F E A T u R E
Q .
It
I all _
       
s- _,
  X  
. V §’
*3
    g I
Q I
I · Robin Curls sits infront of a E
hologram of a Ford vehicle. °“
EHIIIQ S H II2UIIl[]..t..... Gppy
S ° I H I ` °
obin Curle knows she is fortunate. Every day this 1972 Ii]   E I ° [I     h
HUniversity of Kentucky graduate gets t0 do what she In     E       I  
loves: guiding a small technology firm — only l2 employ- . .
ees — as it begins to pack a powerful punch into a mar-     U   up     H   Q B
ketplace of gee—whiz devices. As president and CEO of
Zebra Imaging Inc. in Austin,Texas, Curle spearheads a   I U   m S '
,, company that does what no other company purports to E]
do. Zebra interprets 3-dimensional (3D) data provided by
its varied clients and creates 3D full-color holograms from (MIT) seven years ago based on research conducted in
that data, in any size, and viewable without wearing spe- its Media Lab. Today, Ford Motor Company, Convergcnt
cial goggles. Investors LLC, and Dupont are some of the organiza-
The applications for this type of advanced technology tions which are investors in the company. Zebra’s strate-
are almost endless, and indeed, mind-boggling. Likewise, gic investor, Ford expects huge returns by using the
who can say what the revenue stream from future appli- products in its iterative business processes. _
cations might be? For example, Zebra has created holograms for Ford oi
Zebra, a privately-held company, was started by three some of its prototype vehicles since 1999. The normal
graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology process for visualizing computer aided design (CAD)
Krznrucxv Atuwmi I3