mastered all the "soft and hard" core technologies of optical field cameras, and all the core components are domestic, so it has irreplaceable advantages in terms of overall system price, delivery cycle, rapid technical support and customized services.

Talking about the difficulties in the early development of the business, Li Haotian said frankly: "We are a typical technical team, so we have confidence in our own technical innovation, and more difficulties are actually in the market application." After graduation, we started to explore what kind of light field camera should be, because it can use so many scenes."

By chance, when attending the Munich Light Fair in 2019, one of Samsung's suppliers paid attention to this young team. "They were very interested in us, and we went back and forth with each other, and went to Samsung headquarters in Korea for many technical exchanges, and finally our visual solution was recognized and appreciated by the senior management of Samsung headquarters."

"The process of getting in touch with Samsung was actually very interesting." Li Haotian continued with a smile. "At the beginning, the supplier told us that the thing to be tested is a very thick glass cover plate, the accuracy requirements are not high, each layer of glass cover plate is about a millimeter thickness, a total of three layers." When we got to the site in Korea, we found that they had us measure a 100-micron thin film, which is two orders of magnitude more than what we said before. In order to meet the customer's requirements, we changed the code overnight and finally succeeded in getting the order. This is also due to the accumulation of our team over the years, the rapid response on site quickly captured the key value of the customer."

It is also through this cooperation that Li Haotian and his team know that the light field camera can be applied in the field of screen layered detection, and after further exploration, the final Yimei technology has determined its own development direction: focusing on the industrial field. "We also started to explore some corresponding customers, and later met one of our current investors, Huaxin Yuan Chuang."

"Another difficulty is on the funding side, especially last year during the pandemic. I was stuck in Hubei until the end of March when I returned to Shanghai. During this period, everyone was working remotely, and the company also encountered some huge challenges and difficulties. At that time, we didn't know whether the company could survive. Li Haotian recalled.

After the epidemic was alleviated, with the effectiveness of the technical program, Yimu Technology successfully completed the Pre-A round of investment and successfully introduced the strategic shareholders of the industry's head. The company will launch A round of financing in the near future, Li Haotian said that this round of financing funds will be used to increase research and development investment, team building, and production equipment procurement and construction.

VOMMA light field camera series products and systems

Retain talent: Small teams can achieve big dreams

If you want to create your own business, you need a strong sense of faith, long-term patience and true cohesion of the heart.

Like many successful companies, we can see strong faith and long-term endurance in Li Haotian. "I've had to endure a lot along the way, both in terms of time and pressure." Li Haotian said.

Talking about the experience in talent absorption and training, Li Haotian said that he also talked to some other startup ceos in the Zero Bay Park. "In fact, we all face the problem of talent recruitment. "Young people today have a lot of personality, and our team is relatively young, so the management is relatively flat." In Li Haotian's description, the team atmosphere of Yimu technology is more like a school laboratory. "We are relatively close to Jiaotong University, and the team has many alumni who graduated from Jiaotong University, and often participate in some school-enterprise cooperation activities of Jiaotong University, so that they feel that even if they graduate, they also have a sense of belonging to a team and a collective." In addition, we are willing to share the company's options with our employees. We hope that everyone can enjoy the dividends brought by the development of the company."

In an interview with "East China Science and Technology", Xu Qinglan, co-founder of Yi Mu Technology, also said, "Although our company has been established for a short time, the business growth ability and potential are also obvious to everyone. As the youngest leader in our team, Mr. Li has put in a lot of efforts that we don't see on the surface, and has summed up his own management style on how to bring out the strengths of everyone in a high-quality, high-IQ, but also personalized team."

It is understood that Yimu Technology also participated in this year's Caohejing Force acceleration camp. "This is actually a good learning opportunity for new managers like me, and we also want to take this opportunity to communicate with seniors in the industry about the company's operation management and product market landing." Li Haotian said.

At the China (Shanghai) Workshop on Machine Vision Technology and Industrial Applications held in March 2021, Yimu's VOMMA light-field camera won the "Gold Medal" for innovative machine vision products in 2020. At present, Yimu Technology serves the production line verification of representative customers in many industries, and the optical field 3D detection system has been successfully applied to a variety of industrial detection fields: semiconductor bond alloy line 3D detection, screen defect 3D layered detection, polarizer module 3D layered detection, and grating module 3D layered detection, which is considered to be the preferred solution.

Talking about the next development direction of the company, Li Haotian said that the first is to focus on technology. "After all, we are a technology-oriented company, and we will achieve higher precision in terms of technology." At the same time, Yimu Technology will expand more customers in the same industry, through direct sales and agent sales in a two-pronged way to increase sales revenue." With the maturity of high-resolution microscopic light field system technology, the future of Yimu technology will focus on the field of industrial 3D machine vision at the same time, it will gradually expand the application of light field imaging in biomedical, unmanned, security, vehicle, VR and other fields.