A virtual lucidity
Missing family located thousands of kilometres away triggered the creation of a useful, entertaining and technologically forward device called LucidCam for an industrious young man who crowdfunded his idea.
Han Jin started Lucid VR two and half years ago in the United States through crowdfunding. Lucid VR produces a pocket-size LucidCam which is a pocket-size device that, according to Han Jin ‘brings people together across the world by capturing incredible immersive experiences in VR, the same way as your eyes see them, and which can be easily shared with friends and family within seconds’.
Han Jin, co-founder and CEO of Lucid VR was born in China, grew up in Germany and studied in the United States. Its first round of production of cameras happened in December of 2015, he was 27-years old and it was made possible through crowdfunding.
LucidCam is small and mobile. TechCrunch describes LucidCam as a ‘gorgeous device’ that shoots in 180 degrees, you don’t need a tripod, it’s slick as well as produces high-res footage. TechCrunch reports how ‘going with 180 also helps keep file-size down…about a minute out of LucidCam is only 35 megabytes’ – a convenient size to send to people quickly.
Basically, with LucidCam, you don’t sweat about recording a vista because you don’t need to pan yourself from left to right to result in a 180 degrees footage. Which means, you will capture the view as how you see it, just like its tagline of ‘capture moments from your perspective’. You can experience it through various raw footages which were shot using LucidCam from their raw footage webpage.
Here, Han Jin tells us a little bit more about the technology of his venture in a whirlwind interview.
What triggered the idea for LucidCam?
Growing up in Germany facing pain of long distance to my family in China.
Explain LucidCam to a 5-year old.
We built a camera which captures the world like your own eyes.
Why did you choose the method of fundraising?
We went on stage in front of thousands of people and reached out to venture capitalists and pitched our business. Hardware startups need lots of capital to even get started, it’s almost impossible to not fundraise.
Who do you consider as competitors?
Lenovo, LG and Yi which announced with Google to be building their own VR180 cameras and launching beginning 2018.
What’s next for LucidVR?
Version II of LucidCam with better performance and lower price point.
What are the three things you’d advice startups seeking funding?
Don’t take rejections personal because 90 per cent of the population just does not see the future as well as you do. Focus on the 10 per cent who understand you and slowly build your vision over time.
Your three advise to startups on what to look for in potential partners:
– Integrity
– Loyalty
– Commitment
Your mother’s advice to you that you apply to work and life?
She is proud but she wants me to make the business even bigger. Her advice is to not care about what other people think of me, but see the bigger picture of making an impact on other people’s lives through technology.
To date, what’s your biggest life lesson?
My biggest life lesson is that everyone wants to be successful, everyone is ambitious and everyone works hard for a better life. However only a few are completely committed to actually make it happen and that is what separates them from the others.
