SOMERVILLE, MA—Fathom Optics (formerly Lumii Inc), a printed packaging effects software company spun off from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been granted a US Patent (based on US20190054734A1) for techniques for manufacturing a light field print using a printing press, with priority to 2017. This patent is another important step in the company’s mission to provide a software platform that brings printed 3D and motion graphics to packaging without requiring specialty inks, embellishments or substrates, and without the need for additional materials, such as lenticulars or foils.
Fathom’s initial family of patents (US10645375B2), with priority to 2015, covers the generation of patterns that produce 3D and motion without lenses, including their application to print. This second family of patents covers additional techniques around the physical printing of those multi-view or light field prints, and their use in various consumer application environments. Fathom has also licensed six patents from MIT developed during Fathom co-founders’ Tom Baran and Matt Hirsch’s time at the university.
According to Baran, Fathom CEO, “This is great news for our customers and partners, since the patents allow us to have more free and open conversations about what the technology does and how best to work with it at their sites. With this new Intellectual Property (IP) in place, we can better collaborate to help printers and converters determine out how best to implement the technology at their site, tailored to their own application mix, and using the equipment they have on their production floor.”
He concluded, “These patents should give our customers and partners confidence that they are part of an exclusive group, leveraging our proprietary technology to grow their business.”