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Tibor Balogh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
 1) Briefly tell us what it is about your company/project that makes it so special?
Holografika has a long-term vision. All breakthrough innovations have emerged from pursuing the great dreams and desires of people. Consequently, these dreams have laid the foundations for the creation of today’s markets and business successes. Desire to live forever, to fly, to discover the universe and to be omniscient have manifested in inventions like the airplane, telephone, film, Internet as well as space and medical research. These inventions have then sparked the emergence of new markets, which have helped to transform our homes, our work, our environment, our healthcare and the way we travel, communicate and relax. The view whether something is real or not, something is present or not, the visualization of our world in perfect three dimensions is among such long cherished dreams.
The problem of 3D displaying has not been solved properly up to now: when hanging on the wall, future displays should look like a real window, undistinguishable, except the technology working behind. Systems that cause any optical discomfort or restrain the viewers, like traditional approaches as stereoscopic or multi-view solutions, will not be broadly accepted on the long term. Viewers should see a 3D image on the screen as they would see the reality.
The HoloVizio system developed by Holografika is based on well-proven hologram geometry principles and represents a high-end approach in 3D displaying. It reconstructs all the light beams present in a natural 3D view. Viewers can walk around, look behind the objects floating in front of or behind the screen, having perfect visual impression. Particularly for realising large-scale 3D projection systems, this is the only practical technology that works and hard to get around.
True 3D can be the most important development, a paradigm shift in the displaying technologies for the coming years and the base for the future 3DTV.
2) What country best facilitates starting a tech company? What single thing can a government do to encourage Technology Pioneers?
Having seen several tech start-up stories, in the US there is a rather established way to start such a company.
What a government can do: to give a chance to the Pioneers to be in the position when negotiating with investors, not to loose their companies too early.
A good move here that European FP6 programs finance not only R&D, but the exploitation of the results as well. For start-ups and innovative small companies, however, the own contribution is still too high and the procedure is much administrative.
In case declarations about competitiveness and supporting technology start-ups are based on real will, governments could initiate programs and set up tech funds that would function exactly along the criteria of private investors or venture funds when evaluating projects and providing grants, which could serve as a first round investment without taking company share. The ROI would come from the growing companies in the region.
3) What makes an innovator?
Talent means that a talented person gives one more try when others give up. In that sense: persistence, different view of things, running risks, positive attitude, confidence, management skills and since the personal role is rather important here, nice personality can help.
4) How does your company directly contribute to improving the state of the world?
Visualisation is the most natural and intuitive way of exchanging information. With the increasing amount of information handled by IT systems visualization techniques got special importance. 3D data is present in most of our systems; still it is lost at the final step, at the displaying. Reconstructing this information will improve the effectiveness of systems. The technology we develop at Holografika opens the way the to the improved communication, to more efficient work processes and to better entertainment:
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In the medical field reconstructing CT or MRI scans in real 3D, diagnostics will be more reliable, surgical planning will be more precise with potential effect on life quality
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Showing air traffic situations on 3D displays will ease the decisions of air-traffic controllers increasing safety
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Industrial processes will be changed; novel visual tools will be used in 3D CAD, virtual prototyping and simulation
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3D telepresence systems will enable better communication giving personal impression at different quality, changing even travel habits
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Large-scale immersive 3D systems will provide unprecedented visual quality in the entertainment and edutainment. The development of total displaying solutions, wall-sized 3D displays, holo-environments will provoke novel applications, setting new horizons in visualization.
5) What value do you hope to gain from being a Technology Pioneer?
Holografika has its vision about future 3D environment and systems that ranges from developing new products, through introducing novel applications, to setting new standards. Having been selected a Technology Pioneer gives us the attention to promote our mission, sharing our ideas with top decision makers and to make us visible for those who would like to invest in this booming field. Altogether this is an excellent opportunity in making steps to influence the future.
6) What do you think the role of technology should be in society?
Shortly, make our life better in all human aspects and to multiple the effectiveness of society. This positive role of technology is unquestionable since no one would exchange his circumstances of life for those even just hundred years back.
There is one aspect however that should be emphasized: networks shape the well-organized acting of people. On the other hand being more and more organized and efficient means being more and more dependent. Failing the right approach between individual technology solutions and being connected to networks that might be down or may show unpredictable behaviour can make the person and the society vulnerable.
7) What is the right balance in society between scientific interest and ethical concerns?
Personally I am in a relatively lucky situation working in a field that does not raise unacceptable ethical issues at this stage. However it is a sociological experience that what is possible technologically will be realised sooner or later. Prohibition may delay such progress, but curiosity and scientific interest will always find its way, legally or illegally. This is the evergreen question, whether the "Little-boy" was the misuse of atomic energy or the responsibility of researchers. We will always face similar or even bigger dilemmas, like today at genetics. It should be made evident that dipping into systems of enormous complexity with insufficient knowledge about undetectable factors and long-lasting effects is extremely dangerous. The right balance here is the evolution instead of revolution, advancing with care so that let knowledge always precede actions.
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