Small Optics Firm Tries to Refocus Its Priorities

Optical engineer Robert Fischer is a magician in his spare time, and one of his favorite tricks is to transform a $1 bill into a $100 bill.

Such a skill would come in handy in running Optics 1, Fischer’s Westlake Village optics design firm. But if he can’t create his own money, Fischer will settle for a different kind of transformation: turning a company that once relied mostly on military contracts into a strong player in a fast-growing but highly fragmented commercial market.

One of 300 or more small optics firms vying for a piece of the $8-billion U.S. market, privately held Optics 1 designs, engineers and--in some cases--builds optical components for products ranging from sunglasses to satellites. The firm, tucked into a nondescript office park in a largely residential neighborhood, has 20 employees and just opened offices in Boston and San Diego.

In an industry in which most work involves custom jobs for aerospace, industrial and medical companies, Optics 1 hopes to break out of the pack with the PT-01, a 14-ounce, head-mounted video monitor that allows users to see into places where the eyes can’t go.

Based on technology originally developed for night-vision goggles worn by Navy pilots, the PT-01 straps onto a user’s head and juts out over their eyes like a baseball cap. It renders a standard video feed as an image about an inch away from the user’s eyes--equivalent to watching a 7-foot-wide TV from across a room.

The device has been deployed in underground tunnels where a single worker can repair a leaking gas line or sewage pipe using a small tube with a camera mounted on the end--a job that used to require a second worker to watch the camera’s progress on a television monitor.

Doctors use the monitor to teach minimally invasive surgeries that require a tiny tube-mounted camera known as an endoscope. Surgeons insert the endoscope into the patient and watch the operating procedure on a television screen. The monitor helps them to watch the surgery on the headset and look down when they need to, increasing manual dexterity.

“This minimizes the learning curve associated with operating with your eyes along one axis and hands in another. That’s akin to driving down the street looking into a mirror that’s showing you where you’re going but your head is turned the other way,” said Brian Wong, a surgeon in the department of otolaryngology at UC Irvine.

Camera operators say the headset has helped them achieve shots they once thought impossible.

“When I started as a cameraman 20 years ago, the cameras were so bulky you couldn’t even hold them in your hand,” said James Mathers, director of photography on the Fox kids’ show “Big Bad Beetleborgs.” “I used the monitor while riding backward on a motorcycle and holding the camera down low to the ground and got exciting shots of two bikers coming inches away from me and splitting off.”

The transition of the fast-growing optics business--which could be worth $25 billion by 2010, according to the International Society of Optical Engineering--from a defense-oriented industry to a commercial one has been difficult.

“Eight years ago the Department of Defense reduced greatly their funding of the optics industry, which was DOD driven,” said Scott Walker, director of corporate services at the International Society for Optical Engineering. “If you looked at our industry five years ago, we were a mess. Then little companies like Optics 1 began to take technology they developed for the Defense Department and tweak it in such a way that it had commercial applications.”

Optics 1 has benefited greatly from the DOD’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, which provides $500 million a year for research and development projects at small high-tech companies. With 18 awards, Optics 1 has attained more contracts than most SBIR applicants.

“They have very strong research and development capabilities,” said Jon Baron, the DOD’s SBIR program manager. “The fact that they have commercialized means they also have business and marketing expertise. We’re looking for both the technical capabilities and the commercial capabilities, and they embody that.”

Its SBIR projects include the design and engineering of a simulator system for night-vision goggles, the design of a next-generation optical sight for an M-16 rifle and the design of a video recording system for flight simulators.

“The applications for optics and photonics in the future will be enormous. There will be greater needs for specialized optics with smaller features and better resolution,” Fischer said.